Why Tommy Spurr’s time at Sheffield Wednesday came to an end: “I wasn’t going to be that person…”
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Spurr, now 32, worked his way up the ranks with Wednesday before getting his debut in 2006, and went on to play around 200 games for SWFC prior to his departure for Doncaster Rovers in 2011.
The former defender will be most remembered for his goal against Sheffield United in the Steel City Derby at Bramall lane in 2009, and there plenty of Wednesdayites that were sad to see him go when he moved on after spending the best part of a decade at the club.
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Hide AdIt was under Gary Megson that it became apparent that there would be no future at S6 for Spurr, and he says that he wasn’t able to be the sort of personality that the then Owls manager wanted him to be.
Speaking to the Athletic about how his time with the Owls came to an end, he revealed, “I’d played a few games for the manager but he wanted me to be pinning people up against a wall and getting them to do their jobs properly by being aggressive, and that wasn’t my character…
“I don’t think he liked the fact that I wasn’t going to be that person who, for want of a better word, would hand out a bollocking to someone and be aggressive with it. I felt like it was a little bit old-school and that was kind of moving out of the game at the time.
“It’s one of those things where, as a player, you want a bit of communication and a bit of respect, where a manager will sit you down and say, ‘Look, you’re not part of my plans and you can go’. As a player, whether you like it or not, you accept it because someone has been honest with you and has sat you down as a man, and as a player who has played a lot of games for the club. I remember the secretary rang me and said I wasn’t allowed to train. I wasn’t allowed at the club or the training ground. I was training with the academy and then I wasn’t allowed to train with them.
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Hide Ad“I was a little bit in limbo and I was only a young lad really, at 22 or 23, but looking back now, I think it’s the best thing that ever happened to me because I got to leave and I improved as a player and a person by that experience and going to Doncaster.”
After his time at Donny, Spurr went on to play for Blackburn Rovers, Preston North End and Fleetwood Town before announcing his retirement from professional football in June of last year due to an ongoing hip injury.