Flight of the Owls

Its come to my attention that some people aren’t too happy with the progression made at Sheffield Wednesday this season. Apparently they have had enough of the ‘mediocrity’ for far too long. For me these people are so clueless even Chris Kamara would be scratching his noggin.

The team in which I have chosen to focus on is my favourite club Sheffield Wednesday who this season have exceeded expectations as most bookmakers had written us off before the season started. After a string of wins at the start of the season and some solid defensive performances we are currently 12th with 40 points, 9 points from relegation and 16 points from the playoffs. I’d be a little cautious if we didn’t have the second best defense in the league.

What’s annoying me is the fact that some of the more naive fans think it’s either all or nothing. We’re either scrapping for survival or vying for an automatic place. They want some excitement every season, they don’t want to plod around in the middle of the table just happy to be there…

Truth be told this is the best I’ve ever seen The Owls do. The highest I have ever seen us finish is 12 in the Championship under Brian Laws and that was with a much weaker side and absolutely no possible financial backing to strengthen in the Summer. Now we have some new Thai owners who, from what I have gathered, supply American and Western Europe with all their fishy desires.

I mean some people right now might be tucking into a nice fish and chip supper (It’s Tuesday evening why shouldn’t you spoil yourself) and that cod could have been caught by The Thai Union Frozen Group. That taste good? Course it does its quality millionaire stock why wouldn’t it be. Guwon get some Chansiri down tha’s throat..

~ But I digress ~

It seems to me that fans have forgotten what it was like last season. Under Dave Jones we couldn’t score and couldn’t keep clean sheets. Would we even want to go back to that? No of course not. It actually really saddens me to hear that some fans want rid of Stuart Gray…

Stuart Gray is the reason we’re in the Championship this season. He’s now got us such a strong defense that I can’t see us having to worry about the drop for a long while. This is progression. You can’t expect him to fix the defense one week, midfield the next then by the end of the month have a title winning team can you?

He clearly has a plan. Why else would he sign a young player like Stevie May with so much raw talent? In my opinion he has a solid 4 year plan;
Year 1 - Safety (you can tick that one off)

Year 2 - solidify the back four (although it’s slipped a little recently you can tick it)

Year 3 - build a creative yet hard working midfield (McGugan is a must in my eyes)

Year 4 - Stevie May will be 24, coming of age and knocking them in for fun at this level given the chances.

~ Side note: I know May’s been missing chances but too be fair to the lad he gets about 1, maybe 2 chances per game. Who was the last striker we had who scored every chance he had? Derek Dooley? ~

People calling for Gray’s head are just the kind of people who should just sit down, watch and f*cking learn. Rome wasn’t built in a day and Wednesday wasn’t built in a season.

Of course this is all speculative and I could be chatting out my crack. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if we sacked Gray, brought in Nigel Pearson signed a load of established talent and got promoted. We’d get relegated the next season but it’d be a reyt little journey while it lasted.

One last thing point before I finish. Give Chansiri a chance before you all start shooting your mouths off about how he’s tight fisted and whatever. Let him test the water, he’s stated that he wants Wednesday back in the Prem but I don’t think he wants to blow everything on one big burst to get us there first time. I’m imagining he’ll spread it out bringing in a combination of youth, quality and experienced heads. We don’t want to rush this or else we’ll end up as one season wonders in the Premier League like them lot over t’road.

PS - for any Nuhiu haters out there please refer to my Target Man post I put up about a week ago. I doubt it’ll sway your view but it might make you a little more forgiving towards him.

Cheers for reading.