Flight of the Owls III

It’s been a little over a year since I last wrote about The Wednesday and I must say a whole lot has changed. Stuart Gray’s gone, we’re challenging for a playoff place but somehow Sheffield United are still shit hahaha!

~ For those of you who haven’t already read Flight of the Owls part 1 and part 2 then please feel free to have a look. If you already know how shit Wednesday have been in recent years then please continue reading this ~

Where to begin though? Well in my last Flight of the Owls post Chansiri had just taken over as Wednesday chairman and looked to be testing the water, not making rash decisions too soon and rocking the boat. Clearly waiting for the season to end.

I wrote a lot about how good of a coach Stuart Gray was and said he’d be the manager to take us to the Premier League. I even stand by that decision now (even though I know a lot of other Owls will disagree) but I must say he wouldn’t have got us there with as much class as Carvalhal.

Yes a few weeks after last season finished Gray was relieved of his duties and in came complete nobody Carlos Carvalhal. The Portuguese was relatively unknown in England before coming to us but I must say he is managing to get quite a reputation with his slick passing style of play.

~ Side note: is it just me or does his suit look like he’s borrowed it off Harry Hill? I think it’s the collar that gets me but I don’t know why~

A manager who has built on from what Gray started last year, adding in quality players such as Hooper, Forestieri and four foot of pure magic Barry Bannan, having them all play football the way it’s meant to be played. It’s not just the attack though, Carlos has managed to combine attractive football with equally attractive defending, really putting to shame Stuart Gray’s side from 12 months previous.

Now although I was gutted that Stuart got sacked, I must say it was a brilliant business decision from Chansiri. If I remember correctly when the Thai businessman arrived at Hillsborough he admitted to knowing nothing about football, this can be deadly in a club owner but he sure as shit knows how to run a business.

He has identified weaknesses, invested in them and now we, the fans, are seeing the benefits on the pitch. One glaring weakness was the lack of investment in the squad. We’d remarkably managed to gain some real quality before Chansiri even bought the club in Westwood, Lees, Lee, Hutchinson and Coke but we lacked an attacking flair in the final third.

~ Clearly joking about Coke by the way...just found out he was with us for 5 years! Shocked to say the least ~

To fix this issue, in walks Matias, Wallace, Joao, Lopez, Sogou, McGeady, Bannan, Hooper, Forestieri and even attacking defenders in Hunt and Pudil...I’m on the brink of waking up from this dream. Now to turn this dream into a wet dream, all I need to add is that some of these players aren’t even preferred first teamers *screeches like a little school girl*

But enough about what’s happened in the meantime, I want to talk about what is happening in the here and now. Wednesday are currently 6th, going into the international break with two 3-0 victories behind us. Hopefully we can shake off any rustiness to continue this fine for against Huddersfield next weekend.

Before this though we had a little bit of a shaky end to February where we drew two games against QPR and Hull which wouldn’t have been bad results if we hadn’t lost to Preston and Rotherham as well. Two games which, if we’d have won, would’ve seen us 4th in the league and challenging for a automatic promotion spot.

The main reason I’d say we lost those games was because we were missing Forestieri (him getting sent off against Preston and being banned for the Rotherham game). I’m actually so glad that Wednesday don’t have to play this week because with Fessi being called up to international duty I don’t know what we would’ve done without him.

~I’ve just been informed that Fernando Forestieri wasn’t called up to the Italian squad, apparently they’ve gone for some shit houses like Pelle, Immobile and Balotelli? ~

Now this small fact is worrying me as I don’t want us to revolve around Fernando. We have a lot of creative players in our side but I do get worried some weeks when I see the amount of clear cut chances created. And I mean real clear cut chances, the type where you would expect your nan to score the chance 99 times out of 100.

Some games, like the one against Brentford the other week, everything just seems to go our way. But others, like an even more recent game against Brighton, we look almost as if we’re trying to overplay it and don’t even look like testing the keeper…

Before anyone thinks it I’m not nit picking. Like I’ve said in every other Flight of the Owls post the highest I’ve seen us finish is 12th in the Championship under Brian Laws so if we could finish higher than that I would be ecstatic and to see us do it with so much style and panache it's truly a great thing to behold.

Still 8 games left of this season and still a possibility of us achieving that automatic promotion spot. I won’t hold my breath on it but it would be a great achievement in such a short space of time. Even a playoff place would be a huge leap forward in my book, I’d have been happy with 11th if I’m honest.

Last thing I want to say is thank you to all the football fans I’ve spoken to about Sheffield Wednesday. Spoke to a few Leicester fans and Villa fans who spoke nothing but praise of our club, hoping that we’d be back in the Premier League soon. It’s always nice to hear your favourite club is held in such a high regard with other fan groups and to those people I say don’t worry, The Owls will be flying high very soon.

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Cheers for reading.