Luggy by Paul Sturrock

Author:Paul Sturrock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2015-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Sheffield Wednesday

I WAS very pleased to be appointed as manager of Sheffield Wednesday, who are with all due respect to my other teams and fans, the biggest club I have managed, certainly in terms of fan-base.

I had been out of work for around a month after severing my links with Southampton in August 2004 and was appointed Hillsborough boss in September that same year and season.

Wednesday had just been relegated into League One from the Championship and were in 17th place when I took over and definitely nobody’s favourite to make an immediate return to English football’s second tier.

Naturally, I was aware of Wednesday’s history and importance in the league structure, after all they had reached both the FA Cup and League Cup Final in the same season, just a decade before when they were in the Premiership.

But nothing prepared me for the level of support that the club generated and the expectation and loyalty of the fans – it was awesome.

I had played and managed Dundee United, been in two World Cups with Scotland and in England recently experienced the support at both Southampton and before that Plymouth.

I knew from personal experience the Green Army at Home Park and, in particular, in away matches turned out in large numbers and, like Dundee United’s Arabs, were noisily supportive, but Wednesday’s fans, as I was to find out, were something else again – they were unbelievable.

After a frustrating and disappointing six-month term in charge of Southampton which ended two games into the 2004/05 Premier League season, reviving a slumbering giant like Wednesday was just the challenge I needed.

At my interview I was told that I had been given the job after a 3-1 win at Hillsborough when I was with Argyle who had battered them and that had really impressed the Sheffield board. A lot of supporters mentioned that to me, too, when I first took over at Wednesday, just how good a performance Plymouth had put on that time.

That was key and as I said I was very pleased that people had recognised the job I had done with Plymouth and clearly were hoping that I could do the same for my new club, who had just been relegated.

I replaced former boss Chris Turner in the hot seat on September 23, and brought in my coaches Kevin Summerfield and John Blackley, both of whom I had worked with successfully before.

Before being taken on at Sheffield I had been invited by Wednesday chairman, Dave Allen, to meet up with other members of the board and watch his side, then under the temporary charge of caretaker coach and former Plymouth Argyle defender, Mark Smith, in a League Cup tie at Coventry City, which the visitors lost 1-0.

Mark Smith had played under Dave Smith at Home Park in the late eighties and was a youth coach at Wednesday and was to have just the one game in charge.

I met the chairman, Dave Allen, and director, Barry Gold, along with my agent at a hotel in the centre of Coventry and we shook hands on the deal.

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