Barry Bannan has explained what Danny Rohl has done to completely transform Sheffield Wednesday, after they were previously ‘written off’.
Sheffield Wednesday fans were left ecstatic when they overcame a four-goal deficit to win the Championship play-offs back in May.
However, it wasn’t long before their spirits came crashing down when their immediate return to the third tier looked almost guaranteed by October.
Xisco Munoz was sacked by The Owls after a 1-0 defeat to West Brom that left them seven points from safety, having lost eight of their opening 10 games.
Danny Rohl arrived with great hope, but he wasn’t going to be able to work his magic straight away. The German’s transformation would take time, but eventually he had an even bigger challenge on his hands when they headed into December 12 points from 21st place.
Danny Rohl has turned things around at Hillsborough now though, gifting fans plenty of points for Christmas as they won four out of seven matches, before kicking 2024 off with another victory over Hull City.
The Owls now sit only three points from safety and could finally climb out of the relegation zone if they can cause an upset against Southampton next week.
It is a huge upturn in form that Sheffield Wednesday definitely didn’t expect, and Barry Bannan has now explained exactly how Rohl did it.
Speaking to Sky Sports (as per The Star), Bannan said: “We’ve been written off… After the first 10 games we were written off, but we were written off in the semifinals last season in the playoffs and we showed what we can do then. We’ve been written off plenty of times, but the manager has come in and given us great confidence.
“He believes in the way he wants to play and he’s passed that on to us. So we’re also believing as well, we’re all together and the mentality of last season is slowly coming back to this group of lads. We’re playing with confidence now.”
Where can Sheffield Wednesday go now?
What makes Sheffield Wednesday’s resurgence even more impressive is that it was all done before the transfer window opened.
Many of their players seemed to struggle with the Championship and the squad just didn’t seem good enough to fight for their place in the second tier. But all Danny Rohl has done is bring some outcasts in from the cold and brought some much-needed confidence to the team.
It is a very promising end to 2023 for The Owls, and the club even being only seven points from 18th place makes you wonder what else they could do in the second half of the campaign.
If they do avoid the drop, then there is no doubt Rohl will be planning for much bigger things at Hillsborough next season.