Sheffield Wednesday endured a difficult January transfer window, and now it seems like the Owls are destined for relegation.
A few weeks after Danny Rohl arrived at Sheffield Wednesday, perhaps most notably after the 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers in December, there was a real sense that the Owls could stay up this season.
That feeling ran over the next couple of weeks but after a tough January transfer window, in which Sheffield Wednesday signed four players on loan but no strikers, it seems like relegation is once again the likeliest outcome for the Owls this season.
There’s obviously still plenty of points to play for and with Rohl at the helm, there’s always a chance. But he’s been badly let down by owner Dejphon Chansiri who failed to properly back him last month, and failed to back the club last summer.
Joe Crann delivers brutal verdict on January transfer window
Speaking on the Everywhere and Nowhere podcast, journalist Joe Crann had his say on the January transfer window, and whether Sheffield Wednesday are now better off in terms of playing staff.
“I wouldn’t say they’re better off, personally,” he said. “Numerically, I think they’re slightly better off, or even maybe, but in terms of the players that they’ve brought in, there’s obviously some unknown quantities like Poveda… Pedersen has obviously come in, and look; baptism of fire, by all accounts against Huddersfield. It was a tough game for someone to come in to, especially having not played in so long.”
Sheffield Wednesday were linked with a number of players last month, but too often those linked players joined other clubs; Conor Coventry being one, and Duncan McGuire another.
Crann added:
“But I think that the concerning thing for Wednesday, has been and will be, the fact that Danny clearly didn’t get who he wanted. There were players who Wednesday tried to get and they didn’t get. These two deals got done on the last day [Kristian Pedersen and Ian Poveda], just as a case of: ‘we need to try and get more bodies in’, and it didn’t really feel with so much of Wednesday’s window that they were getting their way.”
Sheffield Wednesday in for testing final run-in
What now faces Rohl is a hugely difficult run-in; 16 games left to close what is currently an eight point gap to Huddersfield Town in 21st.
But Town looked so much better than Wednesday during their 4-0 win over the Owls last week, whilst QPR have bolstered well, and the likes of Birmingham City and Stoke City have brought in new managers.
So even if the Owls do put some wins on the board, it looks like they’ll need a huge amount to actually drag themselves out of the bottom three, and with largely the same set of players as before, that’s going to be really difficult for Rohl.
All of his hard work has come undone after that dire January transfer window and the buck stops with Chansiri.
Like Crann says, Rohl didn’t get what he wanted last month. Or what he needed. But he’s shown a lot of positive signs as a coach and if Wednesday go down, he could well have a lot of suitors, and few could blame him if he chose to leave for a more stable club were he’ll be better backed.