Sheffield Wednesday are days away from kicking off one of their most promising campaigns in a long time.
Despite narrowly avoiding relegation last season, the Owls are hoping to finish in the top half of the Championship for the first time in six years.
Sheffield Wednesday have added nine new players to their ranks and are still hopeful of bringing in more, with their pursuit of Ike Ugbo still well underway.
The club have brought in a number of proven Championship players, as well as plenty of young talent too.
However, EFL pundit Ryan Dilks doesn’t think it is the squad that should be getting the fans ‘excited’, but rather Danny Rohl’s contract situation.
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Danny Rohl is unlikely to leave Sheffield Wednesday this season
Speaking on the Second Tier podcast, Dilks said: “Yeah, [he is] possibly the most inspired mid-season appointment we have ever seen in Championship history.
“The job he did last season was exceptional. Now it’s extremely exciting to see what he’ll be able to do over a full season, plus a preseason under his belt.
“At just 35 years old, we genuinely could be talking about a future elite manager here.
“And another thing to take into account for Wednesday, we’ve spoken a couple of times here about managers who could get poached by other clubs. With Rohl, any club who wants him is reportedly going to have to pay £5m in compensation and a further £5m if they want his coaching staff as well.
“So that’s the chief reason why there’s plenty to be excited about with Wednesday, because it looks like they’re going to be holding onto Danny Rohl for the season unless a club really, really wants him.”
Would a Premier League club try to snap him up?
A number of clubs were interested in snapping Rohl up at the end of the season, but his whopping compensation clause is likely a significant reason why they didn’t push any further.
The German eventually signed a new contract though and it is unclear whether he agreed to keep the same compensation in his new deal, but it likely means he won’t be going to any other Championship club anytime soon.
However, if Rohl does exceed expectations and has Wednesday in the top six by Christmas, then there could well by some Premier League clubs that would actually consider paying £5m to bring him in.
If a club like Brentford or Nottingham Forest begin to panic at the bottom of the table, then you couldn’t rule out them swooping in.
But the point is that it does look very unlikely, and Wednesday are in a brilliant position of not really needing to worry about his future.
It’s a very exciting time to be in blue and white, and hopefully that can be reflected in this weekend’s performance against Plymouth Argyle.