WOTMT
Time to decide
That's enough managerial uncertainty for now

So, when Steve and I met up to start pulling together WOTMT 41 we found ourselves faced with the dilemma of doing so without knowing what was happening on the Wednesday managerial front. I think in our heads we thought that either Lee Bullen would have been confirmed in post or else someone else would have been drafted in. But time has continued to pass with no puff of white smoke from Mr Chansiri’s chimney.

Last week we sent the thing off to the printer’s and still with no clue what was happening.  Viewers of Alan Biggs’ Sheffield Live show last Thursday (where Steve was the only streak of blue and white relief in a blunt-cloudy sky) might have seen the preview of a caption from Issue 41 about Steven Fletcher’s hair extension where rashly we have allowed him to refer to Bully as “gaffer”. But frankly - who knows?

The prevailing wisdom has tended to be that DC is keeping his powder dry on whether to give Bullen the job until he sees how results pan out. For a while that made sense; Wednesday set off like a train – the players seemed untroubled by the lack of managerial appointment and all seemed to be playing their hearts out for the caretaker. When we closed our eyes at night a few of us perhaps thought that this was going to be the season where we stormed the Championship with Bully carried off shoulder-high as we finally gained admittance to the Premiership.

But the reality is – and always was going to be – that as the season starts to unfold we seem to have dropped into the win-some, lose-some (thought up to yet not drawn any) that has typified recent seasons at Wednesday. All the runes are pointing in the right direction with everybody fit, the huge joy of seeing Kieran Lee back (and substantially back to his best) and loads of potential amongst our new permanent and borrowed acquisitions. But the fact is, it’s all starting to get a bit ridiculous now. Every time you hear pundits reviewing the Championship there is talk of “will they/won’t they give him the job?” But still we hear nowt.

Whenever there is a void to fill social media will make it its job to fill it. Witness the other week where the legendary Roland Nilsson had said in an interview that in a year or so he might feel like he fancied a go at managing Wednesday. Cue a full-on flurry of Roland-related speculation. As you might expect as possibly the only Wednesdayite still proudly sporting a Nilsson 2 shirt I was in total meltdown as were a fair few others. However it was only really a bit of fun; none of us really expected our best ever right back to come charging back to take up the managerial reins (and – whisper it – one or two people pointed out that Roland hasn’t exactly got a strong managerial record).

What drove the short-lived Roland frenzy was to some degree and probably unconsciously about everyone wanting to see any sort of appointment that we can all get behind and then get on with the rest of this important season. But just like all the others, including the 30 or so people who have taken it in turn to move “to incredibly short odds” to become the next Wednesday manager, it turned out to be yet another false dawn.

Sorry but for me it’s all becoming a bit of a joke. It’s not even worth me having a dabble about whether Lee Bullen is or isn’t the man for the job; we just need to get a permanent appointment made and stop the speculation. It needs to be a footballing decision – it isn’t fair to us or to Bully himself to just give him the job because DC can’t get or agree terms with whichever of his myriad of suitors he wants in post.

I feel clear that the longer we bob along in this sea of managerial uncertainty, the more chance there is that we don’t maintain enough momentum to make a realistic challenge to get up this time. We all know that the Chairman is someone who takes his time to make a considered decision but there comes a point where the delay starts to become hugely counter-productive and people start to laugh at us.

So, Mr Chairman, give the job to Lee Bullen or give the job to someone else; whoever you choose won’t please everyone but we’re all Wednesday aren’t we so we’ll just get our heads around it and throw our weight behind the wheel. But please just get someone permanently in place before we hit September.    

Return to Latest Articles
29.03.2024
Mailing List
Why not join our mailing list. We'll send you lists of wotmt events which include (but are not restricted to) "Gerald Sibon, My aardvark and me - poetry reading nights with a Dutch surrealist", "Learn how to head a ball with Shefki Kuqi".