Sheffield Wednesday Banter Archive December 14 2013

14 Dec 2013 22:36:16
Steve Clarke should be contacted Monday morning.
Did a fantastic job at West Brom. Come on Milan hurry and get him in. We'll done today boys superb result.

Just looking at the tv website and he's not as good as he seems. I thought he would be a good choice too but when you see his record for the last calendar year he only got 31 points and won 9 games. Not a great return

We hardly have a full squad of our own players.
Almost all of our better players are on short term loans.
MM says we are on a tight budget --which he has no intention of stretching!
We are up for sale so the future direction of the club is uncertain.
We are currently in bottom 3!
. I just wonder what makes some fans think this job is attractive to anybody, let alone the likes of Steve Clark? who is probably being tapped up by West Ham and a couple of other Prem. Clubs already.

14 Dec 2013 17:12:43
Should Stuart Grey get the job? He has doubled DJ win tally in three games and got our first clean sheet of our season.

A win on Wednesday against Wigan will persuade MM to give SG a contract to the end of the season.
With nobody attractive in the wings, this has got to make sense.
Problem comes though, when Connor W goes back in Jan. Where will the goals come from?
Ever hopeful
Sleaford Owl

Spot on. From what I remember we had 2 shots today, 1 on target (the goal). We need more creativity in the midfield and a couple of strikers urgently. It's no good defending like Italy all of a sudden if we don't create chances. Good win today though!

Its all about 3 points and sg has I think the bottle and the tactics to keep us up. Eg the man we want is right in front of us.

14 Dec 2013 17:05:12
we WON 1-0 well its a start and a move in the right direction, let's hope we can carry on. We have at least closed the gap on teams above us, keep up the winning ways lads UTO

Yep, we seem to be taking small steps forward, great win today! But be careful about those rose tinted glasses, today we barely had possession, only managed two shots that I can remember and Martinez kept us in the game on a few occasions. We still need a decent creative midfielder and a couple of strikers urgently to build on our vastly improving defence. All those who moaned about Glenn Loovens signing, he was a rock today, a proper class act.

Couldn't agree with you more mate, but what's worrying me is where do we get these new players from? We all know MM won't pay any money out on players, and loan players whilst being a stop gap are not a solution. what's your opinion? eric the owl

MM needs to put his hand in his pocket firstly. Secondly if we keep the spine of our defence for and happy and perhaps bring back some of those signings from the development squad to train with the first team we may actually have one or two gems that are ready to step up.

14 Dec 2013 01:58:28
There have been 30 permanent Wednesday managers in total (not counting caretakers). Because I was generally interested and because of the recent Megson Vs Jones debate I was just pondering who been the most successful and I was shocked at just how high Megson's win % was compared to the greats. Just thought I'd share my top 5 managers in Owls history based on a few factors (in terms of trophies I'm only counting major trophies, not runners up medals, promotions, lower league championships etc).

Major Trophies:

1. Arthur Dickinson - Two league championships (1902-03 and 1903-04) and two FA Cups (1896 and 1907).
2. Robert Brown - Two league championships (1928-29 and 1929-30).
3. Billy Walker - One FA Cup (1935).
4. Ron Atkinson - One League Cup (1991).
5. No other manager has won major trophies.

Gary Megson - No major trophies.

Win %:

1. Harry Catterick - 55. 80%
2. Vic Buckingham - 47. 01%
3. Gary Megson - 45. 16%*
4. Howard Wilkinson - 44. 71%
5. Robert Brown - 44. 33%

*Just in case you didn't know already Dave Jones' win % was 35. 80%.

Total games won:

1. Arthur Dickinson - 393 games.
2. Robert Brown - 266 games.
3. Eric Taylor - 196 games.
4. Howard Wilkinson - 114 games.
5. Jack Charlton - 105 games.

Gary Megson - 28 games.

Longevity:

1. Arthur Dickinson (August 1891 to May 1920) - 919 games.
2. Robert Brown (June 1920 to December 1933) - 600 games.
3. Eric Taylor (April 1942 to July 1958) - 539 games.
4. Jack Charlton (8 October 1977 to 27 May 1983) - 269 games.
5. Howard Wilkinson (24 June 1983 to 10 October 1988) - 255 games.

Gary Megson (4 February 2011 to 29 February 2012) - 62 games.

Considering that Gary Megson was only briefly in charge his win % is stunning compared to the greats, Dave Jones is not even close. Is Meggo a great? Should Milan bite the bullet and recognise his winning ways and invite him back?

So who would your top 5 Wednesday managers of all time be?

Fascinating post ponty. As much as I liked megson I would argue his reecord was set entirely in the third tier where we surely were a big fish in a small pond. Although your post was well presented and nowhere does it suggest megson should be reinstated, in sure these facts will be hijacked by the gm fan club. N. B

Great post Ponty!
Perhaps I should have gathered the stats?
I'm the one who's been defending Megson's record for the past 18mths or more, because he's been successful pretty much everywhere he's been.
Even at Bolton where he was booed every week! But that was a reaction to the fact that the fans didn't get the manager they wanted. He still managed to avoid relegation from what seemed an impossible position and take them in to Europe - still getting booed?
Some of our fans jump on the bandwagon and comment on - style of play - but we were in Lge1 with loan signings? Hard to play Barcelona football in those circumstances and be successful, which he was!
He made Hillsboro a difficult place for teams to come to again. DJ said it was difficult for our team to play here?
A good manager puts together a team from the players he has available to get results against the odds which is what he did in spades.
I remember when he was at West Brom he got loads of criticism for playing pretty, pretty football and losing games because of it?
The only thing Megson did wrong at S6 was battle with MM for more support in order to improve the squad.
He wanted the best for his club, which is what MM says he wants? - but he got sacked for it?
I find it ironic that Megson got sacked for being too passionate about our club - perhaps that's why DJ came in and showed NONE!

Yep, Megson was in League 1 so that needs to be taken into account but we also must consider that some of the 'greats' brought the club up from the lower leagues into the top flight so there is some comparison. The interesting thing is that DJ and GM had very similar win % in League 1, DJ win % plummeted when we were promoted and he signed his players. Whether that is because the step up in class caught up with him or the squad is open to debate and we cannot compare how GM did at this level because he was never given the chance.

All in all the facts are that over their complete tenures with similar numbers of games in charge GM for whatever reason had a better winning mentality. That being said, I agree that GM should not be considered as a 'great' like some fans have put him on a pedestal but he was a good manager, whatever his faults.

It's over with now, it's history. GM and DJ have gone and it is time to move on. The stats to point to something though, the most successful managers in our history have on the whole been ones who have had a long time at the club, board room backing, the backing of the fans and who have had the chance to build a stable team over years. There is no getting away from that. The way we have chopped and changed managers over the recent decades has been very unsuccessful.

I just hope that MM realises this and picks the right person for the job and backs them (sensibly and within budget) with transfer funds to build a squad that becomes the long term backbone of the club and the fans are patient and hopefully we will see year in year improvement and a rise up the leagues. A shirt term fix and instant success is totally unrealistic.

Never mind megson, bring back Arthur Dickinson ponty

Haha he's probably got as much life in him as DJ.