Last week was a good one for Sheffield Wednesday as the club managed to keep manager Danny Rohl out of the clutches of the Premier League. For now.
This isn’t something that should perturb fans too much – not as long as he’s still in charge – but rather the price of having one of Europe’s most exciting managerial properties in their dugout.
But this won’t be the end of it. When asked if staying at Hillsborough was a commitment to his future, after a week where Southampton considered him as their new manager, Rohl was frustratingly enigmatic.
“The future is a big word, but I’m here, I think everyone knows I love this club, I love the supporters, I love my team,” he said.
You only need to watch Rohl’s team play to understand he’s not a dreamer. He’s ambitious and confident enough to know an offer he can’t refuse might come in the future, and realistic enough to appreciate a P45 is just as possible.
Gary O’Neil was the Premier League’s best manager at Bournemouth in 2022-23, rescued Wolverhampton Wanderers from a mess of their own making in 2023-24, and still got sacked twice before 101 games. There are plenty more hard-luck stories in the Football League.
The “love” Rohl talks about isn’t to be ignored. He could have easily cashed in his chips in the summer and walked into a big-budget job after a brilliant start as a manager that steered the Owls away from a relegation that seemed almost inevitable at certain points.
In January, it’s crucial he gets some love back. Not from fans who sang his name loudly after Saturday’s 2-0 win over Stoke City, and who bought into his methods even before results backed them up. It’s safe to assume the potential he sees to progress his career in Sheffield stems from them.
The love he needs is from the boardroom – not in the form of words, but cold, hard cash he can invest in the transfer market. Intriguingly, Southampton’s interest came at a time when Rohl had already started playing transfer window politics – laying out in public how badly he wanted to loan a few high-quality players who could raise the level of his first XI, and challenging owner/chairman Dejphon Chansiri to provide them.
If Rohl’s comments in Friday’s pre-match press conference are any guide, he didn’t engineer last week to extract the assurances he clearly would have wanted. Instead, he talked of “trust”, but tellingly, the same answer to a question about whether he was confident he’d get what he needed next month ended in the words: “We’ll see.”
Chansiri has hit financial troubles at Hillsborough plenty of times before, so he can’t spend like there’s no tomorrow. At a time when profit and sustainability rules (PSR) have entered football’s lexicon, no club can. But January presents an opportunity.
Whereas managers like Russell Martin and Ange Postecoglou are footballing idealists, Rohl is a pragmatist. He’d like to create a more attractive side, but unlike the former Southampton and current Tottenham Hotspur manager, he’s conscious of the limitations of his players. The result is a well-organised, well-coached but fairly functional group of flexible and interchangeable players lacking a bit of stardust.
Loanees James Beadle and Shea Charles provide sparks of quality, but from goalkeeper and holding midfield. For years, they’ve looked to Barry Bannan and Josh Windass for attacking flashes, but the fact they’ve been in the Championship for so long – Bannan’s loyalty even saw him dip into League One – shows there are limits to it. Bannan can’t outrun Father Time much longer. Rohl’s summer signings up front, Ike Ugbo and Jamal Lowe, have been unable to outperform Michael Smith – a good striker built for direct football. Anthony Musaba and Djiedi Gassama have speed and talent, but badly lack consistency.
It wouldn’t take much to nudge the Owls from mid-table to play-off contenders, and the nature of the players they want means they’d have no choice but to loan rather than buy them. Someone who could do for them what Ben Doak (on loan from Liverpool) has done for Middlesbrough, or Fabio Carvalho (ditto) did for Hull City last season, or James McAtee (borrowed from Manchester City) for Sheffield United in 2022-23 could make a big difference on the platform Rohl laid.
This squad isn’t good enough for the top six, but the gap is only three places and three points. Play-off winners Luton Town were nine and four