Baldy's Blog Episode 5 Looking Back...and Forward

So we say goodbye to Brian Laws after just over 3 years in the hot seat at Hillsborough. And considering how hot that seat is, he’s done very well to last that long at all.

As one of his biggest supporters during his time at S6 I do feel saddened by his departure, but I don’t think anyone can be in any doubt that the time for him to move on has come. Only the very best managers have an everlasting sell by date at a club and 3 years represents a long time in modern football, and especially at Sheffield Wednesday.

I hope that, like me, Wednesday fans will look back on Laws’ time at the club with some fondness and thank him for what he has done. At the moment this doesn’t seem easy with the team struggling on the pitch, and the doubts about future investment meaning the general mood around the supporters is hardly a cheery festive one as we approach Christmas. But to me Brian Laws’ tenure at Hillsborough has been one of the most successful in recent times. He arrived at the club with us struggling to come to terms with the Championship and steered us to 9th place in his first season, with us playing some great football and Laws succeeding where Sturrock had struggled in getting the best out of Chris Brunt. The victory at Leeds epitomised the new era at Wednesday under Laws, with 2 of the goals of the season scored by Brunt and Johnson as we blew Leeds aside and dominated even with 10 men.

His second season started with the 6 defeats that represents our worst start ever but the recovery showed that Laws had the ability to respond at the toughest time, get the best out of players and use the loan market to good effect – a crucial skill in all divisions outside the Premier League,

Last season he took us to the middle – as high as we can reasonably expect in my opinion and we did so comfortably, with some outstanding results that will live long in the memory and some great football too.
      

      
This season has showed Laws at his best and worst and highlighted that we are the epitomy of inconsistency. The football played at times has been lovely to watch and at other times has been appalling to watch. The difference this season to previously is that when playing well we haven’t always got what we deserved and this highlights that Laws lost the ability to get the best out of his squad. The confidence has drained out of the team lately and he has been unable to get that back. This ultimately cost him his job.

We can certainly look back on a couple of key moments in his time that gave us much enjoyment. After pigs fans’ general smugness and low opinion of Sturrock it was great to hear their squealing after the first derby victory at Hillsborough in 2008. And while they thought that was just about Bryan Robson, Laws engineered the first double for 90 odd years last season and that showed them they had someone to really dislike – and therefore respect - in S6 for the first time in years.And while they carried on their squealing after the Hillsborough match, blaming Mike Dean for the defeat, even they couldn’t deny that Laws had masterminded a dominant performance in the Bramall Lane fixture.

There are other matches and performances that I will remember from Laws’ time that showed his qualities. His first win at Hillsborough came with the 3-1 victory over West Brom and that was a great display against promotion favourites and showed his attacking preferences, playing with two wingers in Brunt and the on-loan Andrews. As time has gone on he has shirked away from playing two wingers and perhaps it is this lack of courage to do what he believes in that has ultimately seen his good work undone recently.

That West Brom game was followed by a 4-1 win at Leicester that saw 3 of the best goals you’ll ever see from a Wednesday team in one match and really gave us hope that we had a manager who was taking us up a level in the Championship. In fact that December saw something I don’t think I’ve ever seen and I’m not sure I will for a long time – 4 consecutive Wednesday away wins. We ended that season with 6 wins from the last 7 matches, showing what we could achieve when the shackles were off and we simply played our own game. That season also saw us come from 3-1 down late on to draw with Southampton and Mark Crossley became the only Wednesday ‘keeper I’ve ever seen score from open play.

The recovery from the 6 defeats at the start of the following season really got going in the 4-2 victory at Stoke, which started to show how Laws wanted to use his one big signing Francis Jeffers before Ryan Shawcross had his input. Another game with quality goals and all round play from the Owls that showed what we can do when we get it right. This season also saw Laws possibly save his job on two occasions – coming from behind to beat Blackpool and then more notably making a 40th minute double substitution against QPR that turned the game – and season - on its head as we only lost one of the last 12 matches from then on. Safety that season was almost guaranteed after the astonishing game at the Walkers stadium and in some ways it is ironic that the scene of two of Laws’ best moments at Wednesday should also be the scene of his last stand.
      

      
Last season’s unbelievable start against Burnley will possibly never be bettered as an opening 17 minutes of a season, and again we saw Laws go for it in terms of team selection to great effect. Tudgay and JJ wide, Sodje and Burton up front – it seems a common theme as I look back at the seasons under Laws that he starts with teams that are happy to go for it, and actually ends in similar fashion. For some reason in the middle of the season he starts to worry about being exposed and we go on bad runs (Januarys under Laws never seemed to bring many points) but for the most part when he picked teams that were set up to attack the opposition it brought more success than failure (with the exception the start of the 2007 season). We scored 4 on two other occasions last season – against Charlton at home and Burnley away – in dominant displays.

In Laws’ tenure at Hillsborough we have essentially been a mid-table Championship team. That is as much as we can reasonably expect in a division that has got tougher in those 3 years with the relative finances of the club and the boardroom upheaval that has taken place.

It is not a coincidence that this job has earned the ‘poisoned chalice’ title and in my opinion Brian Laws has lessened that tag. The expectation at Hillsborough is always unreasonable in my opinion and for Laws to have survived for so long is a credit to him. I have plenty of good memories of Laws’ time at Wednesday but the time has come for a change.

So, to the future.
      

      
In my opinion our next appointment needs to be someone with experience at this level and preferably the one above too. It has been too common that we have seen managers come into S6 from a level below – or at least the same level but ‘smaller’ clubs – and players have lost respect for them after time. We need someone that demands the respect of his players, not someone who is a risk from a lower league.

We also need someone to gain the respect of fans for that matter. I don’t believe that Laws was ever a popular choice with Wednesday fans and it took a long time to hear his name sung in the stands. Even recently when the support for him has been forthcoming from the crowd, as witnessed at Doncaster, I think fans like him, rather than respect him. We need a manager that demands the respect of the Hillsborough crowd to try to break the hoodoo of home games. One of Laws’ biggest successes was the home record last season, something many other managers have been unable to achieve. But we are now back where we were in that sense and that HAS to change.
It is not a coincidence that the matches against West Brom and Reading saw the team freeze but they have at least showed some fight and application at Ipswich and Doncaster. The pressure of playing in front of the Hillsborough crowd has forced many a player to crumble and managers of other teams know what effect that can have on our team.

WE need to take responsibility for making whoever the next manager is as welcome as possible. For giving the players a clean slate, getting behind them 100% and playing our part in building a strong side again. The foundations are there, Laws has proved that himself, but it is now someone else’s job to take them on. They need to be able to hit the ground running before we end up in a serious relegation battle.

So we need a manager with experience at this level and above, who will be respected by players and fans from day one, who can work on a shoestring budget, and who will not panic. There is one man that fits that bill perfectly but he may be out of our league. Whoever the new man is though, I don’t believe they have a massive uphill task to get this squad back up the league, as long as we give him our full backing.

Thanks for all you’ve done Brian, and good luck.

Up the Owls

Baldy
Owls Alive