Six years in management. Five jobs. No wonder this Sheffield Wednesday season is quickly petering out, with their recent turmoil the embodiment of Garry Monk’s managerial career condensed into seven weeks. Promising signs, flux, a congealment of spirited mediocrity: this has been the story of Monk as a manager for years.
The Owls manager has only been in the job six months, but a perilous run of form of one win in 10 games – the latest episode an uninspiring 3-0 home defeat to Reading – has seen them drop way out of the play-off picture and looking over their shoulder.
I was there that day they notched four first half goals at the City Ground, the blue and white striped shirts swarming the red ones, a group of experienced Championship players playing with a wonderful purity about them in those moments when football just becomes a thing on rectangular green, a business of triangles, keep-ball, talent.
I was also there the other day when they made a mediocre Reading side look the real deal. Wednesday looked a team riven in angst, scarred by the thought of losing seven out of their last 10, lacking not just an identity but the most simplistic idea of what that identity might be.
There was a daunting stat doing the rounds in the press lounge pre-match on Saturday, that Wednesday hadn’t failed to score at home for four consecutive games since 2015, under Stuart Gray. There was not the slightest consensus that they were about to prevent that from repeating. And you can see why. They were so blunt in attack, the transitions from midfield to attack non-existent, offering target man Atdhe Nuhiu little to feed off.
Of course, the knee injury to top scorer Steven Fletcher has coincided with this downwards spiral, but they did have all of January to fill his void. They ended up dredging Conor Wickham out of the laundry bin in a bid to resurrect his faltering career. There were no signs, from his 25-minute stint on Saturday, that that was about to happen.
Monk praised the attitude of the fans in his post-match presser, saying “It could have been really negative, they didn’t get on the players backs at all. They backed their team.” One can never dispute the loyalty of Owls fans, not least an under-fire boss. Thousands of angry fans, instead, directed their anger at the league itself.
An animated knot of the North Stand demanded others to stand up if they hate the EFL, after it was widely reported they were close to a points deduction. Thousands of fans got to their feet. To be fair, they might simply have been heading for the exits.
A bouquet of boos rang around Hillsborough at the final whistle on Saturday, scattered and modest at first and then louder. If the boos weren’t borne out of anger at the players, like Monk repeatedly claimed in his post-match interviews, then what was really the point? Perhaps, it was the sound a fan base growing bored: bored of stagnating, going nowhere, politely taking themselves out of the play-off picture before the Spring even beckons.
Yet, for all the recent damaging performances, there is certainly reason for optimism in the underlying data that indicates Wednesday have been unfortunate: the expected goals table has them in fourth, 15 points better off. So what is this mini crisis really down to?
Monk claims that it is not down to a lack of leadership or experience, but in fact the performance levels, “we’re missing that fight for your life mentality, the extra levels of tenacity and pure will to win,” he said. Of course, work rate coincides talent. Of course, when a team isn’t at their best, they can be beaten by anyone in this league. But surely accepting the likes of Kieren Westwood and Sam Hutchinson would seriously improve this faltering team – who Monk himself seems to have pushed to the fringes of the club. Surely accepting Atdhe Nuhiu, the lone striker, is no longer up to the task, a man who instead would undoubtedly be extremely useful of shifting furniture out of a van and manoeuvring a sofa through the front-room window.
Monk pointing the finger at attitude rather than ability would have been a far easier sell if Wednesday had faced a string of games against the league’s front-runners. Instead, they have faced only one of the current top 6 and failed to beat any of the current bottom 3 in this “horrible cycle” that is the last 10 games.
Take a step back and it is an already strange managerial career for Garry Monk. 21 months, 11 months, 7 months and 15-month stints respectively. Monk has built no notable teams, created no sustained periods of success, and hasn’t had a win percentage higher than 47% at any club. He has a huge opportunity to burnish his managerial reputation and set this faltering sporting machine back on the rails. One suspects, though, he may not even be given the chance.
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