Consistently so near on the performance metrics, so far away on the results. So smooth between the boxes, so bumpy in them. If that sounds like a narrow gap, it’s actually not. It’s huge.
To bridge it requires serious money and a strategic long term plan, preferably a combination of both. Currently Sheffield Wednesday appear to have neither – at a time when the Danny Rohl-to-Southampton saga has turned from speculation to expectation.
And all of that is far more concerning than the gradual erosion of a play-off shot that was always a product of over-achievement rather than realism. Because it’s hard right now to see how the Owls can add quality to the business end of football matches or to move forwards as a club.
We have to look past a sequence of recent results that represent relegation form to recognise that the league position is progress. The problem is, how do you build on it?
How do you take advantage of a gifted manager when there is logical talk of him being lured away in the summer and when the resources of an unpopular but still apparently committed owner are severely stretched? Unless he tunes into that reality very quickly.
Can Dejphon Chansiri bend enough to bring them to the table and act, for the benefit of the club, in time for Rohl to reconsider? He would be genuinely thanked if he did.
Events on the field are Groundhog Day for which no particular blame can be attributed. When faults keep recurring, it’s no coincidence. The owner is on record as saying the coach gets the credit when they win and he gets the blame when they don’t. His soreness on that score is human nature and understandable.
But in the end the valuation of a squad – and it is low for the Championship – makes the judgment. Plus the widespread perception of the club lacking a coherent structure. It shouldn’t be losing a manager to an outfit of similar size.
This might be a futile ask. But now is the time within Hillsborough to take stock of the future and how next season can be tackled, rather than wait for events to unfold.
Sheffield Wednesday takeover could be the only way of keeping Danny Röhl
So, in my opinion, it would be completely wrong to deride the supporter groups who are claiming some success in flushing out potential buyers, and are encouraging the owner to entertain them – because Wednesday has to be attractive at the right price and there are no other signals of hope.
Tell you what, though, individual lapses apart, this coaching team and this set of players have done as much if not more than could be expected to make up the shortfall.
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