A tally of four inbound signings can only be the beginning for ambitious Sheffield Wednesday, manager Danny Röhl has stressed.
On Friday Wednesday players reported back to Middlewood Road for the first time since completing their remarkable survival mission at Sunderland at the start of May. Initial testing was undertaken ahead of a fuller kick-off to their pre-season schedule next week.
Among the faces pictured at the Wednesday training ground were some of their new signings. Speaking to the club’s media team, Röhl gave a snapshot of the summer so far and maintained a
Röhl said: “It was important that I had a meeting with our chairman in London, we spoke about the new season and it was also important to have a clear picture in my mind. From this point is was to make the next step for the new season, look for the friendly games, pre-season camps and all the things around the team.
“The biggest challenge is now to improve our squad. A lot of players left the club, we have some good new signings and on this point we have to keep going.”
In what is expected to be a stripped-back programme of friendly fixtures, Wednesday currently have one pre-season outing scheduled at Alfreton Town next weekend, with more to be confirmed in due course. Two training camps are booked; one at St George’s Park and one in Germany. A meticulous planner, Röhl is keen to build on the work done last season and drive the squad further towards his philosophical ideals.
“You have to make a schedule,” he said. “Six weeks looks at first that it is massive, but it is not so much. We have a lot of topics we have to improve in our style of football. Of course, I look back to our games, to the conceded goals, to the goals we scored. We look back at these things and you make a summary of what we need to improve and in this point you take on the pre-season schedule.
“It is about really keeping going. I spoke a lot about the winning mindset and the high performance culture, especially in pre-season, this is the only time of the year you can really focus on things for the six weeks and focus on all the stuff we need to improve.
“When we look forward, we want to play great football, we want to attack and be brave, to entertain our fans and at the end get the right results. If we follow our way and play our game with intensity then the wins will come of course. We have to do more than last season to push and develop as a club. This is what I want to show my team, it is what I demand from my team and we have to go forward.”
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