Administration to the Premier League? - A Sheffield Wednesday Story

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I've loaded my own summer update (SummerUpdateV6 - FEATURING EUROPEAN PLACES - Downloads - Football Manager 2012 Tactics, Wonderkids & Cheats); therefore all recent transfers/managerial changes are present. Hope you enjoy.

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Sheffield Wednesday sign former Sunday-League Footballer?

BBC Understands Jones has resigned and will be replaced by Lambert.

Having been led to the Championship by Dave Jones, Milan Mandaric, the chairman had a bust up with him, reported to be about finances, and how much he was being given to spend in the transfer market. Consequently, Jones resigned and with the budget being fairly "unreasonable", few managers would probably be attracted to the job. The early frontrunners for the hot-seat were:
Billy Davies - 5/2
Steve McClaren - 4/1
James Lambert - 8/1
Andre Villas-Boas - 25/1
Sven Goran-Eriksson - 50/1

The fact that there are only 3 realistic targets show how unpopular Mandaric may be, and the fact that one of them is a Sunday-League footballer (Lambert) shows how desperate Wednesday may be.

Dave Jones released this statement, "though I enjoyed my time at Wednesday, I feel I couldn't work under this board with so restricted funds".

Consequently Mandaric released this statement, "how much money can you expect to be given? 2 seasons ago we were near liquidation, and we are lucky to be here, how on earth are we meant to give you millions and millions?"

Although early reports suggest that Billy Davies had been interview, he later tweeted "have not been contacted by @sheffieldwednesdayofficial, no intention of getting back into football just yet".

This statement seemed to hurt Sheffield Wednesday, and with Steve McClaren committing himself to FC Twente, only one realistic target was left, Lambert.​

 

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Owls appoint unknown man!

Sheffield Wednesday appoint unknown James Lambert as manager.
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Following a fallout with previous manager Dave Jones, Wednesday have appointed James Lambert as their new manager, last season Jones lead them to promotion to the npower Championship.​

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After finishing a well earned 2nd place in the npower League One, new boss Lambert is ready to lead them to another promotion, following in the footsteps of Norwich and Southampton. Lambert has reportedly been asked to work on a transfer budget around £500k.
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With Jones successfully working on such a small budget last year; the same will be expected of new-comer Lambert. Despite earning a decent position last year, the Owls are once again tipped for relegation as the media clearly believe Lambert isn't cut out for Championship management.

Milan Mandaric had this to say: "James is a very strong and young manager. He'll come in as a breath of fresh air and hopefully inspire us onto a great year. Myself and the board have had trouble searching for the managers available, but out of the ones we could find, Lambert was the strongest and most realistic candidate to fill the gap. We look forward to a fantastic Sheffield Wednesday future."

After being asked on his surprise appointment, Lambert had this to say: "It's obviously a great feeling. I have a massive love for the game and Mandaric & co. have given me the chance to show what I can do. I'll be forever thankful and I'll work hard to prove the doubters wrong."​

 

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Wednesday evaluate squad & targets

BBC Sheffield understands that Lambert will look for loan and frees.
James Lambert today revealed his first team squad:

Goalkeepers: Weaver, Jameson, Bywater, Kirkland
Defenders: Buxton, Bennett, R.Jones, Beevers, R.Johnson, Reynolds, D.Jones, Llera, Lee, Mattock
Midfielders: Semedo, Prutton, Lines, J.Johnson, Palmer, M.Jones, Coke
Strikers: O'Grady, Madine, Lowe

With the above squad, many fans on twitter name their targets

Charlie Ward: need a rb, 2 wingers, and 2 strikers
James Jones: please lambert get in wilbrahamovic!
Ryan Mann: few loan players would be good, would love dobbie

And according to BBC Sheffield, Lambert has the following on his list of targets:
A right back
A centre-back
A centre-mid
2 wingers
2 strikers

Early reports say that Aaron Wilbraham is in Sheffield to discuss a move. He is currently a free agent after being released by Premiership team Norwich.
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Wednesday confirm 2 early signings

Footy's Biggest Brain Joins Marcelo

Sheffield Wednesday's new boss James Lambert made his first two signings as he gears up for a busy pre-season, by bringing in free agent Clarke Carlisle, and Fulham striker Marcelo Trotta on a 3 month emergency loan.

Fans reacted to this news on twitter:
Sam Conway: good experience with clarke, seen marcelo play, very lively
Tom Hunt: who is this trotta guy? carlisle looked dodgy when I last saw him play

James Lambert had this to say:
"I know Clarke isn't the best anymore, but his presence in the dressing room will gear everyone up, and Marcelo is terrific, potential to be very good player, lucky to have him here, thanks Fulham!"
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Lambert finalises signings

Fans Reactions And A Message From The Boss

Lambert today confirmed he has pretty much made all his signings by bringing in four experience faces, and the fans weren't disappointed either. Aaron Wilbraham, Akos Buzsaky, Ricardo Gardner and Jon Otsemobor all joined the Owls on free transfers, and pretty much all of the fans liked these signings.

Chris Bennett - Akos and Ricky are great signings, well in Lambo.
Jon Thornton - Yes Lambert, Akos is a great player, not sure about Jon's return though, looked very negative when we last had him.
Alice Grover - Wilbo will do great holding the ball up, Akos not bad either!

Lambert released this statement, "I know I didn't have much money, but I was able to offer quite a bit of wage to top quality free players, I now only expect one more player to come in, we have agreed fee + contract with club and player, but need to free up more wage so he can join."

Clues were given to who this player might be through twitter:

Sergio Torres (Crawley) - £500k fee and contract agreed with club, need to wait for confirmation though, championship here I go!​

 

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Lambert brings in two more

Loanee And Winger Come In

James Lambert today confirmed that he has finished his signings for the time being, and has secured the season long loan of Carl Jenkinson from new parent club Arsenal. They have also signed winger Ian Henderson from Colchester to add experience to the squad.

James said this - "I have bought in the personnel who I think can get us up to the Championship, if we don't go up, then so be it, but I feel the squad we have can push for the play-off's. I know my starting XI for the first game, and we will hope to beat Huddersfield at home in the evening kick off".

However, not all news was good as Chris Kirkland is out for 13 months, meaning he will miss this season, and the whole of pre-season next year, if he decides to extend his contract, and he is joined on the sidelines by number 2, Nicky Weaver, who will be in a race for fitness to start the first game of the season.

The next update will concern the friendlies. ​

 

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Kirkland and Otsemobor left out

James Lambert confirms squad casualties

Sheffield Wednesday's 25 man squad was announced today, and with 32 players in the first team squad, only 5 didn't have to be registered due to their age, meaning 2 players would have to miss out. It was fairly obvious that Kirkland wouldn't be in the squad because he would be lucky to even get on the bench this season with his injury, and unless he makes an unusually quick recovery from a damaged spine, he will be out until next August. The other casualty was new signing Jon Otsemobor, no one knows the reason behind this, but maybe because it is due to the fact they have other players in that position who are simply better than him.

Wednesday also took part in 6 friendlies, here were the results:
Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday Reserves (Johnson, Prutton, Dawson OG)
Stocksbridge 1-3 Sheffield Wednesday (Llera, Carlisle x2)
Plymouth 2-5 Sheffield Wednesday (Prutton, Lowe x3, Richards OG)
Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Sporting (Madine x2)
Crawley 1-3 Sheffield Wednesday (Prutton, Lowe x2)
Dundee 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday (O'Grady)

James Lambert was thrilled with his results, commenting "beating a top team like Sporting Lisbon is amazing, they have top players, and were in Europe last year, truly fantastic win, we're well geared up for the Championship."​