The Sheffield Wednesday Story: Walker-ing on.

TomTB1995 · Dec 10, 2019

After many years of reading people's stories of their FM saves I have decided to do one of my own. I've decided to start with my own club Sheffield Wednesday and have opted to go with the guise of former Owls defender Des Walker. A couple of reasons for this, firstly I wanted there to be a bit of realism about it, as much as It'd be nice for me to have the job myself it isn't going to happen. Also I wanted to use someone who had never been a manager before.

The Squad

So there we are, Owls defender Des Walker, who also played for Nottingham Forest and Sampdoria as well as earning 59 England caps is the news Owls boss. Can he steer Wednesday back into the big time which is clearly the aim of ambitious chairman Dejphon Chansiri.

So after all that we got to business with setting up a few tactics and dealing with pre season. I don't tend to play friendlies and so first team coach and club legend Lee Bullen is to take charge of them.

We appoint former Man City, Sunderland and Wigan man Andy Welsh as assistant manager. Welcome to SWFC Andy.

Pre Season

Wednesday certainly had in interest set of fixtures for the warm up games ahead of 2019/20. The likes of Anderlect, Sevilla and AC Milan no less. Some very creditable results for Wednesday as well as a draw with Chesterfield prior to Walker's arrival. The only defeat was in a testimonial of former Owl Chris Brunt at West Brom.

Slight negative here as Kadeem Harris is ruled out for a few weeks with an injury. Hopefully won't be out for too long.

Thanks for reading this first post in this story, I don't know how it's going to go. We have some decent players and I think on our day we can beat anyone in the league. Fingers crossed we can avoid too many injuries and get off to a good start against Reading. Please let me know what kind of things you'd want to see going forward.

FM_TNSSO · Dec 10, 2019

Good luck with your first story fella! I'll be following!

TomTB1995 · Dec 10, 2019

TheNotSoSpecialOne said:
Good luck with your first story fella! I'll be following!

Cheers mate

Brane_Orsou · Dec 11, 2019

All the best with this save, be interesting to see if Jacob Murphy is any use in this save

TomTB1995 · Dec 12, 2019

August

Well here are the results for August

So here's the league table, doesn't make good reading does it?

It's been a struggle, it really has. League Cup aside the start to the season has been a tough watch/play. We don't create enough and defensively we've been nothing short of shocking at times. Particularly from corners, we seem to be so easy to beat in the air. Not having Harris fit at the start I think cost me a bit but also the loss of Fletcher after picking up a knock against Millwall meant he missed a couple. I fear that a bad September and October could well see the end. We have a trip to Liverpool in the League Cup third round which should be interesting, if they make a few changes you never know.

Anyway, we'll see if we can pick up against Huddersfield next time out.

Brane_Orsou · Dec 13, 2019

Ouch! That does not make good reading. Surely just an early season blip

TomTB1995 · Dec 13, 2019

Finally a league win...

I think it's fair to say we FM'd them, the goal was out first shot of the game.

TomTB1995 · Dec 13, 2019

Here are the rest of the results for September

This is what the league looks like

Overall I'd say we're improving, decent win at Huddersfield. Unlucky not to win at home to Fulham or at Middlesbrough where we threw a 2 goal lead away. Liverpool away we actually played really well, 3-1 or 4-2 would have been a fairer outcome in my opinion. We're building. Big month to come, I feel if we can get some wins quickly we might still be able to challenge the top six, if not it might be a nervy time. Forest have already sacked their manager to add a bit of context.

TomTB1995 · Dec 14, 2019

October

Could we continue our decent run after that nightmare start? Here are October's results.

What a month, if it wasn't for that Hull draw it would have been a perfect month results wise. Really pleasing month and some of the performances have been outstanding. Adam Reach finding the net on a more regular basis is very pleasing. We need to keep that going, set pieces still seem to be an issue from a defensive point of view. Other than that not a lot else to be critical of. Stoke and Leeds it's worth mentioning were both top 6 when we played them, Leeds were top after a good start although Bielsa has swapped Yorkshire for Monaco, I wonder why?

One negative was this

Probably be another couple of matches without him before he's back. But lets not dwell on negatives.

Lets keep it going.

TomTB1995 · Dec 14, 2019

Nice little award to put in the bag here.

TomTB1995 · Dec 14, 2019

November

Possibly a bit of a make or break month in terms of challenging the top six

First two results before the last international break of 2019

Not ideal, we actually should have won at Blackburn, Murphy had a great chance with a cross/shot near the end. Swansea was frustrating, first half we weren't in it but the changes we made made us more competitive. Should have held on, again defending set pieces seem to be an issue.

What's also an issue is this,

Need to get him back firing.

TomTB1995 · Dec 14, 2019

The rest of November followed like this

Leaving the table looking like this,

A frustrating month really, we're playing OK but can't seem to kill teams off, we should have beat Birmingham and Charlton. Frustrating results and you feel if we are to get into the play offs we need to be turning those kind of draws into wins. West Brom I can accept as they're a top side and while they aren't top currently I think will end up there, plus we'd lost Borner for that one who's coming on nicely after a shaky start.

Here's a deeper look at some of the star men for us so far.

Barry Bannan

Dominic Iorfa

Tom Lees

Adam Reach

Julian Borner

TomTB1995 · Dec 14, 2019

Eh up, takeover rumours?

TomTB1995 · Dec 14, 2019

Well we've reached the halfway point of the campaign. December still has two games but I thought it was a good point to provide an update.

So as you can see, we've become draw specialists. Bristol City, like so many games this season should have been a win. A daft penalty given away. The away draws are OK, tough games even if neither Forest or Derby are up to much this season. The home win over Brentford was eventful as you can see. Westwood made a cracking save at 1-0 not long after saving a penalty.

So there we are, 14th place. 8 points off the play offs. January is coming up which means I might be able to bring in players who can change the game a bit. The squad is decent as it is and capable but I feel we lack options. Another winger maybe and we need a striker. Fletcher and Rhodes are on huge goal droughts. Winnall probably hasn't had the chances he deserves but i'll had to pay £250K to Barnsley if he plays another league game for us. Not sure I want to do that even though it's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things. We're still under the process of a takeover under the owner status although it hasn't stopped me doing anything so far so fingers crossed we can do some business in January.

TomTB1995 · Dec 15, 2019

Christmas period and FA Cup third round results.

Villa obviously the standout result here. Tottenham at home in the next round. The league games leave the table looking like this. We need to turn those draws into wins otherwise I don't see me surviving much longer. The FA Cup might save me.

TomTB1995 · Dec 15, 2019

Preston leaves Wednesday

Good luck Fraser, he wanted to leave and was unlikely to get much game time here. Blackburn was his preferred destination and outbid Derby to secure his services.

TomTB1995 · Dec 15, 2019

So this happened

Which led to this,

Which in turn led to me saying it'd look better in a month.

Now, look better is an interesting choice of words isn't it? The fixtures in the next month include three sides in Millwall, Barnsley and Wigan all below us along with Luton who are just above us. I think if we can make sure we avoid defeats against those teams we should remain in the job. I'll have a think about tactics and attempt to save myself. I'm not sure if I prefer a points tally to achieve or not.