Dave Challinor walked into his first Sheffield Wednesday press conference sounding like a man who has waited a long time for a job this size, and who has no intention of letting it get the better of him. "No one will put bigger expectation on me than me," he said. On the evidence of what he and sporting director Simon Wilson laid out yesterday, the club has hired exactly the kind of manager it said it wanted.
A record that speaks for itself
Wilson did not undersell his man. By his count Challinor has taken charge of more than 860 games with a win rate above 50 per cent, has never finished outside the play-off places in a full season, and has won promotion out of every division up to League One. Get Wednesday out of this league, and then out of the Championship, and he would have "completed the set".
What made him unusual was his availability. Challinor left Stockport in the summer after five years in charge, so Wednesday could appoint him without paying compensation. Managers who come free usually come off the back of a sacking. Wilson called his situation "completely unique": a manager available for nothing, straight out of a successful spell. With the club restricted from poaching anyone in work, that shortened the list considerably. But Wilson was clear that Challinor would have been on it either way, and that others were chasing him too.
Challinor himself admitted the natural next step would have been a Championship club. He could afford to be patient, turned down conversations elsewhere and waited for a job that "ticks every box". He insists Wednesday is it, and he signed for three and a half years.
Nobody's appointment, everybody's appointment
The obvious question was whether this was Wilson simply bringing in his mate. The two built Stockport together, and Wilson joked that Challinor had sat a "five-year interview" with him. He was candid about his bias, and about how the club tried to take it out of the process. Other people were brought in to assess the candidates independently, a shortlist went to final interviews, and the board's decision was unanimous.
Challinor's account backs that up. He met another member of staff earlier in the week, then interviewed with owner David Storch and the ownership group, then endured what he called a "nervy" day or two before the phone rang on Saturday morning.
Wilson's reasoning for doing it this way is sound. "It can't be my appointment. It can't be David Bruce's appointment. Can't be David Storch's appointment," he said. There will be bad spells, and when they come everyone at the top needs to remember why they made the hire. He also credited Matt Hamshaw and the coaching staff for steadying things in the interim, which bought the board time to do the job properly.
Front foot, every week
Wednesday have been clear for a while about what they want to look like: front foot, entertaining, aggressive and attacking, a team that gets the crowd into the game. Wilson said that framework will hold for as long as he and the board are here, and every coach and player has to fit it. The ingredients have been there at times this season. The consistency has not, and that was ultimately what cost Henrik Pedersen his job.
Challinor's description of his football fits the brief. He wants his side possession-based but purposeful with it, playing forward with pace on the ball, aggressive with and without it, and making opponents defend their own box for long periods. He was not interested in a debate about 4-4-2 or 3-5-2. The detail is in how the team builds and where players are at certain moments. He pointed to how many goals Wednesday have conceded in transition, and asked whether players simply have not been in the right places at the right times.
He was also refreshingly realistic about "attractive" football. Arsenal fans will tell you their football is beautiful because they won the league, he said, while Brighton do it very differently. What matters is what this club and these supporters want. He named Birmingham and Cardiff as recent possession sides who got out of League One, and reminded everyone of the seven against Bromley and the five against Wimbledon at Hillsborough. "I'm not saying that's going to happen every week," he added.
Don't expect a revolution overnight. Challinor called it a steady process, but he wants some changes to land immediately, because the season is already well under way. His stated aim is a simple one: turn the draws into wins and build some momentum.
Wilson's description of the man behind it was more interesting than the reputation. The perception is of a blunt, aggressive, assertive operator, and Challinor is certainly quick to tell people when standards slip. But Wilson described someone smart, creative and willing to take risks. "Monday to Friday is pretty calm," he said. "Saturday, maybe not."
A squad worth working with
Challinor called the squad an amazing one, and he did not pretend the last few weeks have been easy for it. Seventeen or eighteen new players arrived in the summer. Throw in injuries and suspensions that have stopped the side being named unchanged from one week to the next, and some inconsistency was always likely. He wants the best players back, and he expects some quick structural wins.
He leans heavily on his senior players. He calls it ownership. Instructions shouted from the touchline in front of 35,000 people rarely land, so the players have to make the decisions. The experienced pros in the dressing room will be "huge", and a message from a teammate often carries further than one from the staff.
The player who drew the biggest smile was Louie Barry, who played under Challinor at Stockport. "Who wouldn't want to work with Louie Barry?" he said. Barry was back outside on his first day, joining in the rondos. Challinor was careful not to promise him for the next week or so, but he is not far away. Every Wednesday fan who has seen him play will be counting the days.
Challinor has brought two coaches with him, including long-time assistant Clint Hill, and Wilson confirmed more additions to the staff are coming, along with a reshuffle of roles. January is less clear. Wilson said the club is still in talks with the EFL about its limits, and nothing will be decided until Challinor has had a proper look at what he has.
Hillsborough's turn
Challinor kept coming back to the supporters. Crowds of more than 30,000 for seven home games running are something no other club in this division can match, and few in the Championship can either. He called them the one advantage Wednesday definitely hold. He was in the stands for Sunday's 1-1 draw with Blackpool, and what struck him was the moment, around 70 minutes in, when the crowd sensed ten-man Wednesday needed them and lifted the place. The disappointment was that the side could not hang on to Davis Keillor-Dunn's opener. In his view, the supporters did their part.
He is right that it now falls on the club to give them something to get behind. His minimum is simple enough: compete for every ball, outrun the opposition, and play with real aggression. "We're all Wednesday, aren't we?" he said. As a pitch for the dressing room and the stands alike, it is hard to argue with.
Wilson put the long-term case plainly. The club has lacked strong foundations for years. This appointment is the first step in a plan he talks about in decades, not seasons, and every club Challinor has managed has finished in a better place than he found it. He was honest, too, that "the long term in football is made up of lots of short terms". The patience will run out if the results do not come.
The last word belongs to Wilson, because it is the picture everyone at the club will be chasing: "A full Hillsborough and a noisy Hillsborough playing fast, aggressive football." The crowd has already turned up. Now it is Challinor's job to give them the team.
Source: Sheffield Wednesday FC