Wednesday 10 October 2012

Massive puzzle

At the end of last season there was great excitement in the media at the incredible feat of Sheffield Wednesday in coming second in League 1. The media ran out of adjectives on the lines of 'massive' and 'huge' to describe the Owls. Hillsborough was compared to the San Siro.

It was predicted that the Massives would treat the Championship as a mere way station en route to their rightful home in the Premier League. Their owner declared that they were one of the top ten clubs in the country. It was even suggested that a scheme to send tweets to a planet twenty light years ago which might be inhabited should include news of their truimph. Mandaric, however, has now changed his tune and admitted 'It's a big step up to the Championship': Massive Step

Things are clearly not going to plan as Wednesday are currently in the relegation zone. Of course, it's early in the season, the league is very tight in terms of the distribution of points, and I would be surprised if they return to League 1. But it's hardly a promotion push.

One problem may be that the Massive started to believe their own hype. However, it is also clear that their defence is not as strong as it needs to be. They have conceded 21 goals which is more than bottom club Peterborough. Manager Dave Jones blamed last Saturday's home defeat to Hull on one poor piece of defending and two bad decisions by officials.

What has surprised me is how much they are admired by fans of other Championship clubs. In the Four Four Two season preview the Bolton Wanderers fan names Hillsborough as the best away ground to visit and the Hull City fan names them as having the best away fans, as does the Notts Forest contributor.

At Bolton Owen Coyle has been dismissed because they are 18th, admittedly way out of line with expectations of both fans and pundits. However, Jones seems to be in no need of the tweet of confidence recently bestowed on Mark Hughes at QPR.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why are Charlton fans still obsessed with Wednesday? Can't you resume your rivalry with Millwall or Palace or whoever it is? We don't care about you, and we never have

Anonymous said...

In answer to the above post, you are obsessed with SWFC because we are Massive and your tin pot little club can only dream about being massive

Anonymous said...

If you don't care about us, why are you posting on a Charlton blog?

Anonymous said...

No such team as Notts Forest.

Newyorkaddick said...

To be fair Wyn, they have had the 2nd highest attendances in the Championship this season - pretty impressive given some of the clubs in the division (Leeds, Forest, Derby, Wolves etc.) and the fact they've been out of the Premiership since 2000.

Given our crowds are down by 40% since we were last in the Prem (only in 2007), I am not sure we are in a position to gloat.

Anonymous said...

Carlton Who? What is this tripe?! Southern cry babies. Write about your own failures and non existent fan base. Un-athletic tin pot small time Tory boy waste of my time commenting on this poor excuse for an article.

Wyn Grant said...

@New York Addick, the attendances are very big and the ground is atmospheric, but my point is more about the excessive hype in the media. There is much more competition in London for crowds both from other clubs and alternative forms of entertainment (although Sheffield have a very good ice hockey team). It certainly seems to have riled some of their supporters. It's not a question of gloating, it's whether the bigging up of Wednesday has been overdone. Charlton fans are much more realistic in terms of expectations, or at least some of them are.

Anonymous said...

It still amuses me if that counts for anything.

Sciurus Carolinensis Nemesis said...

Wyn,
I fear you're obsessing about Milan Mandaric's latest plaything. The unrealistic expectations and distorted perspective of their (very many) supporters and sections of the Yorkshire press are of precisely no consequence or interest to anybody else. So long as Charlton secure 4 or more points from our fixtures with them either side of the New Year, the owls will hold no greater import than any of the other 22.
Also your link to Dr Kish is duff and needs to be this: http://www.cafcpicks.com/cgi-bin/drkish/display.pl

Wyn Grant said...

I keep trying to update the Dr Kish link, but have had problems doing so. The whole list needs some spring cleaning in terms of changing some links and adding new blogs and I will try and find the time to do this. As for obsessing, on that basis the matches with Millwall and Crystal Palace would be no more significant that any other, but that is not the case.