More woe at Wednesday

Although Milan Mandaric denies it vehemently, the future of Alan Irvine as Sheffield Wednesday manager always looked suspect as soon as the former Portsmouth and Leicester owner saved the club from a winding-up order at the back end of last year.

Wednesday’s wobble in their quest for promotion aside, it is not unknown for a new owner to come into a club and want to bring in his own man and when your chairman is Milan Mandaric you can never be too confident about the security of your job as a football manager. There is a lengthy list of managers who can testify to that.

And so, after Tuesday’s disappointing 5-3 loss at Peterborough, where the Owls led three times, Alan Irvine became the 12^th manager to be sacked by Mandaric and his 13-month stay as Wednesday boss came to an end.

When Wednesday last won in the league in early December, they demolished Bristol Rovers at Hillsborough and Mandaric’s takeover was on the verge of completion. The Owls were sat in second in the table, three points off leaders Brighton and everything looked rosy.

So not even the most pessimistic Sheffield Wednesday fan, of which there are many, would have been expecting for Mandaric to be waiting for his first win as Wednesday owner as we enter February.

Results lately have not been great, but in reality Wednesday have gone only six games without a victory in the league. Four of those have been defeats, albeit three of them at the expense of 14 goals conceded, but in the same amount of time Irvine oversaw a passage to the FA Cup fifth round, including a 3-0 away win at Championship Bristol City.

During Wednesday’s slump they have found other results going against them and they now sit in 12^th position, eight points behind sixth-placed MK Dons, who they play on Saturday. They have at least one game in hand over most of the top six.

It has hardly been a cataclysmic run of form that has wiped Wednesday’s season out and Mandaric has spoken of how promotion is still a pertinent aim this season.

There has been no shortage of managerial departures this term and in the modern-day game where managers seem to get the sack if the wind changes, the lengthy reigns of the likes of Sir Alex, Arsene Wenger and Dario Gradi are long gone. But still, it was just six games without a win.

But Mandaric  is a man who demands instant success and he insists that the change had to be made in order for that promotion to be achieved. It is his money that saved Wednesday back in November and he has a right to appoint his own man, though the timing of it raises questions.

Irvine was backed heavily in January transfer window as he brought in Reda Johnson, Mark Morrison, Mark Reynolds and Gary Madine.

For Irvine then not to be allowed to make the most of that backing by being given time to bed his new players in,  raises the question of whether the players were brought in above his head, with Mandaric planning a managerial change long before it happened.

It’s worth pointing out at this stage Mandaric insists the decision to sack Irvine was made after Tuesday’s loss at Peterborough and it was not long ago that he gave his full backing to the former Preston manager.

So, attention turns to who will take Irvine’s place. Gary Megson has been named on the shortlist with Gary Johnson also believed to be in the frame.

With a full pay-out from Bolton, a house just down the road and a huge piece of his heart belonging to the Owls, Megson would jump at the chance to get off the golf course and get back into action.

Candidates who are currently in work have also not been ruled out, drawing attention to John Sheridan at Chesterfield. You’d suspect that Dave Allen would rather die than allow Sheridan to move, but it would be something that the former Wednesday legend (that’s Sheridan and not Allen!) would be keen to happen.

The club have hinted at a quick appointment, possibly in time for the MK Dons clash, but whoever gets the role will know they will need instant success or they may well become victim number 13.