THE LAST TIME Sheffield Wednesday played a Premier League fixture, Britney Spears was top of the UK Singles Chart with Ooops!…I Did It Again.
They had already been relegated when they thumped Leicester City 4-0 at Hillsborough in May 2000. The goals came from Andy Booth, Niclas Alexandersson, Gilles de Bilde and Dubliner Alan Quinn but the team still finished five points from safety.
Along with Watford and Wimbledon, they went down and it’s been a turbulent journey ever since.
For four of the subsequent 16 seasons, they dropped to the third tier of English football and have only steadied the ship over the last twelve months. For their first two campaigns back in the Championship – between 2012 and 2014 – they looked likely to fall right through the floor again.
Since Danny Wilson was sacked during that relegation season 16 years ago, the Owls have had 11 different managers and there’s been the inevitable, well-worn tale of financial woes, complete with winding-up orders and change of ownership.
Now, there’s some stability with a Portuguese coach, Carlos Carvalhal prowling the touchline and a Thai businessman, Dejphon Chansiri, calling the shots in the boardroom.
Carvalhal was only appointed last summer but the former Besiktas manager pushed the team to sixth-place this term – assuring them of the final play-off spot.
They got the better of Chris Hughton’s Brighton in the semi-final, winning 3-1 on aggregate and will face Steve Bruce’s Hull in Saturday’s decider at Wembley.
Its the club’s first time back at the iconic venue since 1993 – when a glorious Wednesday side featuring Chris Waddle, David Hirst, Mark Bright, Chris Woods, Paul Warhurst and Ireland’s John Sheridan, lost to Arsenal in a replay.
The previous month, they lost to the same team at the same venue in the League Cup final.
They’ve never really got close to the sun since, though they boasted the likes of Paolo Di Canio, Benito Carbone and Dutch midfielder Wim Jonk (who was on £5,000 per appearance, even when he didn’t play) for a spell in the late-1990s that proved entertaining at times.
Still, they never quite got over Di Canio’s infamous altercation with Paul Alcock during a win over Arsenal in September 1998 and the controversial Italian was sold to West Ham the following January.
They have a decent chance to get back to the big time this weekend. With Fernando Forestieri hitting 15 league goals in his first season at the club, Ireland’s Kieren Westwood keeping a litany of clean-sheets and the former Chelsea midfielder Sam Hutchinson impressing, there’s a decent foundation there.
With Steve Bruce standing in Wednesday’s way again, memories instantly turn to this.
We’d gladly take a fraction of the drama on Saturday.
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