By ‘eck, Sheffield Wednesday are missing a trick by not approaching Neil Warnock

If Sheffield Wednesday want to launch into a project and appoint a manager with the hope of laying on a five-year plan, Neil Warnock is not be the man.

If they want to persevere with the hope of playing out from the back and getting the ball down with swift, intricate football this season - though caricature descriptions of Warnock the football dinosaur are grossly overstated - he probably isn’t the man.

But if they want to firefight and secure Championship status in 2024, building a foundation before launching an assault on the top half of the divisions in years to come with someone a little younger, well..

This column isn’t to say there aren’t other and perhaps even better managerial candidates out there for Wednesday to go at. Countless other in and out-of-work bosses would provide something different to Warnock - there are many ways to skin a survival bid, after all.

But by ‘eck it would be good fun, wouldn’t it?

The Star reported on Thursday that no Wednesday contact had been made to the 74-year-old, who fancies the job as he did a few years ago when he was approached by Milan Mandaric. We’ve no reason to believe there has been any contact since then.

With all the usual caveats on the fact the football world moves fast and that things can change, it doesn’t appear - as things stand - that it’s much of a goer.

From this seat at least, that feels like an oversight.

Wednesday is a club in the doldrums, its mood at present the only thing lower than its points tally after 10 league matches. It’s a club in dire need of a ray of sunshine to walk through the door, a wily and hugely positive figure able to lift spirits with a smile, a wink and a savvy turn of phrase.

Whatever his former allegiances, Neil Warnock would do that from his first press conference. He’s done it before and - the ever-extending promise of ‘one last job’ permitting - he’ll do it again.

In that paragraph lies a couple of elephants in the room. Of course a local journalist would be keen on working with Warnock. He’s a gift sent to the football industry for whom every press chat is an opportunity to entertain and get direct, honest messages across. It would be great fun.

So too is the elephant painted red and white. But let’s face it, he wouldn’t be the first football person to cross the Sheffield divide to success. His Unitediteism might not run as deep as Warnock’s has in years gone by, but does Lee Gregory close down defenders with any less desperation because he grew up in a Blades household? Of course not.

A quote doing the rounds on social media is so clearly tongue-in-cheek just reading it could give you an ulcer and the overwhelming feeling is that, generally-speaking, the feeling on Wednesday terraces towards Warnock has eased considerably in recent years.

The argument that the terraces could split in the event of poor results? That would be the case if the manager was a boyhood fan of Sheffield United or DC United. Warnock has Wednesdayites in his family, too.

But all this is a besides. It’s the football that matters.

It’s early days in the season and whoever steps in will have time to turn things around. Warnock or not, it won’t be at all easy.

But there can’t be a CV of repeat fire-fighting quite like his. Jobs at Huddersfield and down the road at Rotherham in recent years show he can turn around what appear to be lost causes. He has proven he can lift the most miserable of circumstances from down-trodden apathy to fierce ‘have-a-go’ gumption.

He raises players out of favour and out of form and turns them into battlers.

He has huge experience of managing upwards and satisfying difficult club owners.

He rarely fails.

It would most probably be a stop-gap job until the end of the current season. That might well not be what Sheffield Wednesday want.

But surely Neil Warnock would be worth a phonecall at least?