Alan Biggs at Large: Carlton Palmer says Sheffield Wednesday WILL go up this year

Pleas for patience don’t go down well at any time, let alone one like this with Sheffield Wednesday struggling to impose their supposed superiority on League One.
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But hold it right there, pull yourself together and stop panicking.Sheffield Wednesday will lift the League One title this season, let alone win promotion. Chill.This is actually one of the club’s bigger critics talking and a former player who remembers what the good times were really like.To put it mildly, Carlton Palmer can’t understand some of the reaction to Wednesday’s results and performance levels two months into a campaign with 33 matches to go.Darren Moore has taken a fair bit of criticism. As one who has questioned the Owls manager, while also insisting he deserves more than one season, I listened and Carlton spoke.“I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” he said. “For me, they’ve got the players and Darren has done a fantastic job getting them in.“When they click Wednesday will go on and win the league. They’re not playing well yet and still in close touch at the top.”Palmer points to the fact that most of the 14 new players were hurriedly assembled at the end of the summer window.He also sees certain parallels with his own situation currently, having put together a whole new squad in his venture with bottom team Grantham Town in the Northern Premier League’s Premier Division.“Wednesday got the players in late,” he added. “Darren’s still finding out about them - as I am at Grantham.“I’ll put my money where my mouth is and say Wednesday will go up and we’ll stay up.“Darren brought in players for certain eventualities. It’s an entirely natural process that he doesn’t know his best team and formation.“He will drop on something. I’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t because he’s got the players.“Everybody needs to keep calm.”Among other things, Palmer insists there is “more to come” with better service from an outstanding striker in Lee Gregory and that it will be “a different ball game” when the much missed Josh Windass is back alongside.He also believes the most talked about summer recruit, Saido Berahino, yet to make a real impact, will prove an asset.“Saido can play wide, through the middle or as a number ten and he will play an important part,” says Carlton who, incredibly, is working towards a playing comeback at the age of 55, having named himself on Grantham’s bench recently.The question of trust in Moore has come up recently but Palmer is someone who commands it naturally and his confidence in the Owls boss is a timely and welcome intervention.