Alan Biggs: Why Tony Pulis must be allowed to do it his way at Sheffield Wednesday

If you play in the style for which, rightly or wrongly, Sheffield Wednesday’s new manager is reputed, you have to win more often than not.

There is no middle ground.

The fact is Tony Pulis has been doing that for most of his long career - winning.

There was no middle ground either when it became clear that the 62-year-old Welshman had got the job - except for the no-man’s land of a battlefield as fans argued fiercely over the appointment.

But where Pulis divides opinion on the way he does the job, he usually gets the job done. And that kills the argument stone dead.Remarkably, considering the status of club he has managed (none bigger than the Owls), he has never been relegated across a 28 year managerial career.

Wednesday is his tenth.

It’s been a hard sell for all that and journalists are in a weak position to preach to those dissidents who pay to watch their team, albeit that they have been sadly exiled for too long.It’s understandable that feelings run high in a passionate sport where people can sometimes hate through sheer love.

Pulis is the type of hard-headed realist to understand that more than most.

He’s a hard sell. But if he doesn’t always tick the “entertainment” box, he most certainly ticks all the others.

Pulis is Wednesday’s man for every challenge facing them - apart from an unthinkable relegation against which his hiring is hopefully almost guaranteed to protect.

The rest of an ambitious brief is akin to what he did at Stoke, across two spells in which he led the Potters into the top flight, kept them there and qualified for Europe.

Who wouldn’t be entertained if Pulis achieved something even remotely like that at Hillsborough?

His record suggests he can keep the Owls in the Championship, promote them and consolidate them - given more time than most Wednesday bosses.

No-one complained when Howard Wilkinson did likewise in not dissimilar fashion in the 1980s.

And here’s where the longer term nature of Pulis’s mission comes in, important for several reasons.

Firstly, it indicates a commitment on all sides to a return to the Premier League, not just a firefighting flirtation.

Hiring a total of 14 managers - 13 of them fired - in the two decades since Wednesday exited the Premier League simply hasn’t worked.

At some stage you have to set a course and stick to it through the occasional buffeting.

For Pulis, the 15th, there’s a huge job ahead and supporters might as well back it, as most now seem to be doing, even though those who said - in the heat of the moment - that the ends couldn’t justify the means.

Backstage, Pulis can be a spiky character, not least with chairmen, and has left clubs quickly as a result.

Here I see a bridge via Dejphon Chansiri’s controversial but clearly deeply trusted adviser Amadeu Paixao, who has a strong previous relationship with Pulis.

They spoke during the appointment process. Together, they should be able to work harmoniously on transfers, assuming Paixao is still instrumental there.

But I particularly like the Pulis intention to be “very honest” with the chairman.

A lifetime in football is worth listening to and TP will want to do it his way.

Best for both men in the long run if he does.

Indeed, more chance of a long run - which only results will determine in the end.

I’d imagine particular honesty in respect of realistic value expectations of players Pulis wishes to move on.

Finally, have you noticed how other managers with a perceived style of play have fared in their careers? Check out the records of Neil Warnock, Sam Allardyce, Dave Bassett and Mick McCarthy.

Wednesday are lucky that Tony Pulis sits comfortably in such company.