If Danny Rohl takes the Sheffield Wednesday job he needs one very important thing - Alan Biggs

If he lands the job, keeps Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship and turns the team, if not the club, around then he can truly be regarded as an exceptional one.

It would be no slight on the 34-year-old German with an impressive CV to stand back and reserve judgment - because that wouldn’t be about him. It would be about a side that has made the club’s worst ever league start and an owner making his eighth “permanent” managerial appointment in eight years. It would be about the scale of the challenge to this next incumbent where a number of reputable experienced practitioners - bar one - were making it obvious it was not for them. It would be about any remaining faith in the chairman to have got this oh-so-crucial appointment right. As I sincerely hope he will do, along with every media colleague who advocated a different approach - basically a short-term rescue, buying time for a longer-term plan.

That’s gone out of the window, assuming Rohl (still to be confirmed as this is written) takes control, pinning everything, short and long term, on the former Southampton and Bayern Munich coach, who also packs international experience with Germany. I’d have preferred to see it in the close-season or with Wednesday in mid-table; that’s my big reservation.

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Also, have the “additional monies”, whatever that means, which the owner threatened to withdraw, magically reappeared? Without decent funding, how can this squad, now overloaded with players of dubious value from the previous manager, be transformed? But if long-term really does mean what it says - which is hardly ever the case in football - then I support it. And Rohl is worth supporting anyway, wish him luck.

Summing up that sentiment, I liked this argument from Owls fan Ryan Slater in a reply to me on X: “It’s time for a long term vision, to give a young manager with fresh ideas time and a project (like at Ipswich/Plymouth). Let’s all get behind him even if it means League 1 next season.” Some good points there. Kieran McKenna and Steven Schumacher have done exceptional jobs.

This week's episode of Everything but the Prem features @AlexMiller91 on Xisco's exit from #SWFC and the search for a new boss & @JournoHaff on the bizarre decision by #BCFC to get rid of John EustaceOne demand on Shots! TV here 🔽https://t.co/7Ch68yxobv

— Chris Holt (@HoltChris) October 10, 2023

If this is another spin of the roulette wheel from Dejphon Chansiri then maybe not the worst one. Providing Chansiri himself comes through - because the success or otherwise of this venture really will be mostly about him. But he, and we, have to accept the last line of that message on X. Will club and fans allow time if, as is quite possible, Wednesday drop? - because you could hardly rubbish a new manager from this desperate starting position. You can say all the right things but it is following through that counts.

When you consider what Rohl would have to contend with - harnessing a dysfunctional squad with heads spinning from jerky changes and working successfully with a “difficult” owner whose relationship with supporters is fractured - then that is absolutely the proverbial footballing mountain to climb. So let’s all agree on one thing. Giving time has to mean exactly that. Very best wishes to Danny Rohl - or whoever (Sabri Lamouchi not being a bad alternative shout). Well done for taking this on. Sincerely hope for the sake of a great club that your courage and ambition is rewarded.