New Sheffield Wednesday coach Paul Williams on young players and why he signed on to work with Darren Moore
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The Owls are coming to the end of a two-week break in a whirlwind fixture schedule during which Williams, together with assistant manager Jamie Smith and manager Darren Moore have been busy putting forward their roadmap for a great escape from the Championship drop zone.
And speaking publicly for the first time since his switch to Hillsborough at the start of the month, the 50-year-old expressed his pride in wearing the Wednesday badge.
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Hide Ad“I’m very, very happy,” he told swfc.co.uk. “You could always see in your playing career, going up to Hillsborough with the fans packing it out, it’s always been a big club. It’s an honour to be here.
“I played against Darren for a long time and our coaching paths have been similar in terms of asking each other questions and getting an understanding of how we want to play. When the call came it took me a second to answer. It’s a pleasure working with the gaffer and Jamie.”
Wednesday went into the break off the back of a draw and a win and Williams is hoping the pause can serve them well going into the season run-in.
“We’ve worked really hard,” he said. “I think the lads are responding to what how the manager wants things to be done, it’s been an upward spiral and I think results have shown that in the last couple of games.
“We came in and there were games every two or three days.
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Hide Ad“We’ve worked really hard in this international break and we’re putting down fundamentals of how we want to play. Hopefully that’ll put us in good stead for the rest of the season.”
Williams has an incredible record of bringing through youth prospects, as he did at Southampton with the likes of England internationals Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, James Ward-Prowse and Luke Shaw.
On the opportunity to work with some of Wednesday’s youngsters, he said: “I’m really keen to do that. Underneath the first team squad there are some really talented players. I’m looking forward to getting down to meet those and hopefully we can develop our own.”