Sheffield Wednesday’s season can be rescued after Xisco exit - what new man will consider

Whoever steps into the managerial hotseat at Sheffield Wednesday will do so to find a squad in dire need of picking up from the floor.

Xisco’s winless reign came and went without a win. He made decisions many struggled to fathom and seemed to drive a right-turn in approach so sharp that the side became unrecogniseable form the one that won promotion just four months ago.

His was not the only hand in a decline that sees the Owls locked at the foot of the Championship table and in a fit of misery - fingers can be pointed above his head on that one - but it was clear for several weeks that the approach wasn’t working.

He was, in fairness, working in very difficult conditions. That nonsense must stop.

Xisco is understood to have taken training today. It was his last official action as Wednesday manager.

Such was the sharp switch in approach, the way he went about things in the media and the way a whirlpool of negativity had built up around a dire winless record, it looked as though there was no real way out for Wednesday.

Given their points tally, those doubts will remain.

But there are 36 matches and 108 points for Wednesday to pick themselves up for. So much can be done in that time.

Neil Thompson will again be thrown into the dugout take Saturday’s welcoming of Darren Moore and Huddersfield Town in caretaker mode. Two weeks of international break follow and who steps into the seat vacated by Xisco full-time remains to be seen.

Whoever it is will no doubt be tempted to register Marvin Johnson, take things back to basics, go more direct in their approach and seek to re-build a shattered confidence in order to collect points.

It won’t be easy of course. In a purely football sense and as detailed by their now ex-manager and captain Barry Bannan in recent weeks, the Owls are relative minnows at this level and will have to scratch and claw their way to every point.

When the chants of fans start demanding your sacking, the game is up. Xisco lasted three matches from that first strain of protest.

With a line drawn under a nightmareish start to the season, Sheffield Wednesday can breath again. And start again.