BRAMALL LANE — Of course it ended here, in the one specific place they wanted it to least. Not in some far-flung corner of the Championship’s geography – Swansea to the west or Norwich to the east – but simultaneously as close to home as it is possible to be and yet a million miles away.
Only during this Sheffield Wednesday season could they spend their Saturday wishing-but-not-quite-cheering on West Brom to win so that relegation would come a day early and avoid giving them the satisfaction. Of course that didn’t happen either. That is the life of a Wednesday fan in 2025-26: you don’t even get the bad things you want.
I was at Leicester City on the opening weekend of the Championship season, for Sheffield Wednesday protest day. They have journeyed across the country all season and did so across the city on Sunday. They chanted “League One again, ole ole” to take the sting out of the rest of the ground singing it at them.
On social media, there was some astonishment that supporters would fill their allocation given the predictability of what would come and what it would mean. You’re missing the point.
They roared the players before the game and commiserated them after it, because this isn’t their fault. They delighted at the mini-Sheffield United collapse – red card, conceded goal – as if this season could still be saved or they were ever likely to score three times.
But mostly they just wanted to be there because no club should fall from a division without those who love it most being present to pay their respects. Our lifetimes with our football clubs contain dozens of mileposts, “I was there then” afternoons for better and much worse. This was one.
This relegation has been signposted in neon lights since when… August 2025? June? The end of the season before?
The lowest points total in English football history is eight and Wednesday are on -7 with 13 games left. They have broken records for the earliest relegation and will break more by the end of May.
The waiting is always the worst bit, made 10x more galling when the conclusion is so miserable and so inescapable. Waiting to learn the extent of your eventual punishment. Waiting for the winless run to ever end. Waiting for the owner to leave. Waiting for his name to be taken off the seats. Waiting for the takeover to be completed. Waiting for League One again.
But not waiting for long at Bramall Lane. It took 72 seconds for Sheffield United to score and kill a contest that was never a contest at all. A brainless clearance, an overlap, an easy finish from Patrick Bamford; just another disappointment for those 100 yards away. The only respite came through red-and-white self-implosion but even that soon subsided. Wednesday ended with 10 too – nobody does self-implosion like them.
There is an inglorious irony to Wednesday’s fall back into League One. The manner of their escape into the second tier was magical and miraculous – the Peterborough comeback and the 123rd-minute goal at Wembley. It was held up by those who desperately wanted to believe in the ability of good to find a way, whoever’s name was above the door and however much they were letting everybody down.
And now, Wednesday fall back not with fizzes and bangs and improbable endings that will be replayed on a loop forever, but with a sorry whimper and with half a first-team squad. And the man responsible for this monstrous mess, the architect of misery, is no longer here.
That is the impact of gross mismanagement, carelessness and stubbornness. Even at their very worst, football clubs should compete. Here, even the victories came laced with depressing twinges. They celebrated the move into administration even though it effectively confirmed that they would go down. They celebrated exclusivity being given to the consortium led by James Bord, although few could pretend that it sounded ideal.
One of the biggest tragedies when a club’s survival is seriously threatened is how expectations slide down a greasy pole. As supporters, you know to be watchful and remain on high alert, yet must treat anyone who says they have money and good intentions as potential saviours. Certainty becomes an eternal impossibility. You are beggars and will not be given the freedom of choice .
The takeover, if and when it happens, may mark a line in the sand for English football. If it completes before May, the EFL will determine the appropriateness of the potential owners and the sources of their money. After May, it will be the new Independent Football Regulator (IFR) that decides.
That would seem highly appropriate, if it happens. Because if Sheffield Wednesday could be the first test case for the IFR’s new powers, they are also the best argument for its existence.
Your next read
The most meaningful weapons of the IFR are its ability to force mediation and the sale of clubs by owners in the most extreme cases and to push for greater wealth redistribution that increases the sustainability of a league pyramid that cannot claim that characteristic now.
And that’s the point. Supporters of every club knew that Chansiri wasn’t fit for purpose long before those seats were removed from Hillsborough’s North Stand. An ongoing Fit and Proper Person Test would help. But the saga also asks serious questions about the financial risks taken to compete below the Premier League and its inflated broadcasting revenue. Attack this two-headed beast from only one end and we will likely fail.
Because this isn’t sport. The 2025-26 Championship season has contained 23 clubs and one shell, decimated to the point that even competitiveness lay beyond them. At Bramall Lane it hurt most, but there is also a numbness amongst this fanbase. It is an act of emotional self-preservation and it is a stain on English football. Never again, we always say. Let this catastrophe be the start of a new beginning, here and everywhere else.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/WUXqbpV
Post a Comment