Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...
's 129th season. They competed in the twenty-team
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
, the top tier of
English football
Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association f ...
, finishing fifteenth.
Season summary
David Pleat
David John Pleat (born 15 January 1945) is an English football player turned manager, and sports commentator. Pleat made 185 Football League appearances for five clubs, scoring 26 goals. He had two spells as manager of Luton Town, and four as ma ...
's first season as
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...
manager was the club's worst in the top flight since winning promotion in 1991. The eagerly-anticipated signing of Belgian forward
Marc Degryse
Marc Gabriel Degryse (born 4 September 1965), nicknamed ''Le Lutin d'Ardooie'' ("The Imp of Ardooie") and ''The Little One'',David Hirst provided a fair supply of goals on his return to fitness after a two-year injury struggle.
The Owls struggled all season long, and finished 15th in the final table. This was another dismal showing for a club who were chasing honours just two or three seasons earlier, and Pleat knew that something had to change, and set out to reward the club's board for keeping faith in him for a second season.
Marc Degryse,
Chris Waddle
Christopher Roland Waddle (born 14 December 1960) is an English former professional football player and manager. He currently works as a commentator.
Nicknamed "Magic Chris", football journalist Luke Ginnell wrote that Waddle was "widely ackn ...
,
Chris Woods
Christopher Charles Eric Woods (born 14 November 1959) is an English football coach and former professional footballer, who is goalkeeping coach for the Scotland national team.
As a player, he was a goalkeeper who played in the Football Leag ...
and
Klas Ingesson
Klas Inge "Klabbe" Ingesson (20 August 1968 – 29 October 2014) was a Swedish professional footballer and manager. He spent most of his career as a midfielder in Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, England, Italy and France. Ingesson represented the ...
all left in the close season, and all the talk at Hillsborough was the acquisition of young striker
Andy Booth
Andrew David Booth (born 6 December 1973) is a retired professional footballer. Whilst at Huddersfield he announced his retirement on 22 April 2009, but remains at the club as an ambassador, he also played for Sheffield Wednesday and Tottenham ...
from
Huddersfield Town
Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. The ...
for £2.5 million. Many fans saw him as the answer to the problems which had plagued the Owls during the last seasons, and gave them hope of a new challenge for honours.
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...