The 1998–99 season was

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 132nd season in existence. They competed in the twenty-team Premiership, 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 twelfth. It was the club's 100th season at their Hillsborough ground.

Season summary

Danny Wilson's return to Hillsborough as manager saw them begin the season among the favourites for relegation of many pundits. But they performed reasonably well throughout the season, being one of just three sides to beat treble winners Manchester United in addition to being one of just four sides to beat second-placed Arsenal, who would finish just one point behind Manchester United. Up to 27 February 1999 – their 3–1 home win over

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

– they were boasting somewhat inconsistent yet very stable, promising mid-table form: 10th in the table, winning ten, drawing five and losing 11 of their first 26 games with an impressive goal difference of +9 and were looking like good bets for a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

slot. However, they couldn't quite keep up the momentum and would lose their next five games which ultimately ended such hopes. However, winning three of their final seven matches ensured that they would finish 12th at the end of a campaign during which they had never faced any serious threat of relegation; a significant improvement to the previous season. The only major concern at the club was a growing mountain of debts which would have been even more of a worry had the Owls suffered relegation. An expensively assembled squad including

Paolo Di Canio Paolo Di Canio (born 9 July 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer and manager. During his playing career he made over 500 league appearances and scored over one hundred goals as a forward. He primarily played as a deep-lying forward ...

Benito Carbone Benito Carbone (born 14 August 1971) is an Italian football manager and former professional player. He played as a forward, winger or midfielder. He also represented Italy under-21s eight times during his playing career. Club career Torino ...

and

Wim Jonk Wilhelmus Maria "Wim" Jonk (born 12 October 1966) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player, who is the current head coach of Eerste Divisie club FC Volendam. In his career as a midfielder, he won a variety of national honours ...

failed to live up to the massive wage bill the club was paying and things eventually came to a head when Italian firebrand Di Canio was sent off in a match against Arsenal and infamously proceeded to push the referee Paul Alcock on his way off, which resulted in an extended ban of 11 matches and him being fined £10,000.

Final league table

;Results summary ;Results by round

Results

''Sheffield Wednesday's score comes first''

Legend

FA Premier League

FA Cup

League Cup

Players

First-team squad

:''Squad at end of season''

Left club during season

Reserve squad

Statistics

Appearances and goals

, - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Goalkeepers , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Defenders , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Midfielders , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Forwards , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Players transferred out during the season

Starting 11

:''Considering starts in all competitions'' * GK: #33,

Pavel Srnicek Pavel ( Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian and Macedonian: Павел, Czech, Slovene, Romanian: Pavel, Polish: Paweł, Ukrainian: Павло, Pavlo) is a male given name. It is a Slavic cognate of the name Paul (derived from the Greek Pavlos). Pav ...

, 26 * RB: #2, Peter Atherton, 43 * CB: #22,

Emerson Thome Emerson Augusto Thome (born 30 March 1972), also known as Paredão, is a Brazilian retired footballer who played as a central defender. Career He first came to England towards the end of the 1997–98 season when moving to Sheffield Wednesday fr ...

, 43 * CB: #6,

Des Walker Desmond Sinclair Walker (born 26 November 1965) is an English football coach and former player, who played as a defender. At club level he played in seven cup finals for Nottingham Forest at Wembley, winning five of them. He was Forest's pla ...

, 42 * LB: #20,

Andy Hinchcliffe Andrew George Hinchcliffe (born 5 February 1969) is an English former professional footballer, sports television pundit, and co-commentator for Sky Sports. As a player, he was a left-back from 1986 until 2002. He began his career with Mancheste ...

, 36 * RM: #26,

Niclas Alexandersson Jens Niclas Alexandersson (born 29 December 1971) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a right winger and right back. Beginning his career with Halmstads BK in 1989, he went on to represent IFK Göteborg, Sheffield Wednesday ...

, 34 * CM: #4,

, 43 * CM: #25,

Petter Rudi Petter Normann Rudi (born 17 September 1973) is a retired Norwegian footballer. He finished his career at Belgian club K.A.A. Gent in 2007 after playing professionally in several countries in Europe during his career. Club career As midfielder ...

, 37 * LM: #32, Danny Sonner, 26 * CF: #10, Andy Booth, 25 * CF: #8,

, 36

Transfers

In

Out

:Transfers in: £3,600,000 :Transfers out: £2,432,500 :Total spending: £1,167,500

References

* * *

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:1998-99 Sheffield Wednesday F.C. season Sheffield Wednesday F.C. seasons

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 ...