In fairness to Irvine he came into Hillsborough at the worst possible time, with no money available for signings, and trying to save a side battling against relegation. Irvine failed to save Wednesday and has led the Owls to a lowly 12th position over half way through the league one season, leaving many Wednesday fans calling for Irvine's head. In my honest opinion, Irvine is a man full of passion for football and has an eye for very good signings in the transfer windows. This has been proven so far with Irvine signing bargain after bargain in the summer all on free transfers. With signings of the likes of Clinton Morrison and Gary Teale, quality player with experience in both the Championship and the Premier League. Irvine has continued his trend of bargain spotting even when he has money to spend with no huge fees being flashed about in the 4 signings made so far this month.
Unfortunately for Irvine, others parts of his management have been far more questionable, leaving the question well and truly open, is it time for Irvine to move on from the Owls? after just over a year in charge. The aspects of management that have angered so many Wednesday fans are tactics and team selection. There are plenty of examples of quite strange team selections from Irvine in the past and none more so than the involvement of Paul Heffernan this season at Hillsborough. Heffernan has impressed consistently whilst coming on as a sub for Wednesday and in last weeks come back draw, Heffernan was the man that led the way, scoring the first of the two goals and nearly grabbing all three points for the Owls in the dying moments. That time he was only to be denied by the post and the Goal keepers finger tips. Heffernan's all round play was also impressive and his composure in front of goal is clearly a great asset. The goal in the 6-2 victory at Bristol Rovers was another sign of his quality finishing. Heff's performance last week looked enough to have earned him a starting place against Orient, after Irvine admitted Heffernan was giving him something to think about after the game last Saturday. To my shock, when I looked at the team sheet around half an hour before kick-off, Heffernan was again on the bench and after 59 minutes of play Wednesday had used all three substitutes none of which were the impressive front man. I, along with other Wednesday fans must be asking themselves the question, what does he have to do to start a game?
Another questionable part of his team selection is Irvine's refusal to try new things and experiment with a consistently poor side. This could be seen early in the season where Irvine refused to drop Marcus Tudgay and tried every single strike partership including him for months on end. Tudgay was not scoring and playing poorly, of course there is no doubt that Tudgay has quality, but reputation should not guarantee any player a starting role at Hillsborough. This could be seen again with the likes of Darren Purse, who started game after game, making point costing errors, game after game, with no chance of the captain being dropped. Purse had started most of Wednesday's games this season and has the captain's armband and yet Irvine released Purse from his contract on a mutual termination. To me this just shows a manager trying to justify his error of ways. Although I believe Purse leaving will benefit Wednesday in terms of giving new and young players the opportunity to play, you don't see Carlo Ancelotti releasing John Terry, who is a guaranteed starter and captain at Chelsea.
Even more frustrating is Irvine's negative tactics. Irvine refuses to send out a Wednesday side with two out and out wingers. Very rarely have we seen Jermaine Johnson and Gary Teale in the same starting 11. Instead we either play 3 central players or Chris Sedgwick who is certainly not an out and out winger. Jermaine Johnson also helped change the game in last week's comeback at Charlton, but had to wait 59 minutes before coming on to the pitch in today's game, even though both Sedgwick and Teale both played incredibly poorly last weekend. Finally, Irvine has addressed the main problem of the defence in the transfer market, but the other huge void that needs filling is the central midfield. Miller is usually consistent but has dropped out of form in recent weeks. Both Potter and O'Connor have yet to impress the Wednesday fans with their incredibly inconsistent displays which lack any sort of conviction or influence week in week out. Giles Coke seemed to have stepped up to the plate, but he's struggled with injury problems showing a clear need for a player to come into this position.
Following the last year of Sheffield Wednesday football has been less than inspiring and I believe the time may have come for Alan Irvine to move on, but find it unlikely that this will happen with Mandaric backing him 100 percent in the transfer market, but how much more can he and Wednesdayites take of this rubbish...
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