Big Al’s Big ‘Sheffield’ Wednesday?

January 4th, 2010 | 98 Comments |

‘Big Wednesday’ was an American coming-of-age film portraying the ‘growing-up’ of a group of young surfers, dealing with the changes in their lives, and contemplating ‘the mythical day when the greatest, cleanest, most transcendent wave of all will come’. And maybe Shearer’s ‘Big Wednesday’ is close, when he finally gets chance to prove his managerial credentials, or not.

Some will argue that Shearer has already had his chance and proven that he’s not up to task, having singularly failed to have the impact we were desperate for in our relegation run-in. And it was ultimately under his guidance that we dropped like a black and white stone to the depths of the Championship.

But he was undoubtedly given an almost impossible task, as the damage was arguably already irreversible. Morale was shot, and the league position was damning when he took over. However, even his most resolute supporters were disappointed that he failed to inspire any sort of reaction from the hapless squad, and arguably the one thing we expected in abundance from Shearer, was inspiration for the troops. Though they may stop short of laying the blame squarely at his door, one win in eight was disastrously short of what we all hoped for. (more…)