When Gary Megson was unceremoniously dumped 20 months ago by Milan Manderic many Owls fans were distraught. Megson was a lifelong owls fan; had played for the club during two spells and, as manager, had just led Wedneasday to a 1-0 victory at Hillsborough against Sheffield United. Wednesday sat 3rd in the league and were well in contention for promotion. Manderic claimed that a change was needed as results had, during the previous few weeks, been quite up and down and there was a feeling that the team’s progress may have been stagnating slightly. By the end of the season it seemed that Manderic had been vindicated as Jones steered The Owls to 2nd spot and automatic promotion at the expense of bitter local rivals Sheffield United (who had, at one stage, enjoyed a large points advantage over Wednesday and had 2 games in hand).
Fast forward 18 months and it is clear to see that the appointment of Dave Jones was the wrong one. Sure, Jones drove Wednesday to promotion but many felt that this was on the back of Megson’s hard work and the team spirit that Megson had developed. Once the momentum from the previous season’s promotion wore off (which it did very quickly the following season) things unravelled spectacularly. Poor signing after poor signing followed and Dave Jones oversaw a dreadful run of results that saw Wednesday only avoid relegation on the final day of the season. At Christmas 2012 he’d said that change wasn’t the right thing to do and all he needed was time to get things right. By the following November he was still saying the same things.
For some reason Manderic, who had been quick to sack Megson after a run of 3 poor results, stuck with the morose, miserable, clueless Jones for 18 months before finally acting. Any Owls fan with eyes could see from November 2012 onwards that Jones wasn’t up to the job. Thankfully Jones has now gone. With the Owls having recorded only 1 win in 17 games this season and now a full 6 points of safety, it remains to be seen whether there is still time for another man to turn things around.
He's reight, tha knows! 