Everywhere and nowhere is back, with Alex Miller taking up the hosting reins as he and Joe Crann offer their invaluable insight into Sheffield Wednesday's remaining week of the transfer window with the feeling being that it'll be 'squeaky bum time' in terms of getting new players through the door. The lads also discuss the upcoming debut of young goalkeeper Pierce Charles, the horrible events of last week's match against Coventry City and the fall-out from it, as well as looking ahead to the FA Cup tie against the Sky Blues
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:08 Welcome to Everywhere and Nowhere, a Sheffie Wednesday podcast brought to you by the star
00:13 of Joe Graham, Alex Miller, and your host, Chris Holt.
00:17 [MUSIC]
00:23 Now then, a very warm welcome to Everywhere and Nowhere.
00:26 You might have noticed that I do not have the dulcet tones of Mr. Chris Holt, as the intro suggested.
00:32 Chris is poorly, middle-aged gets you, doesn't it?
00:35 There's a few ailments that drop in there, especially in these cold winter months.
00:39 So it's over to the kids to run the show. Alex Miller is myself. Joe Cran, how are you doing?
00:45 Yeah, I'm proud to be called a kid at 34. I'll take that.
00:49 No, well, compared to old man River.
00:53 It's great that you just sat in the background having to watch this as well.
00:58 Yes, I'm expecting my P45 the second this recording is finished.
01:04 Joe, another busy week of Sheffield Wednesday-ism.
01:11 Some fun, some certainly not fun. We'll get on to that a little later on.
01:16 We've spoken to Danny Ruhl and Barry Bannon today as part of Wednesday's pre-Coventry City FA Cup press engagement day.
01:27 I think that's what they call it on the streets, isn't it?
01:31 And a couple of lines out of there. It feels like transfers and certainly in terms of incomings, things are moving a little bit slowly.
01:40 Let's talk about the outgoings. You had a bit to say on Lee Gregory and Michael Smith in particular.
01:46 Yeah, it does feel a little bit and obviously he's not going to speak massively openly about it,
01:52 but it does kind of feel like Wednesday waiting for a few dominoes to fall.
01:57 And with Gregory and Smith, he sort of suggested that they are able to leave if the right offer comes along.
02:08 But if the right offer doesn't come, then he's more than happy to have them around.
02:12 I think it was important to note that he said of all the players, not just the ones who were potentially maybe leaving,
02:21 he said everyone's working really hard. He said there's no slouches, there's no slackers in there.
02:26 No one's down in tools because they're not getting games.
02:30 And I think that's probably something that's quite nice for people to hear.
02:34 And he's been, he says he's been very honest with people, doesn't he?
02:39 He said people know where they stand in this group.
02:41 And I think that's probably something that the players appreciate as well.
02:45 In terms of the incomings, there is a nervousness as the emergency service races past my flat.
02:51 I don't know if you could hear that. There is a nervousness out there in terms of the business that they are trying to get done.
03:02 Danny Reuel has said throughout that he wants, you know, he reeled off a few positions.
03:10 You know, there's a number of players that he clearly wants in the door.
03:14 When's he got to win? They're a club that traditionally, as most championship clubs do,
03:19 sort of do their business towards the end of the window or certainly finish their business towards the end of the window.
03:25 We know of at least two deals that have got close and not come to fruition.
03:30 And both of them would have been pretty attractive signings.
03:33 So there's the frustration that comes with that.
03:36 What's your view on the general frustration around the place and how much can you sympathise with it, I guess?
03:45 I get it completely. I think there was a general feeling, I think, that because Wednesday were very obviously in trouble,
03:53 that they were going to burst out the blocks, go and sign five, six players.
03:56 And Danny spoke in the early days about how we want to get things moving fast.
04:00 And I think they were almost, they worked to their own detriment by getting Ike Ogbo and James Beedling so quickly
04:10 that you almost created a rod for your own back there because now everyone's going, well, where is everybody else?
04:16 Whereas if we were, you know, if they'd done that maybe a week in, two weeks in, the mood might have been a little bit different.
04:24 But I say I understand the frustrations. I think the fact that, and probably we have to take some fault in this as well,
04:30 the fact that deals have fallen through. If people didn't know that they'd fallen through and we didn't do our job properly,
04:36 then again, maybe it would be slightly less angry.
04:40 But yeah, I think it all boils down to the fact that Wednesday fans can see they need help.
04:48 They've heard Danny say they need help. And when that help's not coming, the closer it gets to deadline day,
04:55 people are starting to stress, starting to be concerned that those incomings aren't going to happen.
05:02 And because Danny made it so clear that he did want numerous new additions, it's precarious, I think is probably the right word,
05:15 where Wednesday fans are at the moment. Yeah, it's a tough position to be in.
05:21 But that being said, it's not been a particularly busy January. You know, out of interest yesterday,
05:27 we get stuck into being so Wednesday-centric. We don't always look at what's going on elsewhere.
05:34 But I went and had a look at every team and what they'd signed.
05:37 There's a lot of teams in the league who have not signed a single player yet.
05:40 There's very few. I think Huddersfield have signed four, and I think that's the most of anybody in the league.
05:45 But for the most part, Wednesday are above or about the same as other teams in the division.
05:51 Obviously, the argument is that Wednesday need it more than most teams in the division.
05:56 But yeah, it's been a tough January, I think. Stuff around FFP, not saying that's the thing with Wednesday,
06:01 but stuff around FFP, the general economic situation. It's not been a gung-ho January, has it?
06:10 No. Can we not mention the word… is it a word? FFP?
06:16 It is now, Mojahed.
06:18 Just throwing that into a Sheffield Wednesday podcast is disgusting.
06:23 Yeah, sorry. That's why I had to clarify afterwards that that's not Wednesday-related.
06:27 I mean, that's for the window in general. It's been a quiet January, and I think that is part of it.
06:32 It panicked me, and I'm reporting on the club. I know that there isn't necessarily an immediate issue.
06:39 Yeah, it does. I mean, like you say, the stories that we've had on the collapse deals
06:48 is probably giving this window a different complexion for everyone involved.
06:55 But also, Danny's been very, very candid, hasn't he, in his press engagements, in terms of his mood.
07:06 And people have picked up on that. People maybe have run with it in certain places on social media as well.
07:15 But yeah, it's like anything. Transfer windows could… they turn on a moment if you can get one deal done.
07:27 And sat here now, I'd love to have a list of names between us that we could reel off that they're interested in.
07:36 But Wednesday do operate in the shadows, as I think you put it on social media earlier this week.
07:42 And look, if we're sat here now on February 2nd and Wednesday have signed no players, I would be surprised.
07:53 If they'd signed five players, I wouldn't necessarily be surprised.
08:00 You know, it really does feel like anything could pop up. So we'll see.
08:07 Keep it locked to the Star.co.uk for the latest. Nice little plug time.
08:15 So yeah, transfers sort of touched on there. We may well come back to it later in the pod.
08:21 The news line from it was that Cameron Dawson is injured and will sit out of this week's FA Cup tie against Coventry.
08:30 He was going to step in in the absence of James Beadle, who is cup tied after his time at Oxford.
08:38 So Piers Charles is going to step in. And Joe, look, we've all made the point that this isn't the most exciting cup tie.
08:44 It's six days since the exact same fixture.
08:48 Seeing Piers Charles getting to go in a proper game is something that has piqued my interest.
08:53 Yeah, same. I think it makes it that little bit more exciting.
08:57 It gives it a bit of something different.
09:02 Danny said that Sam Reid could potentially be involved as well, which is a player that Wensley fans haven't seen much of.
09:08 Obviously Guy Siqueira has been part of the squad recently.
09:13 You've got Bailey who might come back into the fold.
09:15 You know, if we're going to an FA Cup game and all of a sudden you've got, you know, three, four, five academy kids in there,
09:22 it's something that's a bit different. And I think with Piers, Piers is a really interesting one because it's not like other positions,
09:31 as it were, you can throw him in for 10, 15 minutes and you can have a look at him.
09:35 He's almost become this, like, not to heap too much pressure on you, Piers,
09:40 he's become like this mythical figure in the background, you know, like he came from Man City and lots of people like Piers.
09:47 He's a youth international. You speak to the players about him and they've all got very, very good things to say about him.
09:53 But most people have only ever seen him play at under 18's level and a few have seen him at under 21's level.
10:00 So there's a real desire, I think, to see what he's about.
10:04 And especially because of the way that he plays, he's a footballer, you know, he's a playing goalkeeper.
10:10 We've heard reports from the camp, from training, that they still stick him in midfield sometimes if the shot is a real man,
10:16 because he's that good. So, yeah, I think it just adds an extra element to it.
10:21 And he's 18, you know, he's 18 for an FA Cup, making his debut in the FA Cup.
10:28 But what's not to love?
10:31 The romance of the Cup, eh?
10:33 Exactly.
10:35 Yeah, it is funny, isn't it? Because, you know, with these young players, like you say, someone like Bailey,
10:41 there's been talk about him for a couple of seasons now.
10:44 And then he does get his chance, you know, he came off the bench in a Cup game and then he's in the first team.
10:49 It is a different world for goalkeepers.
10:52 I remember, what would it be now? Two and a half years since I was in Portugal.
11:01 And Piers was a part of that camp, working with David Stockdale.
11:06 He looked fantastic then, you know, and it's good, you know, obviously not for Cameron,
11:14 who's, you know, no doubt keen to battle James Beadle for the goalkeeper's jersey.
11:21 But certainly a good opportunity for Piers to show what he can do.
11:27 On selection, you mentioned there young players.
11:30 I think Danny sort of hinted that they might be first and foremost sort of featuring from the bench,
11:36 but opportunities could be there, as we saw in the last round.
11:40 He sort of suggested that he was going to name a strong team pretty close to the strongest that he could possibly name.
11:45 Yeah, yeah, he didn't seem to give any sort of inclination that he was going to make wholesale changes.
11:52 I think he will make the smart changes.
11:55 You know, last game we saw Barry Bannon was rested. You know, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see that happen again.
12:01 But there's also that there is a tipping point in the FA Cup, isn't there?
12:06 And not to say that money is everything, but like the prize money starts to ramp up quite significantly when you get into these latter knockout stages.
12:14 So, yeah, I don't think he'll be throwing it in at all.
12:19 I think we could see quite a young bench, but I think in terms of the actual start in '11,
12:25 I would imagine that we're going to see, yeah, go pretty strong.
12:29 It's what you want.
12:31 I know that there's obviously things to be said about preserving players and when's you're in a relegation scrap and all that kind of thing.
12:38 But I think the FA Cup deserves respect.
12:43 Obviously, an argument that's been had, a conversation that's been had many, many times over the years, especially recently.
12:49 But yeah, I think the FA Cup deserves to be taken seriously.
12:54 And I've always thought with Cup runs that it's as detrimental as it can be to fitness level sometimes and you have too many games.
13:03 I think that a Cup run is good for morale.
13:06 What about you? FA Cup. What are your favourite memories as a fan, maybe as a journalist as well?
13:12 Do you know what? Newcastle peaked it all, I think.
13:16 Yeah.
13:18 It's a bit sad looking back.
13:21 I actually was looking back to see if there was any I'd sort of missed.
13:25 And I went back to my sort of formative years, like, you know, '97, '98, '98, '99.
13:30 It was the year we got to the quarterfinal, but I don't think we ever played anyone actually good.
13:35 I don't think we beat anyone standout on the way in.
13:38 I just remember we had some horrible FA Cup runs in the past.
13:42 I remember getting knocked out by Gillingham and things like that.
13:45 So, yeah, my first thought was Newcastle is my favourite FA Cup experience.
13:51 And I thought, well, there must be something better that I had as a kid that was better than that.
13:55 And I went and checked to see if there's something I'd missed.
13:57 And I don't think there is. I think it was just generally bad in the FA Cup.
14:01 There was something about that night, though, wasn't there? There was a whole...
14:04 Yeah, 100%.
14:06 You know, when you talk about the magic of the FA Cup, and obviously the kickoff time was different,
14:12 under the lights, BBC did their sort of the montage, which was quite special.
14:17 Friend of the show, James Greig, shout out to you for that one.
14:21 And the whole smudge meeting Alan Shearer beforehand, it felt like a proper, proper old school build up
14:30 to a proper FA Cup tie. Two really big clubs in different worlds of their journey.
14:40 And, yeah, a great night and one that I'll certainly remember for a long time.
14:45 And you know what? Wednesday deserved to win that. I know that Newcastle had the better.
14:50 Yeah, yeah. I don't think it... It wasn't a scrappy, sneaky, narrow victory, was it?
14:59 It was a narrow victory, but it was deserved one. Wednesday were very good throughout the entire game.
15:05 Started strong, finished strong. Obviously in different... after the pitch, mainly.
15:11 But, yeah, and I just think with that night as well, it's made better by what happened afterwards.
15:20 You know, it was good as it was, but I don't think Peterborough second leg happens without that game.
15:28 I don't think Wembley happens without that game. I think that set a tone for Wednesday about where they could be.
15:34 But, yeah, it's definitely better than many of the FA Cup games that I've been to in the past.
15:41 The third round is always on my birthday weekend, like the Newcastle game was on my birthday.
15:46 So it was always something I looked forward to and it regularly let me down.
15:52 None of it can beat Bradford City beating Chelsea in 2015, I'm afraid.
15:58 No, I mean, to be fair, that's a belter. Those are the results that we have the FA Cup for, though, isn't it?
16:03 Like, you know, they probably are a little bit fewer and further between now.
16:07 And unfortunately, I think what a lot of the time does happen now is when it does happen,
16:12 it's often against the weakened side. So it... not that it takes the shine off it completely,
16:18 but it's not the same as, you know, a third division side going on and knocking out a full-strength Man United
16:26 or Chelsea or Liverpool or something like that. But it does still mean a hell of a lot to the underdogs all the way through.
16:34 There's a point to be made. This isn't the second round. This isn't the third round.
16:38 When you get into the fifth round, there's a lot of big clubs in there.
16:41 And if Wednesday can do their bit and get past Coventry, you know, you've got the prospect of another night.
16:48 Spurs away, Spurs away, Spurs away.
16:51 Spurs away for the press food. Oh, hold me back. Yeah, what are we expecting to see from Coventry?
17:00 There's obviously, I think Mark Robbins has spoken today about the prospect of Casey Palmer playing.
17:07 We'll touch on the sorry, sorry incident and what happened since in a minute, Joe.
17:16 What do you expect to see from them?
17:19 It's tough to say because I've not really seen much of him recently.
17:23 But yeah, to be honest, I expected a very similar scenario with Coventry.
17:30 The Casey Palmer thing is sad but interesting about how they're going to play that.
17:40 But I imagine that they'll be taking it seriously as well.
17:43 They are a club on the up, aren't they? Coventry are having a great run of form at the moment.
17:50 Mark Robbins, he'll have his own FA Cup memories over the years.
17:56 So, yeah, I think that it's a game that both teams will be taking seriously.
18:01 Danny sort of mentioned in his press conference it was 2-0, then 2-1.
18:05 So maybe we're getting a 2-2 this one.
18:09 There's been an arrest made, obviously, when we were touching on Casey Palmer there.
18:15 Reports and subsequent footage of some racially aggravated abuse at the back end of the game last weekend.
18:25 The response, Joe, it's been heartening in some ways and it's certainly left me a little bit troubled in others.
18:33 What's your general take on it all?
18:36 Yeah, same. And it's the same as what we've often said when we speak about social media.
18:42 The vast bulk of response has been, "This is horrendous. We need to get this out. We need to get it sorted."
18:51 But as you wrote in your very good column yesterday, it's the air butts in there that even though there's so few of them in comparison, they're still there.
19:04 We were talking about it on the night even, weren't we?
19:09 At that point, I don't think the footage had been seen, so it was still alleged at that time.
19:17 But obviously, it became clear quite quickly that it was on camera.
19:22 It was very obvious what had happened.
19:24 And there were still a lot of people saying, "Yes, it's bad, but…"
19:30 And that is concerning because there's no place for it. There's no justifying it.
19:38 And we spoke about it before with the players at Wednesday.
19:46 They will know that it's a minority, but they also know that it's their fans.
19:51 It's some of their fans, and that can't be easy to handle.
19:56 No, I think my… Look, whenever something like this rears its head, there's always a faction on social media.
20:05 What really troubled me was the weight of the air butts.
20:12 It felt like there was a lot of… I don't think it was necessarily justifying it or an attempt to justify it.
20:22 It was just the way that it sat in people's heads and how people processed it.
20:28 And, yeah, it just sort of raised a lot of questions.
20:35 And like you said, look, they were certainly outnumbered.
20:40 But listening to phone-ins as well on Football Heaven and that sort of thing this week, yeah,
20:45 raised a lot of questions that I think people need to have a bit of a think about.
20:51 And uncomfortable conversations need to be had.
20:54 Yeah, I do think it was good how it was handled from a Wednesday perspective.
20:59 Yes, absolutely.
21:00 They were very quick to get something out after the game.
21:03 Obviously, got the chairman voicing his thoughts on it as well.
21:08 They got to the police very quickly.
21:10 And as you say, today, what is it, less than a week later, an arrest has been made and it'll move from there.
21:18 They obviously identified the person quite quickly, I think, given the footage and the cameras available nowadays.
21:25 And, yeah, that's a good thing.
21:27 The speed at which it was handled, I think, is the only positive to come out of the entire sorry situation.
21:37 Joe, we're going to wrap up in a few minutes.
21:39 I just wanted to touch on, obviously, by the time we next speak on this podcast,
21:45 the transfer window will be closed and you and I will be, mentally at least, on a beach in Southern Bahamas,
21:52 having got through the rain of the last, well, I'd like to say it's a month, but it's not, is it?
21:57 There's a big old build up to it that you've got to lay some groundwork down on.
22:01 But what does a Wednesday need?
22:04 Obviously, if we sat here, we'd both go in midfielder, winger, two strikers, centre half, left belt.
22:12 But what's the bare minimum that Wednesday can come away with and you think they can survive in this division?
22:20 I think a goal scorer is obviously the thing that every single football club in the world is looking for.
22:27 But Wednesday don't score enough goals.
22:29 And that is going to be massive.
22:31 Obviously, Bailey's come in and done great, but you can't be laying all your hopes of survival on the shoulders of an 18-year-old.
22:38 It's not going to work.
22:40 As we've seen, he's going to get tired.
22:43 The stresses of Championship football are going to be difficult.
22:48 He's not going to be able to be at his best every single week.
22:51 So, yeah, obviously, Ugbo's come in, who is, I suppose, predominantly a striker, but he's not a goal-getter, so to speak.
22:59 He's not been prolific in terms of his goals.
23:02 I think we were both impressed with him when he came on the other day, the way he helped set up Josh Winders' goal as well.
23:09 But, yeah, it feels like Wednesday need a real goal-getter, someone who's going to be able to get seven, eight, nine goals between now and the end of the season.
23:19 That's going to be able to help keep him up.
23:21 If anyone knows where Ken Wyn Jones is, then please go find him.
23:26 But, yeah, they need that.
23:28 Even if it is alone, Wednesday need a couple through the door who are going to be able to help create and score goals.
23:35 And then, defensively, it's an interesting one because Wednesday have got a lot of centre-backs at the club at the minute that are capable.
23:43 Yeah, I think left-back might be an interesting one because he doesn't seem to have much plans to use Rhys James at this point in time.
23:59 Obviously, Marvin Johnson has been great recently, but if something was to happen to Marvin, then you've got Akin, who I think has been pretty solid at left-back, but it's not his natural position.
24:11 So, yeah, left-back and up front could be two.
24:14 But I would quite like to see him find, again, it's a position that everyone's looking for, you know, a bit of a pacey winger.
24:22 Someone who can come in who can maybe do it a little bit more consistently than what we've seen from Jadie and Anthony Moussaba.
24:30 Someone with a bit more English experience, I suppose, playing in either the Premier League or the AFL.
24:37 So, yeah, I think that would be the thing for me.
24:42 Wednesday have done a lot of good work in a lot of good positions since Danny came in, but they still don't score enough.
24:50 And obviously, if you don't score goals, you don't win games.
24:52 If you don't win games, you don't stay up.
24:55 There we have it. It all lies on a striker, Joe Crown. There's your headline.
25:00 Thanks very much for joining us on Everywhere and Nowhere, a Sheffield Wednesday podcast brought to you by the Sheffield Star.
25:07 Chris will be back next week, all being well, and we'll be dissecting not only the transfer window.
25:13 I think we've got a busy few days ahead, Joe. But looking back at the FA Cup fallout and looking ahead to whatever comes.
25:23 Keep it locked, as ever, to thestar.co.uk.
25:26 Okay.
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