Sheffield Wednesday under Jos Luhukay were a side heading in just one direction – downwards.
With Owls fans becoming increasingly dejected and distraught, something had to give. That something was Luhukay himself, Wednesday dispensing of his services last night.
Luhukay became the second successive Owls boss to fall by the Christmas wayside. Wednesday showed the Scrooge spirit last Christmas Eve in sacking former Owls boss Carlos Carvalhal.
Luhukay’s dismissal meant that first-team coach Lee Bullen was in charge for today’s visit of Preston North End. It was a first game in charge that went well for Bullen and the Owls. The 1-0 home win, courtesy of Michael Hector’s goal, saw Wednesday climb a place from 18th to 17th.
More importantly than that though, it opened up an eight-point gap between themselves and the last of the relegation placed held by Millwall on 19 points.
There’s been much paper talk of who the next man in at Hillsborough might be. The current favourite for the Hillsborough hotseat is former Aston Villa main man Steve Bruce.
As ‘interest’ goes, it’s stayed as just that – paper talk. However, the following picture taken during today’s game does present a different perspective:
Steve Agnew and Stephen Clemence in the chairman’s box at today’s game #SWFC pic.twitter.com/ZD7PGRMaV7
— Geoff SWFC (@GeoffSWFC) December 22, 2018
As the caption says, the picture shows Steve Agnew and Stephen Clemence – both of whom were last employed alongside Steve Bruce at Aston Villa.
At the moment it still sits there as mere paper talk, but this picture does add more than a little credibility to the rumours.