Comment: Why Tony Pulis deserves respect at Sheffield Wednesday

ON Friday the 13th, Twitter was awash with scare stories and predictably many of those revolved around Tony Pulis regarding his impending appointment at Sheffield Wednesday.
New Sheffield Wednesday manager Tony Pulis. Photo: Nick Potts/PA Wire.New Sheffield Wednesday manager Tony Pulis. Photo: Nick Potts/PA Wire.
New Sheffield Wednesday manager Tony Pulis. Photo: Nick Potts/PA Wire.

It will have passed the new Owls manager - who has previously referenced his lack of interest in social media and speaks with the sagacity of someone who has accrued 28 years in football's cut-throat industry by always doing his own thing - totally by.

He will not have been bothered one iota even if he was on Twitter, in truth.

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Amid the chirping in the background about 'Pulisball' from some holier-than-thou supporters of West Brom and Middlesbrough in particular, there were some refreshing voices of reason emanating from the Potteries, where Pulis rebooted Stoke City and put a once proud club back on the footballing map and into Europe.

Some Wednesdayites - by no means all, but a fair number - had the good sense to listen and make sensible contributions as well.

In the club's current position, Wednesday cannot afford to be choosy or footballing snobs. For all the talk of style, substance is what matters.

The Owls - who are only kept from the bottom of the Championship table on goal difference alone - have won seven times in 32 league matches this year. They have won just twice at Hillsborough in 2020. It is a pitiful record.

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It is a team who have lacked consistency and identity in the final analysis. Which is where the arrival of Pulis might just come in handy.

Walk around the corridors of the West Stand and the pictures of the likes of Waddle and Sheridan dominate, evoking back to an era when Wednesday under Ron Atkinson and Trevor Francis produced some exquisite fare and were successful as well.

Can Wednesdayites safely say that their side have come anywhere near those heights since, safe perhaps for an exhilarating first campaign in charge for Carlos Carvalhal in the nearly season of 2015-16? Probably not.

Even during the third-tier promotion seasons under Paul Sturrock in 2004-05 and with Gary Megson and then Dave Jones in charge in 2011-12, the Owls' success was forged upon the traditional footballing virtues of power, organisation, resolve and an unquenchable team spirit.

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Both dressing rooms possessed talent, but also genuine leadership. They were happy and together times.

It was not pure football, but both were seasons where everyone was on the same page and fans who came to games knew what they were going to get.

Which brings us to Pulis. Anti-football and mind-numbingly boring is the familiar cry from the knockers regarding his defence-orientated and direct footballing ethos as they attempt to drown out those who respectfully say: 'Give him a chance' in the background.

Granted, his time at former club Middlesbrough was solid, but not spectacular. Boro just missed out on the play-offs in the Welshman's only full season in charge in 2018-19, having reached the end-of-season lottery in the previous campaign when Pulis took over at Christmas, ironically from Garry Monk.

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A lack of goals was the main reason Boro finished seventh in 18-19, minus the services of Adama Traore and Patrick Bamford, who were both sold, it is worth adding.

Traore is arguably the most explosive winger in the top-flight at Wolves. He was also going nowhere at Boro until the guiding hand of Pulis turned his career around and propelled him in the right direction during a mesmerizing second-half of 18-19 when he took on the Championship.

For a brief spell, Traore was the most exciting player on Teesside since the arrival of Juninho in the mid-Nineties.

Perception would suggest that Bamford - a player of finesse, touch and movement, but few real physical attributes - was the sort of player who would not fit into Pulis's world.

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He scored 13 goals in that campaign for Boro. Ten arrived under Pulis and only three came under Monk's watch.

It proves that the narrative with Pulis can be selective. The fact that the likes of creative players such as Jermaine Pennant and Matthew Etherington excelled under him alongside others such as Salomón Rondón is conveniently ignored.

It is also worth adding that with Pulis gone, Boro went into descent last season. It took the arrival of another savvy operator in Neil Warnock to rescue their season and probably save them from a first relegation to the third tier since 1986.

The Owls will perhaps represent the biggest challenge of the career of Newport-born Pulis, the son of a steel worker now doing his graft in the Steel City. At the age of 62, it might just be his last major role.

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With due respect to the teams he has previously managed, this is the biggest club he has taken charge of too.

At the very least, Pulis deserves a bit of respect and a chance. But he won't be losing sleep regarding the doubters.

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