Carlos Carvalhal shares Premier League hope for Sheffield Wednesday and comical Barry Bannan & Ross Wallace tale
Carlos Carvalhal shares Premier League hope for Sheffield Wednesday - and a comical tale
Carlos Carvalhal is hoping to see Sheffield Wednesday’s rebuild send them into the Premier League.
The 60-year-old has not managed the Owls for nearly a decade, having left by mutual consent on Christmas Eve in 2017.
He has remained a popular figure among Wednesday supporters and is currently back in the Steel City for a one-off management job. Carvalhal will be leading a team of ex-Owls, including many of his former players, in a charity match against fans and stakeholders today (May 9).
Speaking to Wednesday’s media team ahead of his return to the dugout, Carvalhal spoke candidly about his emotional connection to the South Yorkshire club.
Carlos Carvalhal’s love for Sheffield Wednesday and Premier League hope
He said: “I’m very happy to see everything - to see the facilities, the fans, the river, the trees, and my players and some staff. I created a fantastic emotional connection with the fans and with the players. When you’re back, a place like this, it is very emotional. I’m really very happy to be here.
“When I was talking with the boys, we were talking about history from that era. We start realising that we have a very good team, very good players, and fantastic personalities also. The boys are really immense. All of them are fit - just Ross Wallace is double at this moment but he’s improving now, he’s training! I saw [Steven] Fletcher with more hair also. But all of them are fit.
“Also, I’m very happy to see the club being rebuilt. What happened in the last game was unbelievable. I follow everything that happens with Sheffield Wednesday. When I saw the full stadium, the last game, with the minus points, the club go to League One, I saw this kind of love from the fans to the club. It’s unbelievable.
“In my country, it’s impossible. This makes the club strong, makes the club giants. I think it’s the way Sheffield Wednesday go [into] next season, with the power they received from the last game, to be back in the Championship. I hope in a few years they go to the Premier League.
“We are representing Sheffield Wednesday. To go back to a place I was really, really, really, very happy, it makes me very happy and emotional. I am looking forward to going back to the dugout.”
Barry Bannan and Ross Wallace’s pre-Arsenal preparation
Carvalhal may have only spent two-and-a-half years at the Hillsborough helm but his tenure featured plenty of euphoric highs.
Among the standout memories from his reign is a 3-0 win over Arsenal in the League Cup in October 2015. The Owls may have managed to pull off a shock, but Carvalhal has revealed preparation was far from ideal for Barry Bannan and Ross Wallace.
He said: “Some days before the game against Arsenal, I called to talk with me, Ross Wallace and Barry Bannan. I said to them ‘listen, you have a lot of games, we are in a lot of games in a row, we have a game against Arsenal, it’s very important, but I’m planning to put you both on the bench’.
“The reaction of them was not good. It was ‘okay, you can do what you want, but we usually do this’. The conversation finished. When I finished the conversation, my mind, they will play. They are angry, they will play. In the mind of them both, [they] will not play. [They thought] ‘What will we do? Drink some beers’.
“They drink some beers because they thought they were not playing. When I say ‘okay, right wing and midfielder, Bannan and Ross Wallace’, they start looking shy. I said ‘oh my God’. If you remember, that game, they played unbelievable.”