Comment - Neil Warnock for Sheffield Wednesday: Why the ex-Sheffield United manager ticks all the boxes

Aptitude in organising football teams to ensure that everyone knows their jobs and minds aren't muddled. Check. The personality and skill in taking the pressure off players and handling the media. Check.

Strong understanding of the Championship landscape. Check.

Neil Warnock has all those qualities and a bit more besides and Sheffield Wednesday should be all over him. And the indications are that he fancies it.

The Sheffielder has a bit of fire in his belly after his time at Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town was cut short.

Wednesday don't need talk of footballing philosophies or grand plans. It's all bluster.

One of the grand old clubs in England are in an unholy mess after a joyless and desperate start to the season which has seen them dust down the record books and need a fixer to save them fast before they become a lost cause.

They will have to do a pretty good job to find someone who is better equipped to carry out an emergency plan than the 74-year-old.

Seven years ago today, Warnock was handed the reins at Cardiff City, who were second-from-bottom in the Championship at the time. They ended the season in 12th; a case example in classic Warnock.

A boyhood Unitedite taking over Wednesday, I hear you say? That should be the least of the Owls' worries.

Given that only a freakish FA Cup draw will bring the sides together in 2023-24, both sides of the Steel City won't bump into each other this season and will keep their distance.

Let's face it, they have enough to worry about to be overly concerned with parochialism. And he’d be gone by the summer anyway.

Warnock come close to crossing the divide during the Milan Mandaric era. Talk of him heading to S6 is nothing new and extraordinary.

It was a time when a poll in the Sheffield Star revealed that a healthy percentage of Wednesdayites were willing to throw their hat in with him.

A boyhood Blade, but also a Sheffielder, Warnock's first game as lad was to watch a Wednesday game under the floodlights.

He may have coped pelters during his visits to Hillsborough as a manager before, but deep down, there's respect when you dismiss the cyber warriors.

Back in Christmas 2020, Warnock opened up about Hillsborough ahead of a game there with Middlesbrough. It was sadly without supporters due to Covid regulations and he was in wistful mood.

He observed: “It is better when there are fans there and I do enjoy the banter with the Wednesdayites and I have always enjoyed that over the years.

“It is great driving back up to Hillsborough. It brings back memories of when I was a kid.

“My first game watching in Sheffield was a Sheffield Wednesday game under the floodlights. The only thing I remember is a lad called (Norman) Curtis, who was a full-back playing well and the ginger-haired lad, (Colin) Dobson.

“I thought it was a great atmosphere and I was stood on the Kop with the Wednesdayites and everyone used to mix in those days and you did not have segregation.

"My sister was a Wednesdayite so we went on the Kop at Hillsborough. It was an unbelievable atmosphere with the floodlight with the Santos shirts.

“It’s a great club traditionally. When you go in the old boardroom there, you feel the aura, like going into the old Highbury. Derek Dooley used to talk about the boardroom and oak tables.

“Growing up, they were the biggest club around when I was a kid and the crowds were unbelievable. I used to look at Peter Swan’s shorts and they would be just under his chin and he used to stroll about with the ginger-haired Tony Kay kicking chunks out of people. They had great teams."

The present-day Wednesday side aren't a great team, far from it. They need a leader and a dealer in hope.