Liam Palmer testimonial: Sheffield Wednesday legend on being a mirror and a driver at Hillsborough

Palmer was still a finding his way as a professional but had been training with the club since he was seven.

Fan-turned-player-turned-manager Megson was the son of Don, seventh in the club’s list of all-time appearance-markers.

“Gary Megson took us right up to the back of the Kop,” recalls Palmer. “He said, ‘A lot of people will sit here and this is their view but not a lot get to do what you can do inside that pitch.’ It resonated a lot with me.

“He was a proud Wednesdayite trying to show the players a different perspective and what a privilege we’ve got to wear that badge and represent the club.”

Now, as he prepares for his testimonial today, it is Palmer’s job to be “the mirror", as current manager Danny Rohl calls it. Leganes might seem odd opponents but it is all about preparing for Plymouth Argyle on August 11, not schmaltzy sentimentality.

That would not do for the versatile player who, although only 32, is eight games away from overtaking the late Megson in the club’s appearance chart – 112 off top spot.

The veteran of two promotions, a relegation and 12 Owls managers has seen a lot he wants to pass on. More than anything he wants to sign off with a return of the Premier League status lost when he was 10.

Worksop-born Palmer fell into Wednesday at primary school and is proud he resisted attempts to ease him out.

“I was age seven when I first started training, signed at age eight,” he recalls. “I was looking back on some videos and DVDs the other night – the ones that still work! – and it’s just good memories. I still train on the same pitch now.

“The club asked me to train during the six-week [school] holidays. In the academy you got access to free tickets and it was the first stadium I ever went to. I fell in love with football and the club as well.”

A loan at Ronnie Moore’s Tranmere Rovers in 2012-13 was the making of Palmer the professional. Eight Scotland caps apart, a 0-0 draw at home to Bournemouth 11 years ago was the last time he played for anyone but Wednesday.

“It probably was a catalyst for me to grow as a person, moving away from home for the first time, and as a player, figuring out my game and the kind of player I could be and I wanted to be,” he says.

“It took me probably a year to 18 months before I felt I could assert myself within even training sessions. I felt that transition from academy football – not so much skill or mentality, more the pace of the game and how physical some players were.

“A full season on loan playing at right-back gave me a little bit more time on the ball, it wasn’t as busy as in the middle. I’ve played there the majority of the time since.

“Quite a few younger players have asked my advice on going on loan and it’s something I’d always advocate."

Palmer gives too much on the pitch, at full-back, central defence or in midfield, to call it his main job, but being a sage is an important part of his role now.

Rohl is only three years older but has already coached Germany and Bayern Munich, the elite club above all others which understands the value of retaining those who “get” them. New contracts to Palmer, Barry Bannan and Josh Windass and a 12-month extension to Callum Paterson's this summer kept that at Hillsborough.

“He [Rohl]’s probably seen that from the elder statesmen at the clubs he's worked at, like Bayern, how they keep Thomas Muller around to be a mirror, as he likes to say, for the other players,” argues Palmer. “It’s something I’ve tried to do since he came in.

“I can lead the team in different ways, make the new players feel welcome and let them know what it means to play for this club and really drive the standards.

“We've got [former midfielder] Giles Coke within the system [as a youth coach], recently we had Nicky Weaver doing the goalkeepers. You see a lot of ex-players going back into coaching roles, CEO roles, whatever it might be. I think over the next four or five years that will be a massive thing, players who have spent a good number of years at the club, know what it means to represent the club and how it works.

“I’m dreading retirement. Nothing’s going to beat playing. It’s about finding something you love and I love Wednesday and I love football. If I could stay at the club beyond my playing time, that’s something I’d be keen to do.”

So what is so special about Wednesday?

“It’s difficult to describe unless you’re in it and you can feel it but I think the fans deserve a lot of credit, especially when I’ve played,” explains Palmer. “It’s not always smooth sailing but I think in a weird way that does bring everybody a little bit closer.

“Owls in the Park [an annual family community event] is a great example of something unique to this club. A lot of the players we got in quite early this year went and were thinking, ‘Why’s there 25,000 people in this park?’”

Richard Wood, for an interview elsewhere on these pages, called his first club “a hard place to play when it’s not going well” but “a great place to play” when things are.

“That can be most clubs,” says Palmer. “We’ve had some amazing nights, nights where the fans have pulled us through.

“There are times when, such is the expectation of a big club that if you’re not performing or the results are not going well of course it’s going to be difficult.

“A lot of it comes down to the senior players and how you can use that as fuel because you know how good it can be. But when things are tough and the fans are having their opinion it’s important you stick to what you know can have success and do what the manager’s asking for.

“I love it when Hillsborough’s bouncing, when you come out and Hi Ho Silver Lining’s belting out. I still get butterflies every time I walk out or come on from the bench, the same as when I did it for the first time.”

It could have been taken away from him many times. Even Rohl, when he took the job in October, did not involve him in his first eight matches.

“It wasn’t new to me,” says Palmer, whose opportunities were scarce under Rohl’s short-lived predecessor, Xisco Munoz, after a summer double hernia operation. “When you are at a place for a long time fans get excited, rightly so, by new signings and everything that's shiny and new.

“It’s just a kick in the teeth that you have to keep constantly proving yourself. I’ve seen players that have spat dummies out over the years and put their ego first.

“I appreciated he had to make decisions really quickly in terms of who was playing. He probably didn’t know a lot of the players, it took him time to make that assessment on people not just as players but characters and how best to use that.

“I never really took it that personally, it was more just that initial disappointment, then how can I do the right things. I got in the gym more and used the classroom time to understand more about how he wants to set the team up and work.

“It was always going to be difficult to top Peterborough, Wembley and getting promoted [in May 2023] but my own season was probably up there with how I was able to end it playing the way we did and the amount of games I did at a level only a couple of other teams showed.

“I was keen to get across to Danny that I am open to learning new ways. I think he just saw an older player that had been there a long time and probably assumed that I would struggle to adapt."

Last season’s relegation escape is sure to feature prominently when Palmer looks back on his career but 435 Owls appearances in, he has no plans to do that just yet.

“It will be everything, not just the good times and the plaudits, it's about coming back from disappointment, from injury, from loss of form,” he says. “I’d like to say the best moments have not happened yet and that really drives me on, that the club can find itself at the top end of the division, really pushing. It would be the ultimate goal to see the club in the Premier League.

“I’m creeping up the appearance chart so I want to keep climbing that list – 112 more appearances and I'll be No 1.

“I’m enjoying it as much as I did in the academy playing because I loved it. I want to keep making my family proud. My parents sacrificed a lot getting me to training three times a week, my dad finishing work at five and having to get me to Sheffield. The M1 Parkway at six o’clock’s not great!

“Going from a boy to a man within the realm of football's not easy but doing it in one place has been special.”

Tickets are not available at the gate, only the ticket office and online before the 1pm kick-off. The club are warning of “considerable queuing times”, and rightly so – players like Palmer do not come around very often.