Sheffield Wednesday v Plymouth Argyle: Owls have not ditched older models despite getting 'sexier'

Pre-season is about the shiny and new, and the Sheffield Wednesday side which takes on Wayne Rooney's Plymouth Argyle should be an upgrade on the one which so impressively ended last season there.

In fighting off a seemingly inevitable relegation from the Championship without the foundation of a pre-season, Rohl performed miracles but had to cut a few corners to do it.

Sunday's team should be pure Rohl but will still have plenty of familiar faces.

James Beadle and Ike Ugbo have been brought back after successful loans, the latter permanently on Thursday, but the summer started with a raft of new contracts.

Rohl's kicked it off, with Barry Bannan and Liam Palmer quickly following. Getting Josh Windass, Di'Shon Bernard and Dominic Iorfa's autographs took a little longer, but was important too. All have the German's trust, and know his methods.

"I'd say it was a relief but I was confident things were all going to work out in the end," reflects Iorfa, at the club since January 2019. "I understand being in the game for a while that these things do take time.

"I would have liked it to have been done earlier but it was still done pretty much as soon as pre-season started, which is fine for me. I just didn't want anything to drag on into the middle of pre-season, late pre-season."

If it was a relief for Iorfa, the renewals were for the club too, vindication from those who had been put through Rohl's exacting methods.

"I think it's very important because you need people in the dressing room who know what the club's about, know what the manager's about, especially for the new players," argues centre-back Iorfa.

"They've been able to lean on us if they're unsure of certain things, we've got more of an understanding but having had a full pre-season together as a whole, all the new players' understanding will be there.

"You've kind of got that trust in your team-mates as well because you've been there together for a longer period."

Signing players is much easier after the way Rohl kept the Owls in last season's Championship against both the odds and the history books.

"We are a little bit more sexy than last January," he says, looking back at his first transfer window as a manager. You feel this in the players and this is a good feeling for us.

"Last January it was much more difficult to find players who want to come to us."

The difference, quite simply, is Rohl.

"He was the first (contract) sorted and from the whole club's perspective after how we did last season under him it was crucial," says Iorfa. "He was courted by a lot of teams and the fact he was on ITV pretty much every night as well (covering the European Championship after he signed his contract), it was good for him to get sorted straight away."

And now Iorfa has noticed things have gone up a gear.

"Definitely," he says. "We've had more time to work on things and everyone saw how well we did last season.

"It's the confidence as well from the second half of last season. We saw it work under the manager and the belief that if we have more time together to get behind him, we're confident we can do well.

"The big thing in the games we've had over pre-season is there's stuff you do on the training pitch and you see it work in games so it gives the staff and players more confidence as well. It's been good."

With much talk of playing out from the back, is Rohl asking more of Iorfa?

"I wouldn't say more, it's just fine-tuning certain things," he says.

"In terms of how he wants us to play, we've had more time to work on it.

"In the position we were in last season it's about getting results so there were a few things we might have gone away from because of the position we were in – we just needed a win.

"This pre-season we've had more time to work on his core principles.

"For me it's just fine-tuning the things that will be better for myself and the team, and not just me, other players in my position as well.

"The manager's got his style of play and I think the good thing you'll see here is that he encourages us to play out from the back.

"You're not going to get it right all the time but as players it gives you more belief. If you keep working at it, you keep trying things and you trust in it then, it should work out."

This exciting blend of the old and the new has created genuine belief that it will.