When MPs demanded the axe for Sheffield Wednesday manager

A thoroughly decent man and well-respected figure in the game, Wilson – a midfielder of some repute in his time at Hillsborough amid some halcyon days in the early Nineties – endured plenty during that campaign.

Not just from supporters, but also those at Westminster, of all places.

The heat was on after Wilson – whose first season saw the Owls finish in a respectable 12th place in the Premier League – presided over the club’s worst start 
to a top-flight season in 1999-2000.

After that desperate autumnal defeat at St James’ Park, Wilson admitted that his position was a vulnerable one.

Speaking after that 8-0 loss, he said: “Hopefully, I’ll have the chance to turn it round. But I’m a realist. If you’re asking me ‘will I keep my job’, it’s not a question I can answer.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m sticking in there. But I can’t keep getting results like that and keep getting the support I’ve had.”

The well went on to run dry, with ministerial intervention into British sport reaching a new level early in the new year when Owls supporter David Blunkett headed a group of four Sheffield MPs – also including fellow Labour representatives Joe Ashton, Clive Betts and Bill Michie – who were calling for the immediate dismissal of Wilson.

The group had held talks with the investment group Charterhouse, which paid £15.6m for a 36 per cent stake in Wednesday in 1997, over the company’s future role in the club.

Blunkett, in whose constituency Hillsborough stood, said: “It would seem to us that the club has virtually capitulated this season, started downsizing and is resigned to dropping down into the First Division.

“That is wrong. They should be trying everything they can to try and turn things around.”

Wilson would eventually be dismissed in March.

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