Irvine has open door policy to fight off relegation at Sheffield Wednesday

ALAN IRVINE is holding private one-to-one meetings with his players in a bid to find the best way forward for Sheffield Wednesday.

The Owls had gone 10 games without a win prior to the departure of Brian Laws last month and new manager Irvine is looking to put things right quickly at Hillsborough.

During his first week at the helm, Irvine sat down with players in numerical order to find out what they felt was needed to get the Owls out of trouble.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Speaking ahead of his first game in charge, away at Barnsley tomorrow, Irvine said: "I don't know if it is 'unusual' but it's the way I did it when I went in at Preston North End. It's not a case of saying 'what was wrong before?' – what happened before is not relevant – it is what happens from now that is important.

"Quite simply, I am saying to the players 'what do we need to do to help you as an individual and to help the team?' I want to see their ideas about what we need to do to make sure we win enough games to survive in the Championship."

In his previous job, Irvine saved Preston from relegation to League One before narrowly failing to secure promotion to the Premier League. His new team are four points adrift of satety in the Championship relegation zone but still have 23 games to play.

The decision to seek opinions from inside the Owls dressing room was welcomed by the players and allowed those who may have been reluctant before to air views without fearing the consequences.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Goalkeeper Lee Grant, who wears the No 1 shirt, was the first player invited in to the manager's office followed by defenders Tommy Spurr (2) and Lewis Buxton (3).

"I have been doing it in numerical squad order so that no-one thinks they are being treated unfairly," explained Irvine. "Micky Gray (who wears No 33) knows that he is going to be the last!"

Irvine's conversations with goalkeeper Grant and striker Marcus Tudgay, meanwhile, had an extra dimension due to the talk of possible interest from Burnley.

Former Owls manager Laws this week won the race to fill the seat vacated by Owen Coyle at the Premier League club and may now be tempted to offer the pair a move to Turf Moor.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Irvine insists there is no pressure to sell any players at Hillsborough but admits the Owls will have to consider any realistic offers. He is also aware that he cannot bring in new players before others have gone.

"There is no pressure on me to sell because we have no offers for any players," he said. "Obviously if big offers do come in, or offers that are regarded as being too good to turn down, that pressure might come on me.

"I don't think Brian (Laws) will have had time to think about anything other than rushing about and dealing with the urgent things just yet and I think it will be sometime before he gets his head around what he might be able to do in the transfer window.

"But I have spoken to Lee Grant and he seems to be extremely happy here. I get the feeling he is a lad who is desperate to play every week. I feel confident that Lee will be here.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"I also spoke to Marcus Tudgay and I asked him how he was because there was a lot of speculation in the summer. He gave no indication that he was anything other than keen to help us out of the current position.

"The speculation is natural," added Irvine. "If people felt we had some money, I would be getting linked with Andy Lonergan and Sean St Ledger and one or two others at Preston!"

Transfer-listed striker Francis Jeffers and Akpo Sodje, who has just returned from a loan spell at Charlton Athletic, will both be in the squad for tomorrow's game which is unlikely to be postponed due to undersoil heating at Oakwell and the extensive gritting of the club's car-parks.

Irvine, meanwhile, has confirmed an interest in bringing Derby County striker Luke Varney back to Hillsborough but says nothing is possible at this stage in the absence of funds.