Forest connections with the Owls vacancy..
The vacancy at Sheffield Wednesday is reportedly down to a shortlist of three, two thirds of which comprise of former Forest related candidates. The first one is unsurprisingly former Forest manager (and indeed, almost Forest player - had he managed to make an appearance!) Gary Megson. The ginger taskmaster has been out of work since parting with Forest after a disastrous spell in charge, and is of course a former Wednesday player.
Brian Laws is the other former Forest man in the frame. The Scunthorpe United boss has impressed in charge of The Iron for the last few years, and is likely to be interested in a move to a larger club - and well, if he does go then let’s hope he’s up for a challenge! He would also bring with him the potential promise of luring some of Scunthorpes better players to make the move with him, or soon after him - which in the case of Billy Sharp and Andrew Keogh would be a significant bonus!
The other candidate is some chap called Pearson who I’ve no knowledge of at all, and there are also less pronounced whisperings linking Mansfield Town boss Peter Shirtliff to the position - which seems unlikely given how utterly badly the Stags are doing so far this season! So there could be some former-Forest interest at Hillsborough soon - it’s certainly a management task that requires some serious attention and it’s not going to be an easy job!
Unlike many Forest fans, I don’t really have much of an axe to grind with Megson - he failed, unquestionably, but I think he did a lot of ‘dirty work’ that needed to be done - he also made some great signings (and some bad ones!), so if he does get the post then since I similarly have no particular strong feelings for the Owls, I couldn’t really care less whether he does well or not. There are certainly teams in the Championship I would enjoy seeing struggle more.
If Brian Laws were appointed then I would take more interest in Wednesday, much as I do with Manchester City at the moment with Pearce at the helm (but for how long?). Laws was one of my very favourite Forest players, so I’ve always kept an eye on his progress as a manager - certainly whilst it made me feel physically sick, if I had to get tonked 4-0 at home in the league - I’m glad it was for his benefit rather than any other manager.
