Plans, preparation, players: Sheffield Wednesday survived – so what happens next?

It’s three months until the 2024/25 campaign gets underway on August 10th, and Danny Röhl has already started working on the way forward as they look to make sure that they’re facing another relegation battle in a year’s time

Here are the things that should be top of the club’s to-do list:

Sort of out the future of their manager

It’s a hot topic given the incredible job that he’s done at Wednesday, and plenty of Owls fans are concerned that the man who oversaw their remarkable turnaround since October may not be here when the new season begins. Getting clarity on that is paramount.

Everything he’s said suggested that he wants to stick around, but only if he gets the buy-in from above, and he says that he wants to ‘make the next step’.

“I need a clear strategy of what we can do and what we want to do… I am very hungry for more and when you feel the atmosphere in the stadium you can feel that everybody is hungry for more at this club.

“The experience of the Championship shows us we must be prepared for a tough season and I think the biggest mistake you can make is to think it is good enough what we are doing now. Now we must make the next step and for this we must bring all the things together on the table and we must speak about this.

“We have a clear direction on what we have to improve and if we can do this I think we can go into a good pre-season, this is important. And then we go into the next season.”

It would come as a huge boost for everyone at the club if a new contract was negotiated, and a long-term plan put in place.

Finalise preseason

Röhl said that they were nearly done, explaining that they have plans to visit Germany for part of their preseason and then have another camp in the UK as well. He doesn’t want a large spell away, and has made it clear that he’s eager to build a team before they go.

He told The Star recently, “We know when we’ll start, when we’ll have the medical checks, and all the big key dates we have in our schedule. We’ll prepare everything so that we’re ready - I think you need a good preseason, a strong preseason, and for that you need a good squad.

“It makes no sense to go into preseason camps with lots of players unavailable… There are lots of things on my list, but for now my focus is on this season.”

Build that squad

To say that Wednesday’s current group of players for the new season is threadbare would be an understatement. Around 20 are out of contract at the end of next month, and – as previously mentioned – Röhl wants to have a solid core in place by the time preseason begins.

That means contract extensions for the ones he wants to keep, it means transfer talks for the ones he wants to buy, and it also means some difficult conversations with those that will see their Owls careers come to an end. It’s something that the Wednesday boss knows has to happen soon.

“It is clear that the players and some people around want some answers on what happens in the future,” he’s told The Star. “For me it is also important that we have those answers as soon as possible.

“We should make the signals for the future to go in the right direction; extending contracts, make new contracts, try to buy some players who are at the moment not our players. This is a big job for immediately after the season, but for this I think I need some answers and you know what I mean.