"Not relevant" - Some at Sheffield Wednesday dubbed "embarrassing" as unpopular opinion verdict delivered | OneFootball

Our Owls Fan Pundit has picked up on a trend among fans he doesn’t enjoy

Football fans always have slight gripes with their fellow supporters, and Sheffield Wednesday is no different.

The Owls stand as one of the oldest clubs in England’s top four divisions, and have a trophy cabinet some clubs could only dream of, but have not been at their peak for decades now.

Still, their history leads some fans to disparage the more recent, but perhaps less tangible, success of other clubs.

When we asked our Wednesday Fan Pundit, Patrick, for his most unpopular opinion about his club, it was this sentiment that he turned to first.

Wednesday urged to recognise their current position

Speaking to Football League World, Patrick said: “I’d imagine this would be quite unpopular with some folk, but I think that Wednesday fans need to be a bit more realistic regarding how big a club we are right now.

“Of course, we are historically a big club. We've got fantastic support, home and away. In terms of trophies won, years in the top flight and everything, yeah, we're still up there.

“But to say we're a sleeping giant wouldn't really be fair, it’s more like a comatose sleeping giant.

“So, really, if you’re looking at the now-25 years we have spent outside the top flight, the horrible fact for a lot of football fans growing up, and even ones in their 20s, Sheffield Wednesday, we’re not relevant in terms of a top-flight club, we haven't been there.

“In those 25 years, we've been a team yo-yo-ing between Championship and League One with two seasons where we nearly got into the Premier League.

“So, you do find fans – and this is one word that I absolutely hate – talking about other clubs being ‘tinpot’. But this term is being thrown at clubs that have currently overtaken us in the past 25 years.

“Your Brentfords, your Fulhams and even teams like Southampton and it's baffling and frustrating, yeah, sure, for Wednesday who have bigger away support than Brentford and Fulham, and we’ve won more trophies.

“But, you look at Brentford. They're an established Premier League club, they’re forward-thinking.

“So, yeah, I think Wednesday fans, yeah, we can always, of course, be proud of our history and recognise that we are a big thing, but for a lot of football fans now, rightfully so, they’ll say, ‘How are Wednesday a big team?’ They've never been in Premier League for years, haven't won a trophy in years.

“To be honest, growing up as a kid, if there was a team in the Championship and League One for the first 20 years I was supporting football, yeah, I wouldn't be seeing them as a big team.

“So it won't take much, it’s not impossible for us to get going again, but yeah, recognise our current position in football and stop with the tinpot references because it's embarrassing.”

Fans can spend too long worrying about the ‘size’ of their club

The size of one club versus another is a concept that regularly enters football debates online but, on the whole, it’s a fruitless argument.

As Patrick outlines, how ‘big’ a club is depends very much on the metrics used to assess the clubs, the age of the person making the argument and how much weight someone gives to the various factors.

The Owls have a heap more silverware than a club like Brighton, but the Seagulls have a great chance of securing European football.

Would Wednesday do anything for a season in the top flight and a European tour? Would Brighton love a trophy haul like Wednesday boasts? The answer is yes to both, rendering the endless arguments about who’s bigger useless.

As Patrick states, the Owls would be better focusing on how to make that next step towards the top rather than circular discussions that will never truly be answered.