Former Sheffield Wednesday player Carlton Palmer has revealed that the current Owls squad wish that current boss Darren Moore was brought in earlier in the season as they're enjoying working for him.
Wednesday have endured a tough season which started with a points deduction, and poor results saw the end of Garry Monk's time in charge just a few months into the campaign.
Tony Pulis replaced Monk for just over a month until he departed in December, seemingly unable to work with Owls owner Dejphon Chansiri.
Caretaker boss Neil Thompson steadied the ship but it took over two months for Chansiri to make a move for Moore, who he took from Doncaster Rovers in March to try and arrest the club's slide into League One.
There has been some promising results - wins over Barnsley and Cardiff the main talking points - but back-to-back defeats against QPR and Swansea have left the Owls eight points from safety with five games to play.
Moore's positive COVID test would not have helped and he may not be seen for the rest of the season as he has developed pneumonia following the onset of the virus.
His absence may be a big blow in the dressing room, as former England international Palmer believes that Moore is well-liked by the squad.
“All I’ve heard is just positivity coming out since Darren went in there," Palmer told FootballFanCast.
"What I’m hearing is they all wish that Darren had gone in there earlier - there’s a lot of positive feedback about Darren.”
The Verdict
The Owls players were clearly playing for their manager when they secured wins over Barnsley and the drubbing against Cardiff City, so the rumblings Palmer has been hearing may be correct.
Obviously there's been losses in there as well, and it will be a mystery to the Wednesday fans as to why they can't create any kind of consistency - that may be their downfall as they move even closer to League One.
With his absence for at least the next few games and perhaps the rest of the season, we may see how much they are fighting for Moore whilst he's away as they look to pick up five wins in their last five games to stay in the second tier.