Owls Blog - The sleeping giant's snooze button
Last Updated on Friday, 31 July 2009 21:59
Owls BlogWednesdayite.com's new regular Owls Blogger, Tom Hocking, uniquely presents his views on the whole 'sleeping giant' tag, starting with a look back to a big day out some four years ago...
"Last week we played Hartlepool United in a friendly. We won 2-0 and put in, by all accounts, a rather commanding performance. I know we are now moving 'forward together’, but allow me to rewind four years, if you will.
We played Hartlepool in a quite-the-opposite-of-a-cold-Tuesday-night-friendly match. 40,000 Owls took over Cardiff (I’m sure you all remember!) and, after much nail-biting, Drew Talbot slotted the ball past Dimitrios Konstantopoulos (what a name!) to score that goal in front of the Wednesday faithful and give us a famous 4-2 victory.
Now, a lot has changed in those four years at Hillsborough. By logic, our defence has got 2 goals better, whilst our attack has got 2 goals worse (although, in Cardiff, our attack had another 30 minutes to add those 2 goals – who is to say that wouldn’t have happened last week?!). Anyway, we all know football doesn’t work like that. It is, after all, a funny old game.
It is off the pitch that the changes have been the most interesting. After Cardiff, the phrase ‘the sleeping giant is waking’ was chucked about so often I lost count. This was it, Sheffield Wednesday were going to rise back up to the Premier League. Instead, seemingly the sleeping giant sat up, opened its eyes, looked around, grimaced at the outside world, hit the ‘snooze’ button on the alarm clock, closed its eyes and rolled over to catch some more z’s.
Three years later, 36,000 alarms went off again as Wednesday destroyed Norwich on the last day of the 07/08 season to retain their place in the Championship. Optimism was high for the next season but again the giant looked around and said ‘no thanks’, before hammering the snooze button and burrowing into his blue and white duvet. This time the sleep felt deeper, pills had been taken that were hard to swallow, waking up had never felt so far away.
Last Christmas, Santa Claus (don’t let the red and white fool you, he’s a Wednesday fan at heart) came along and did his beloved giant a favour - He took out the trash, which had been building for too long, and left a couple of nicely wrapped presents under the tree.
Lee Strafford and Nick Parker entered the house, grabbed the giant by its shoulders and shook it out of the slumber. At first the giant was confused, it wasn’t sure who these people were, it was cautious and cynical – his previous carers hadn’t been too nice, who was to say these new ones were any better?
Strafford and Parker put their arm around the giant and offered it support as the giant’s creaky knees swung over the side of the bed and began to stand up.
The joints were frail at first, they had forgotten their old strength, they buckled under the weight of such a large body (he is, after all, a rather large giant), but Strafford and Parker were constantly there to reassure, offer support, lead the giant forward.
They gave him a shave, brushed his teeth, cut his hair, sent the dusty blue and white suit that was hanging in the wardrobe to the dry-cleaners. It's the smallest things that count the most when you are building up trust.
The giant started to open its eyes properly and look out of the window. The world had changed while it had been asleep, average players drove Ferraris down the road, ignoring the grand old men that were curled up on the street, begging for some spare change from the embarrassing riches.
'It's a strange world', the giant thought, as he stood in his dressing gown, looking out there. His suit was back now, emblazoned proudly with The Children’s Hospital Charity logo across its chest. Strafford and Parker had laid it out for him, but at the end of the day, the giant knew he had to put the suit on himself. He, and 40,000 others must stand together, take that step outside the door and join the rest of the real world after such a long sleep.
Just along the path awaits a little man, clad in red. He has a little smirk on his face. As the blue and white giant approaches, the smirk disappears;
- “Who are you, son?”
- “B…B….Barnsley, sir.” The young boy strains his neck, looking up at the giant.
- “Are you now?” Chuckles the giant, as his followers amass behind him, “then you are the first challenge of the new Sheffield Wednesday.”
The giant smiles - and with that, his followers roar."
Is Sheffield Wednesday's 'sleeping giant' tag justified? What are your thoughts on the club being reawoken? How do you think the Owls will do against Barnsley? Post your comments below.
The views expressed in Wednesdayite.com blog articles are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Wednesdayite, The Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Society Ltd, or anyone associated with the society.
Here i was expecting some kind of analysis of the Wednesday, and i get a childish extrapolation of a poor analogy! Are we supposed to believe Wednesday will suddenly be avwsome because Lee Strafford has 'brushed an immaginary giant's teeth?' You can tell its been a long time since the last match, roll on Barnsley. UTO!
