🦉 Barry Bannan on the Sheffield Wednesday captaincy decision - Henrik Pedersen talks injuries and more

For this week's episode of The Wednesday Word show, we sat down with Barry Bannan, and also asked Henrik Pedersen a couple of questions after watching Sheffield Wednesday train at their base in Telki.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

She um burst out crying, obviously, cuddled me. And then she just followed up by saying it's not um sad tears, it's happy tears.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

How's it going everybody? Joe Cram from the Wednesday Word here. Welcome to another edition of the show. This is a pretty cool one. We've had a very good day here in Telke at the Global Hotel. Spoken to Henrik Pedersen, spoken to Barry Bannon, and yeah, I've got some really cool stuff from both of them coming up in this week's episode. Uh, have done an interview with Sill Sfinkles as well, but that one will be uh a special episode a little bit further down the line. First up, Henrik Pedersen. Just wanted to ask for a little bit of an injury wrap-up, really. Obviously, we've seen some of the guys who are training away from the others. I heard there was a problem with Bruno Fernandez as well. Um, I just wondered if you could give us like a bit of a wrap of where things were at.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Bruno have uh had the same operation as um as um Brown. Uh so he will be out for four months or something. Yeah. Um Ricardo will be on the pitch Friday, I think. And uh Coop will be on the pitch tomorrow. Um this is working and it's gonna be better and better. So he's also a part of the training in the afternoon. Um so they are all slowly coming back again now. So yeah, it's it's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Excellent. Um with the the sort of the players you have left to sign, how many are we talking? Are we still talking like 10 plus that you're looking to bring in?

SPEAKER_01 1:42

No, no, no, not at all. Not at all. But we we we we still look for a handful or plus, but but let's see, let's take it step by step, and then we'll see how we grow uh with the players we have, and then of course we we need more players, but how many let's see for the players we get in um for how many we need. Yeah, things got really tough last season.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Um did it ever get to a point when you were considering walking away from it, like or were you always just so eager to be part of this project and what was going to come eventually? Of course not.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

No, uh I think it was a it was a tough challenge, but it was also on the other side an amazing challenge. Um and how we are all grown together from this challenge is amazing, and then with the new ownership, the new structure to build on. So I think the culture, what we created last season, not only internal players, staff, coaches, employers, but also the connection with the fans was amazing, and sorry. So it was never a part of my uh thoughts or my feeling or my idea. I I love to stay here and uh I'm proud to stay here and I love to be a part of this rebuild, and um I'm sure we'll do it really really well.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

And just lastly, for me, how much are you looking forward to walking out into a packed at Hillsborough again?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

No, I am we with so many season tickets uh sold and with this group of players we have, and um yeah, I'm looking so much forward to to show all the fans what we have done in the pre-season and and and let things get going. I want when we play at Hillsborough that we play to scoring goals, that we that we have this verticality. So the patient will be very often in the in the building, in the start phase of the building up, but we have to see a tree with tree on the side is a good situation to play vertical instead of circulate the ball again. So hopefully a team who likes to have the ball and who has a clear identity on the ball and who has a big big uh injection of verticality. Um and and at the same time you can see this um the this positional discipline that we not run just run around, no, there's a purpose with our position. So when we start to speed up the game, that we have good organized to speed up and to have many players in front of the ball, but we also good organised to lose the ball so we can use the lust of the ball to have good repress to create transition again.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

And now we've got Baz, an emotional return Sheffield Wednesday for him this summer. Spoke to him about what his daughter Elsie thought about him being back in blue and white, and also his thoughts on this new captaincy uh situation at Sheffield Wednesday with Liam Palmer taking the armband, him sitting as vice, and a whole new leadership group being set up. Baz, how did Elsie take it when you told her you were coming back?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

So when I agreed on the phone, I went to do bedtime with her. Um I just had to come in and I think it was Friday night, I was in on Saturday to the testing. So I told her Friday night and when I was putting her down to sleep, and she um burst out crying, obviously, cuddled me, and then she just followed up by saying it's not um sad tears, it's happy tears. So that was kind of the same story when I signed the contract last summer. Um so she was delighted, obviously. Um this cob's massive to her, is weird as it sounds but she it's all she's known really. Um she grew up with me at Jeff U Wednesday, and as she started to learn more about what her dad had done, she started to get involved, um she loves the limelight and she got it quite a lot at games, so nah, she was she was delighted.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Um I see you've got number 10 on your shirt there. I presume there was no fight to get that back.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Luckily I was there was no one trying to steal it. Um to be honest, I um I was thinking of going back to 41 because I feel that was probably one of my most happy seasons at the club, obviously we lost in the final to Hull that year, but there was a bit of me thinking, do you change? But I think because I've had 10 for so long and there's a loads of people in Sheffield who see me younger kids as 10. I thought I'll just stick with it.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

It's got to make sure their shirts are out of date as well, they keep wearing wearing retons there.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah, there'll be a lot of old kits, I would imagine, probably, still floating around Sheffield, so I couldn't let them down.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

You you've well sorry, we spoke to Henrik earlier uh and he said that that Palms is gonna cap um so you carry on as club to captain Yogra come in as as vice. I mean, you guys have known each other so long, I I imagine it's just gonna be effectively two captains this season, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Nothing changes for me really. Um obviously I'm quite vocal, changing room around the training ground on the pitch, so it didn't ever take an armband for me to be like that. That was just my personality. Um so no, it's totally understandable. Um probably couldn't give it to a better person when I handed it over when I left. So I think Pamsay's been here his whole career, amazing person, loves the club, so no, it's it's it's not a problem to me. Uh it don't change anything for me. Um I'll still be vocal on the pitch, still be a leader around the training training ground and stuff like that. So it doesn't take like uh an armband for me to do that.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Absolutely. Seem having a lot of conversations with with Henrik out there on the pitcher, like you say, I know you're a vocal person anyway, but how excited are you to see what Henrik can do with a a proper team, you know, like with a a real group of players and not having to sort of pick and choose just from a a group of youngsters that are maybe not ready. Do you think you we're going to see a very different Sheffield Wednesday in in every way this season?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, well he's he's had a playing style the whole time, he's been manager, but we've not had the chance to bring people in to fit that philosophy, so it's been completely different this summer where you can actually go and sign players that the manager sees fitting into his squad. So he's had the benefit of that, so he's he's going to be definitely different. Um you'll see a different team on the pitch, and I think he deserves it because us as players obviously see it close up and know how good a manager and coach he is. From the outside, it probably looks a bit bleak because of the the results in the record last season, but his hands were tied behind his back as well as the players last season, so it's only fair that he he gets a proper crack at it. And I think the way he dealt with everything last season, and the hardest thing must have been for Henrik was to keep a changing room inspired to go out there and give the roll, considering what was happening, and he done that brilliantly. So his actual motivation and man management skills are very underrated. So he's a lovely person. Um so I'm delighted that he's got a fair crack at the whip, and it's a great chance. A massive common league one who are spending money and bringing players in, so it's a great it's a great chance for him.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Just lastly for me, it was very emotional when you left. Saw you leaving the pitch you know at Aylesborough, but also the in the in the game where you did the thing in the change room as well. How's it gonna feel walking back out of Aylesborough again?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Amazing. Um I think we even you you don't think you're ever gonna come back because at 36 it might it might never happen again, so that was all that emotion because it felt like it could be the end, but hopefully it's not. So that's why it all came out like that. But I think it might just be as bad to going back out there. Um I don't know how I'm gonna take it. I didn't think I was gonna react the way I reacted when I left. Um so my wife was on to me about that because she says she's adamant I never cried coming down when she walked down the aisle. I did, but she's adamant I never. Um so she was a bit surprised that I was crying. But it might be the same when I go back out there because it's gonna be a different emotion completely, and then you look at your kids in the stand again, and your wife in the stand again, and I don't know how it's gonna go, but I'm excited for it, I'm looking forward to it. Um I can't wait to get back to playing in front of the fans at Hillsborough. Um deja vu all over again.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

And here we are back in the hotel. It's been a long and very enjoyable day with Sheffield Wednesday. We've uh we've learnt loads, we've had some great insight from people like Barre, like Henrik, and and you know, again, as I've said before, watching watching this team train, watching professional football teams train in general is is is fascinating. And watching this team um having seen them last year and looking what Henrik is trying to do with them now is is really really intriguing. And I'm I'm genuinely fascinated to see how it sort of plays out in in real life when they're up against opponents rather than themselves. There was a little bit of bad news today. Uh had it confirmed that Bruno Fernandez is going to be out for around four months. He's picked up a hamstring injury that's required surgery. It's the same operation that George Brown had. So, yeah, we're not going to be seeing Bruno Fernandez for quite some time, which is uh a real shame because he's a very, very talented footballer who's had a pretty tough time of things on the injury front lately. But yeah, as uh as Henrik mentioned, we are hoping to see a little bit more of Ricardo Santos, Liam Cooper, Deshaun Bernard in the a little bit more distant future potentially. But it's all looking very good for Wednesday. They are still working on trying to do something for Tommy O'Reilly, as my um esteemed colleague Alex Miller has reported. So that's something in the works as well. Um I mentioned in my uh Substack chat earlier that I've been sort of informed that anyone waiting on ours memberships, match day prices, that that's something that they can you know watch out for in the in the very near future. I know it's something that a lot of people have been wondering about, not everybody can afford to have a season ticket, or it makes sense to have a season ticket. So ours memberships are a good way of um of getting involved and going to games that way. So, yeah, that's another thing to look out for. But yeah, it's uh it's been uh a really uh really fascinating few days to be honest. Um managed to try quite a lot in the Budapest, food, drink, um, been around, like I said, spent uh a fair bit of time with some of the players over at uh at um in Telkey at the Global Hotel, the the sort of the national team base for Hungary, and it's been very rewarding, I think. And yeah, looking forward to another day we're going through to them in the morning on on Thursday morning. I apologise by the way about the the lateness of this video. I I am trying to get it out still before it becomes Thursday back in the UK, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna make that or not. But yeah, it's been uh like I say, it's been a really interesting time, and um looking forward to one last day of that before we head through to Austria. We'll be watching Wednesday against uh Stoke City in Vienna in a couple of days' time, and that should be uh an even more interesting look at where Wednesday are at. And obviously that game will be streamed, so uh even though myself, uh you know, even though I'll be there in the flesh watching it, you guys at home can watch it as well. The couple of confirmed that they uh they're gonna be streaming that game. So Yeah. Uh on that note I think I will wrap it up. I'll see you next time.