Spinning off the soap opera of Sheffield Wednesday in 2025 are a number of fascinating sub-plots.
A spiralling summer has left an Owls outfit short on numbers but showing signs of huge togetherness in these early stages of a campaign that has already seen highs and lows. Circumstances far beyond his control have left new boss Henrik Pedersen with a threadbare squad likely to spent the campaign scrapping at the bottom end of the table; though with it has come a golden opportunity for many.
Alongside the rapid graduation of a number of academy players, several fringe members of the set-up that finished in midtable last time out have been ushered to more central roles after the mass departure of more frontline names.
One such beneficiary is Charlie McNeill. Signed to a whirlwind of excitement last summer when his time as a standout figure in Manchester United’s youth ranks came to an end last summer, the forward saw his Championship contribution limited to a total of 55 minutes across four staggered substitute appearances. Opportunities to leave on loan came to nothing when it was decided his development would better kept in-house.
Now, the youngster has made back-to-back Championship starts and has shown further moments of encouragement at the outset of a campaign he is likely to continue to feature heavily in.
Asked about McNeill’s development, Owls boss Henrik Pedersen positioned the attacker as the most talented finisher the club have to offer, but perhaps more fascinatingly described the human elements he has noticed in the youngster’s approach at Middlewood Road in the last weeks.
Sheffield Wednesday's Charlie McNeill has been thrown into a more senior role this season. Picture: Steve Ellis.placeholder image
Sheffield Wednesday's Charlie McNeill has been thrown into a more senior role this season. Picture: Steve Ellis.
“Charlie is starting to recognise how much you have to do every day to have a chance ever of playing Championship football,” the Dane told The Star. “To play Championship football is not for everyone, it's tough. It's not enough to have one good game and then three, then one good training and then three. It's about doing it every day, again and again.
“Since the summer and when he came from his holiday, I think he has been fantastic. Charlie has the best finishing in the squad, fantastic finishing. But if you don't have the discipline to run into the position again and again and again, you don't get the finishing. The finishing doesn't help. The tactical discipline to be part of a pressing team, to be part of the team that when the ball is here or there you have to be here or there. Here he has improved a lot.”
Ahead of his signing for Wednesday McNeill’s senior experience had been limited to loan stints at Stevenage and Newport County that delivered fairly underwhelming results considering his prodigious reputation as a youth level goal machine. Noises around the player at the time of his move to South Yorkshire described not only a player in need of a fresh start, but one that needed to clear his head. Pedersen touched on such themes when discussing his satisfaction at McNeill’s progress so far.
“He has improved a lot for his 'no evaluation, just action',” he said. “He has a high standard for what he is doing and if the situation is not as he expected it, sometimes he could be a little bit down and he could stay in this situation instead of accepting and going to the next action.
“This skill has improved a lot and that is why we have seen the human has developed a lot and that the stability in his performance has got better and better. I have big expectations for him. He is an example of someone who is a good football player, but the human has to develop before the football player can be developed.”
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