Saturday 26th September 1998.
It was the start of the decline
44 minutes into a game against Arsenal and an innocuous shove by Wim Jonk on Patrick Vieira ended in Paulo Di Canio being sent off for a shove on the referee
There were other factors involved such as the failed floatation of stock to Charterhouse and poor investment inplaying talent, but pretty much the last 20 years worth of decline can be derived from that one moment and the total mismanagement of the situation from that time is what led to the clubs longest spell outside the top flight in its 151 year history.
The board dispensed with Big Ron at the end of the 97/98 season in an act of spite, to be replaced too much hilarity by Danny Wilson.
Now Wilson was a nice bloke, but was completely out of his depth.
After keeping the club up following the aftermath and subsequent departure of Di Canio post Allcock, we went into the 1999/2000 season on the back of a spending splurge, adding strikers Gilles de Bilde and Gerald Sibon for a combined £5M
Added to a squad that had experienced keepers in Pressman and Srnicek, stalwart Des Walker, the dependable Emerson Thome, Dutch international Wim Jonk, Swedish star Niclas Alexandersson and internationals such as Petter Rudi & Andy Hinchcliffe + Carbone
With a splattering of workmanlike journeymen around them how could Wednesday fail to preserve their ever-present premier league tag?
Well they did. Spectacularly! Slipping out of the top flight with little fight!
Wednesday failed to win a single league game until 2nd October, when they thumped Wimbledon at Hillsborough.
Wilson was unable to get anything out of the talent at his disposal, falling out with and eventually banishing Carbone, whilst his big signings flopped massively. When he was eventually sacked it was ultimately too late, and we were relegated after blowing a 3-1 lead at Highbury to draw 3-3
Peter Shreeves admirably took the reigns for the final run in but the damage had already been done. Despite completing a league double over Wimbledon and an impressive 1-0 home win over Chelsea three successive defeats, including a 4-1 thrashing at Coventry, meant Wednesday went into the final two games knowing they could only stay up on goal difference.
So to the last game of the season - a 4-0 thrashing of mid table Leicester City. Looking back I could never have imagined that we would go twenty years outside the top flight. Having grown up not really remembering us being outside the Premier League I assumed after a whistle stop tour a Massive club like us would bounce straight back.
Walking out of the ground that day me and my mates decided “Let’s get season tickets next season, we don’t want to miss out on the promotion party” 😏
More on that to follow.
