Darren Moore - Can the perennial 'nearly-man' turn the tide at Wednesday.

In his short managerial career to date, Darren Moore has split opinion with a mixed bag of results. Coming close to glory twice at West Brom, before leaving Doncaster to plummet from the playoff place towards which he had guided them. He cut his teeth as a manger when Alan Pardew left West Brom 10 points from safety in April 2018. New boy Moore came in and achieved an upturn in results, going undefeated for the remainder of April including a 1-0 away win at Manchester United. Moore halved the distance from safety to 5 points, however he could not prevent relegation. Despite this, he had earned his managerial stripes and was appointed as permanent baggies boss at the end of the season.

 

He was sacked by West Brom in the following season (2018/2019) despite the club’s strong position in the playoff places, 7 points clear of seventh place. It was a decision which confused many, and was widely criticised, especially given Moore’s position at the time as one of the few black managers in the football league. The decision fuelled further debate around the lack of managers from BAME backgrounds, with former Manchester United forward Dwight Yorke quoted saying, “If it is not because of the colour of our skin, then tell me what it is”.  England and Manchester City forward, Raheem Sterling spoke out in the wake of the death of George Floyd calling for greater representation of minorities across the sport, where at least 33% of native players are black, yet they make up just 1% of managerial roles across Europe’s top 5 leagues. As one of the few, Moore has to some extent become the face of the struggle to increase the number of Black managers in football and towards a fairer representation of the involvement and contributions of BAME within the sport.

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Moore’s latest appointment, Sheffield Wednesday, have stuttered and stumbled within the confines of the bottom 3 in a season where their 6-point deduction could well be the difference between safety and damnation. Moore has not been able to impact results as he’d hoped, cutting a 6-point deficit from safety to 4, but with two games to go, the Owls remain in the fight. Moore lost his first game in charge, a crucial relegation crunch match against Rotherham, and subsequently went a further 3 games without a win. He sparked hope of survival with a victory against promotion hopefuls Barnsley before testing positive for COVID-19. Nevertheless, in his absence, the owls were able to conjure up an unexpected 5-0 drumming of Cardiff at the beginning of April - a real boost for team morale. A season of ups and (more often) downs, took another hit when it was announced that Moore had been hospitalised with pneumonia following his bout of COVID-19. A return date is unknown, and it is likely that the owls will face their crucial final two games without their gaffer. As things stand, they remain 4 points behind Derby, who they play on the final day, so if they can better Derby’s result on penultimate weekend, then the relegation battle will be poised beautifully for a ‘relegation play-off final’.

 

 

In truth, Moore’s appointment at Wednesday felt just as much like preparation for the third tier than expectation of staying in the second. Moore’s experience as academy coach and loans manager at West Brom are attractive notches on a CV which has a history of promoting and developing youth from within. This is something he had success in league 1 at Doncaster, where he brought in several young players from premier league academies, such as Manchester City’s Matt Smith, Wolverhampton Wanderers Cameron John, and Brighton’s Taylor Richards. These players contributed to the joint fourth youngest squad in league 1 this season and helped Doncaster into an unexpected playoff place at the time of Moore’s departure.

 

 

 

Whatever happens in the remainder of this championship campaign, Sheffield Wednesday will hope that Moore can turn around a situation at the club which has seen fans exposed to two seasons of drab inconsistency on the pitch. Moore’s managerial history and credentials lends itself to a belief that things could be about to change. Neutral spectators will also wish them well, with Moore unwittingly becoming  the champion of further BAME representation in our game - he shoulders more responsibility than perhaps he bargained for.

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