Sheffield Wednesday decision in 2015 could have landed them Premier League millions | OneFootball

Wednesday's former boss Carlos Carvalhal almost took them to the promised land of the Premier League.

Sheffield Wednesday’s 2015 appointment of Carlos Carvalhal almost brought them the Premier League millions that nearly every team in the Championship is chasing year after year.

Wednesday appointed the Portuguese boss in June 2015 and he repaid their faith in with back-to-back play-off finishes during his two seasons in South Yorkshire, before he eventually left by mutual consent on Christmas Eve in 2017.

Carvalhal’s side were defeated by Hull City in the 2016 Championship play-off final, and that remains the closest the Owls have come to regaining their top flight status since their last Premier League campaign back in 1999/2000.

Since the Portuguese left Wednesday, the South Yorkshire outfit have endured a steady decline as a club, but with current boss Danny Röhl doing an impressive job at present, the good times could soon be back at Hillsborough.

Carvalhal almost took Wednesday into the Premier League

When Carvalhal took over in the blue half of Sheffield in 2015, it had been six seasons since Wednesday last finished in the top half of the Championship. That spell had included a brief, two-year stint in League One, a level which a club of their size should never really find itself at.

The Owls job was the Portuguese’s first assignment in the last three years, but he showed little signs of managerial rustiness, leading the team to a sixth-placed finish in the Championship.

Goals from Ross Wallace and Kieran Lee saw them defeat Brighton 2-0 in the first leg of their play-off semi-final, before a draw on the South Coast meant Wednesday booked their place at Wembley.

However, they were agonisingly beaten under the famous arch, with a screamer from Mo Diame providing the Tigers with the only goal of the game and sealing a promotion estimated to be worth at least £170million.

It was also a similar story for Carvalhal in the second season of his Hillsborough tenure. This time, he led the team to a fourth-placed finish, only to be beaten in a penalty shootout by eventual play-off winners Huddersfield Town in the post-season semi-finals.

Despite the impressive job he had done, Carvalhal left Wednesday the following winter, after a seven-game winless run had left them rooted in the bottom half of the second tier table.

While the Portuguese boss’ time at the club ended in disappointing fashion, his stint in the home dugout at Hillsborough remains the closest Wednesday have come to securing their return to the Premier League.

His time at the club will always be remembered positively by the supporters, but unfortunately, he couldn’t quite get them over the line and into the top flight.

Carvalhal has had several jobs since leaving Wednesday

Since he left Wednesday, Carvalhal has not really stayed in any of his jobs for very long.

Less than a week after he departed South Yorkshire, he became manager of then-Premier League side Swansea City. However, after a promising start saw him defeat both Liverpool and Arsenal during his first month in the job, the Swans were ultimately relegated back to the Championship at the end of the 2017/18 campaign.

That remains the last job Carvalhal has had in England. After his Swansea stint ended, he moved back to his homeland, first with Rio Ave and then with Braga, before an extremely brief spell with UAE outfit Al Wahda.

He has since taken charge of Celta Vigo and Olympiacos, and is now back at Braga for his third spell in charge of the club.

Over the last few years, Wednesday have had several bosses attempt to bring success to the blue side of the steel city, but none have come as close as Carvalhal.

The Owls faithful will be hoping that Röhl stays around long enough to become the man who leads them back to the Premier League, but with a recent poor run harming their outside chance of a play-off finish, Carvalhal looks like he will remain as the last manager to lead Wednesday into a Championship play-off campaign for another season at least.