Owls In a Spin

Sheffield Wednesday are having something of an up and down season in the Championship. Top of the table on opening day they conceded four to Wolves the following week and six to Reading over the next few weeks. They have done the double over Sheffield United for the first time since the Boer War, or something, but also lost to South Yorkshire's other three teams, including Rotherham United in the League Cup. Somewhat inevitably they remain lodged firmly in mid-table.

However, the Owls' new Chairman Lee Strafford has been learning to put a positive spin on things. Last month the club offered their shirt sponsorship to the city's Childrens Hospital, with the charity getting to place their logo on Wednesday's shirts for the next two seasons. As Strafford himself puts it; "We're proud to say loud and clear that Sheffield Wednesday wants to break the current football mould by getting away from the perception that football is just about money". All very amicable, but for Wednesday it really should be about the money; with the club currently in a reported debt of £25million can such potential income really be cast aside.

Whilst he may not be raking in every potential income stream, Strafford has been a little quicker to highlight the club's expenditure with an article on the club's official website yesterday claiming the Owls have the lowest wage bill in the division. Whilst there is no doubting that the club's wage bill will be below the recent parachute payment backed Premier League demotees it seems unlikely that Wednesday's squad will be earning less than their contemporaries at Barnsley, Blackpool, Doncaster and Plymouth.

Either way the club's website went on to redraft the Championship table, affording points per estimated million pounds spent on wages, and wouldn't you know it Wednesday came out on top; numero uno. "I cannot claim these figures are 100 per cent accurate,"admitted Strafford, "but we know the kind of financial bracket most of our fellow clubs are working within so hopefully this gives you an indication of where we stand at the moment - overachieving on the pitch!" In short, as we all know 85% of statistics are made up on the spot and 76% of made-up figures are usually twisted favourably