Sheffield Wednesday 0 v 2 Ipswich Town
EFL Championship
Saturday, 14th March 2026 Kick-off 15:00

Pedersen: I Have the Biggest Respect For How Ipswich Has Been Rebuilt
Sunday, 15th Mar 2026 00:27

Sheffield Wednesday boss Henrik Pedersen felt his players should be proud to have competed as long as they did against a side as strong as Town during their 2-0 defeat at Hillsborough and says he plans to talk to Blues manager Kieran McKenna to sound him out on what the Owls can learn from Town as administration-hit, League One-bound Wednesday look to rebuild.

The South Yorkshire club, bottom of the table and with relegation having been confirmed almost a month ago, held out until the 78th minute when Ivan Azon netted his fifth goal for the Blues, then five minutes later top scorer Jack Clarke converted his fifth penalty of the season and 13th strike in total to complete a victory which sees Town move back to third.

“We really gave it a go today.” Pedersen said. “We knew to play against Ipswich, they have maybe the most interesting and the best individual team in the league and with a top manager they have a really, really good cocktail, so it was a big job for the boys today.

“We also knew that intensity would be a key thing and in the third game in the week, we also knew to have this mentality together with the body, it could be a challenge.

“And after seven or eight minutes when the body really starts to work, we came really well into the game and we played really, really strongly defensively in the first half.

“It was difficult for them in the first half and we had some good transitions where we also could have created something.

“In the second half we had some challenges in the first six or seven minutes, they changed some things on our right side, then we changed [ourselves] and then we started to control and we had a really good period in the last three of four minutes before the goal.

“We were strong there, especially after the subs after 60 or 65 minutes, then we had a really, really good period.

“But the goal, we had a good press, we won the ball and then we lost the ball, then it was a transition against us.

“And then after this it’s really difficult to come back against such a strong team like them, but the boys again gave everything on the pitch and, as I said in the dressing room, ‘Guys, I love to see that you are disappointed because you want more, but I also think you have to be proud to compete such a strong team for such a long time’.”

Regarding the penalty decision, Clarke having been fouled by Sean Fusire, Pedersen was less than convinced.

“I have not seen that again,” the Dane admitted. “It was my not feeling it was a penalty when I saw it in the game but I have not seen that again.”

Pedersen is set to quiz Town counterpart McKenna about the way the Blues rebuilt following the 2021 takeover as Wednesday begin a similar process of regeneration next season in League One.

“I think we can always learn and I think if we look back at Ipswich four years ago and what they have done, then I have the biggest, biggest respect for what they have done,” he added.

“And one thing is on the pitch, the other thing is off the pitch. How they have rebuilt this football club, it’s amazing.

“I have a meeting with him in the national team break to speak with him and the people from Ipswich about what we can learn from them. He’s a great manager, so, of course, I can learn something from him.”

Photo: TWTD

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armchaircritic59 added 00:51 - Mar 15

I've posted something in the forum about this interview. We've had some very good post match interviews from opposing managers this season ( the odd whinge fest here and there too ), but this tops the lot. He deserves plenty of praise for staying around for the rest of this season, and in my view, given all the circumstances, he's done a really good job. Their players haven't dropped their heads and just given up, he's made sure they are nearly always competitive. The supporters there have played their part too and are still behind their team.

He's spot on about our situation, we weren't so very far from finding ourselves in an unpleasant place to be in, not many years ago. Finding the right owner(s) is crucial. I hope for the sake of those who had nothing to do with the clubs downfall, that they find such owners, and I hope they give HP the chance to show what he can do with a proper squad. In my book he deserves the chance. Best of luck for the future to all concerned.

RadioOrwell added 00:55 - Mar 15 He sounds like a decent bloke. Getting any performances from that team for that club seems heroic to me.
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AndySav04 added 01:35 - Mar 15 Have to admire/acknowledge a Manager talking about the business side of it.
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ITFC_1994 added 02:04 - Mar 15 Nice words! Great reflection of KM, that he is taking the time to meet him over the break! Funny how every manager in the league rates KM so highly but we have some idiot fans who think we should consider changing our 4th possibly 3rd greatest manager of all time... we'd be crazy to ever let him go
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JimmyP45 added 05:11 - Mar 15 Full respect for the attitude HP is showing here. They can learn a lot from how we went about our rebuild but there’s surely a huge elephant in the room here. We had a takeover from very wealthy investors and they are in financial trouble. If they can pull off a decent takeover of the club like we did, then the rebuild should go very well for them.
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Cakeman added 07:44 - Mar 15 Some very nice comments and like others have said I hope he gets a good chance of a rebuild. The good people left at Wednesday deserve a break and I wish them the very best for next season. It’s a a pity the football powers don’t give them a break too.
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Bazza8564 added 07:51 - Mar 15

Jimmy, respectfully theres a lot more too it than just the money. You have to have the right people in place with the ability to build and communicate a long term vision and to manage expectations back on how long it all takes.
What struck me most when GameChanger came in was the opening messages from Mike O'Leary and Mark Ashton. They said then it would take a number of years to get us back in position. And they were prepared to go backwards initially to strip away elements at the club, the playing staff, the club staff, absolutely everything went back to the floorboards and started again.
So many clubs get a takeover and do everything on the pitch and nothing off it, have their moments of glory then disappear again.
Whilst I like this interview, the playing side of ITFC and what we are doing on the pitch is just the tip of the iceberg. MA is the guy SWFC should be talking to, and finding thier own version, otherwise any recovery will be fleeting

johnwarksshorts added 07:51 - Mar 15 The mentality of the players to go out and play match after match when they are already relegated, and with the club in a perilous state is testament to Pedersen. What a great manager they have. I hope this once great club manages to secure a seamless takeover from new owners.
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BangaloreBlues added 08:20 - Mar 15

I feel VERY sorry for Sheffield Wednesday.
A huge club with a great history, big stadium and fan base, should never end up in the situation that they are in.
Only one win all season, none at home, doesn't get more painful than that for fans.
I'm sure they can't wait for the season to be over, and I hope they rebuild quickly and bounce back as a formidable force, as we have done in recent years.

OldFart71 added 08:25 - Mar 15

I'm sure that KM would echo Wedneday managers words in that you never stop learning. I am in my mid seventies and still learn things I didn't know.
As a team we still have things to learn. How to be obstinate, waste time whilst making it look like we are not. Play a game out instead of trying to score more goals when ahead in a tight game.
We know or should know how lucky we are from the bad old days of boring managers and a very poor owner. But we must remember our roots. In general our team seems to be an honest bunch. A few maybe haven't hit the heights that we thought they would.
If we do get to the Premier League again there's still a fair bit to do to make us competitive.But that probably applies to all those fighting to get promoted.

itsonlyme added 08:31 - Mar 15 If any supporters of any club have a right to moan, then Wednesday fans are them. It’s not nice turning up each week knowing what result you’re about to get! We’ve been there and we know that awful feeling! Good luck to them and I’m sure they’ll bounce back very soon!
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churchmans added 08:37 - Mar 15 We where rebuilt with money and lots of it,you wont learn much mr pederson until the great club sheff wed are eventually bought out!
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jas0999 added 08:44 - Mar 15 How ever bad Marcus Evans was - and he was bad - it’s nothing compared to Sheffield Wednesday and their ownership. Feel for them.
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Paulc added 10:01 - Mar 15 Spot on Jas. That is the perspective some people need on this site when commenting. As much as ME did a bad job, he also could have blocked our takeover by not writing of the majority of the debt (probably the one good thing he did for us).
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cardinaldom88 added 10:40 - Mar 15

I like the respect that is shown by the SWFC manager here. It's very sad but intriguing to see the trajectory of the club given that we came up from League 1 in the same season.

With SWFC it seemed that everything ran through the owner, who then stopped funding things for one reason or another. Even calling on the fans to put their own money up to pay club debts. Chansiri evidently got a bit bored of bankrolling the club.

With Evans, he wasn't investing much in moving the club forward but I believe that he was putting in enough money to stop the club from going under.

As mentioned above, it is about getting things right behind the scenes and employing people to run the club that know about football. That is something that both Chansiri and Evans failed to do, in my opinion.

Looking to meet KM and possibly other staff from the front office seems a very sensible thing to do but I feel that it will not be worthwhile if it does not include the prospective owners. It does suggest though that Perdersen is in it for the long haul and fair play to him.

wokingblue added 11:24 - Mar 15 One win all season and still 23,000 there. I hope they keep hold of Pedersen and find a good, committed owner. Unfortunately it also takes money so I also hope they have deep pockets. Good luck Wednesday.
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Ipswichbusiness added 12:49 - Mar 15 I share the sympathy for Sheffield Wednesday, it’s so sad to see a Club like that in distress. However, I fear that just when their fans thought that things couldn’t get any worse, Mike Ashley will pop up and buy it.
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scooby added 15:20 - Mar 15 It's just a pity that if they put as much effort into trying to play football as they did into time wasting from minute one they may be in a better position than they are. Clearly they are doing alot of things right in a horrendous situation but I'm sorry the time wasting was an embarrassment on a massive scale
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PhuketPete added 17:55 - Mar 15

I’m tired of reading jibes at ME. Firstly without his initial intervention we’d have gone bust. Then year after year, although never quite enough, he ploughed ever more of his own money into the club until he was something like £120m out. He brought in some poor managers but also brought in Paul Cook and supported him to recruit many of the fantastic players who formed the backbone of our double promotion winning team. Then he found the right buyers and sold rather cheaply, whilst writing off a huge amount of club debt. No doubt he was desperate to get out of his spiral of ever increasing debt but when he did escape, it was honourably.

I’m short it’s easy to criticise ME for some of what went on but ultimately we owe him for our survival and a good part of our subsequent revival.

I’ve posted this rather late in this thread so few will read it but I wanted to say this anyway

armchaircritic59 added 19:08 - Mar 15

PhuketPete, I largely agree with that. Ok, much of what went on between the beginning and end of ME's time is probably best forgotten, but we owed him a debt of gratitude for steping in when he did, and for keeping to his word that he wouldn't sell the club until what he considered the right owner(s) came along. I think we can all say he did keep that word, and we've avoided any Sheff W type situation.

As for the Owls, as mentioned above, I think HP would be advised to sound out others at our club as well as KM. I wish him and them the best of luck.

BeattiesBackPocket added 00:53 - Mar 16

Phuketpete that’s incorrect. Gamechanger brought the club in April 2021 Cook was brought in by ME in march so already hired and the players you’re talking about chappers, burns etc we brought in under gamechanger in that summer NOT ME.
Also we had 2 that’s TWO other investors ready to take over so he was one of 3 they picked. Evans charged the club interest on HIS growing debt which at the beginning was only 30 million so where did the rest of the debt come from? Not investment in the club it was deteriorating at a rapid rate and a debt was only getting bigger because of the interest he charged. He gave up after the first two years investment as thought he’d get a quick win and return on his money. We were second under mccarthy which was the exact time he should’ve invested but no he didn’t. He hired a NON football man in Clegg who really had no clue how to run a football club, letting players leave for nothing like Norris, Ledbetter leave for no money having invested in them initially, we had Norwich at local schools in Ipswich and we had NO SCOUTS at all in attendance even locally. Lack of investment as Ashton and everyone have said and We shipped out over 65 goal contributions one year in McGoldrick, Waghorn and garner and brought in league one and two players or freebies no one else wanted and we went down and was only going into league two before the new owners came in.
Tell me this how did our debt go from 30 to 130 million did you see 100 million quid in the team or facilities? I definitely didn’t. I can see where our money has gone now instead of languishing towards league two we have a team capable of being in the premier league again, a way better stadium, pitch, new training ground, category one youth team FINALLY, an under 21 and under 18 team competing finally against premier league counterparts the former being above the likes of city Arsenal spurs, a full house with intentions of expanding the ground to 38,000.
I have no grudges against the guy but his poor management are what made the debt out of hand even more and the yearly interest charges. The club was in a huge state when he left way way worse. Let’s not make him out to be Jesus here.