Sheffield Wednesday have messed up in their handling of exciting exit-bound Wolves youngster Theo Corbeanu
“Running down the wing,” they sang. “Makes the Wednesday sing. He’s not going back to Wolves.”
Alex Miller thestar.co.uk January 6 2022
But it seems Theo Corbeanu is going back to Wolves, at least for a day or two, before heading back out on loan to one of Sheffield Wednesday’s closest promotion rivals.
It is a slap in the face for supporters who had taken him to their hearts. Wednesday have a proud history of players of his attacking outlook, of players who run at players with every opportunity and make things happen. Corbeanu was a long way short of the sort of names that spring to mind of course, but he was exciting, bold and full of intent.
Look, he wasn’t the figure some may have painted him to be. A comment on social media surmising that Wednesday have lost the best attacking player in League One is something of an overstatement. Corbeanu, more often than not in many matches, was as wasteful as he was exciting and made poor decisions.
Anyone who ever sat within earshot of Darren Moore and his staff during any of his appearances will know all too well the guidance he required positionally and defensively – it was at times guidance akin to babysitting particularly when Wednesday were under the pump.
The case in point came at Accrington Stanley where for all his fireworks in the first half, Wednesday only truly saw out the deserved win once the youngster was replaced with the more defence-savvy Jaden Brown. The home side had focused their attacks to run at Corbeanu, who seemed to have shrivelled from the footballing expertise of Maradona to Madonna as the game’s momentum changed course.
The thing is, though, that when channelling Diego – you’ll excuse the manic hyperbole – he was magic, the driving force behind a 20-minute display of attack-minded football that blew their usually dogged opposition to pieces. And it is that raw, undiluted attacking talent that Wednesday will surely miss.
It’s the chant, it’s the clattering sound of plastic seats that followed when he got the ball and it’s the hum of excitement whenever he rose to join the action from the bench. Wednesday fans sang Corbeanu’s song non-stop for the best part of half an hour at Crewe. Who else gets that?
Not many loanees can make the sort of impact Corbeanu achieved on a fanbase in such limited time and, some would argue, on such little consistency.
That he is on his way to a promotion rival in MK Dons is the ultimate raspberry at a time the club should be kicking on in their stuttering promotion effort, not having pins stuck in it.
Could they have done more to keep Wolves happy and ensure Corbeanu remained a Wednesday man? Of course. There is little doubt that for all the development of his lesser attributes, he was under-utilised and played out of position.
From a footballing point of view, Wednesday have lost a player that was more often than not encouraging rather than consistently breathtaking. We’ll never know what he and Wednesday could have achieved together in different circumstances.
Finding someone who can excite a fanbase in a similar way will be very, very hard work.
You can’t help but feel that Wednesday have messed up.
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