Sheffield Wednesday will have big Luke Williams relief after Swansea City developments | OneFootball

Former Swansea City head coach Luke Williams was reportedly in the frame for the Sheffield Wednesday job before the appointment of Danny Rohl.

It is fair to say that few gave Danny Rohl any chance of keeping Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship last season after his arrival at Hillsborough.

Just weeks after their dramatic promotion from League One, Wednesday shocked the football world last summer when they parted company with manager Darren Moore, replacing him with former Watford boss Xisco Munoz.

Given that Munoz had won automatic promotion with the Hornets during his only previous managerial spell in the Championship, his appointment was greeted with cautious optimism, but it quickly became clear that the Spaniard was the wrong choice.

Munoz was sacked in October after failing to win any of his 12 games in charge of the Owls in all competitions, and with the club sitting in a perilous position at the bottom of the table, relegation already looked inevitable, even at such an early stage of the season, so Rohl was facing an unenviable task after taking over at Hillsborough.

However, Rohl inspired one of the greatest escapes in Championship history as he miraculously kept his side in the division, and Wednesday have gone from strength to strength under his guidance this season, but it could all have been so different had the club decided against giving him a chance.

Sheffield Wednesday considered Luke Williams before Danny Rohl appointment

After Munoz was dismissed, it quickly became clear that Rohl was Wednesday's first-choice target after he initially impressed during the interview process in the summer following Moore's exit, but he was not the only name in the frame for the managerial vacancy.

The Star revealed this week that the mystery EFL manager under consideration alongside Rohl was Luke Williams, who was in charge of League Two side Notts County at the time.

Williams did an outstanding job after taking over at Meadow Lane in the summer of 2022, leading the Magpies to promotion from the National League via the play-offs in the 2022-23 season after somehow missing out on the title to Wrexham, despite accumulating a remarkable total of 107 points.

The 43-year-old won plenty of plaudits for the attractive, attacking brand of football he implemented at Notts, as well as the excellent results he delivered, and his side made a strong start to life back in League Two.

When Munoz was sacked in October, the Magpies sat top of the table after picking up 24 points from their first 12 games, so it is easy to see why Williams emerged on Wednesday's radar, and his appointment would likely have been well-received by supporters.

Rohl did have plenty of high-profile coaching experience with the likes of RB Leipzig, Southampton, Bayern Munich and the German national team, but was only 34 years of age and had never managed before, so Williams would have been viewed as a safer choice considering the Owls' predicament, but they decided to take a gamble on the German.

Williams did eventually get his chance to make the step up to the Championship with Swansea City, where he had previously served as Russell Martin's assistant, last January, but given how his time in South Wales went, Wednesday will be breathing a big sigh of relief that they chose Rohl instead.

Sheffield Wednesday were proven right over bold Danny Rohl, Luke Williams call

After a disappointing first half of the season that resulted in the sacking of Michael Duff, Swansea were 16th in the Championship table when Williams arrived, and while they were not completely safe from relegation, it always seemed unlikely that they would go down.

Williams guided the Swans to a 14th-placed finish last season, with his side making modest improvements during the early stages of his tenure, and supporters felt that his possession-based style of football was much more in keeping with the club's identity than Duff's direct approach.

However, Swansea did not make the progress that they would have hoped for this season, and relations between Williams and supporters deteriorated dramatically after he failed to shut down speculation linking him with the West Bromwich Albion job last month.

Williams later apologised for his handling of the situation, admitting that he "created a lot of the noise without meaning to", but despite stressing that he remained committed to the club, he was unable to build bridges with supporters.

His cause was not helped by the fact that results declined significantly on the pitch after the West Brom saga, and following a run of seven defeats in nine league games, Williams was dismissed by the Swans on Monday with the club sitting 17th in the table, just eight points clear of the relegation zone.

There were some mitigating circumstances for Williams' struggles in South Wales, including ownership uncertainty and a lack of backing in the transfer market, but he won just 19 of his 58 games in charge, drawing 11 and losing 28, and that record is unlikely to make Wednesday have any regrets about overlooking him in favour of Rohl.

In contrast, after keeping the Owls in the Championship last season, Rohl has transformed his side into surprise play-off contenders this term, and on the evidence of his time at Swansea, Williams would have been unable to reach anywhere near the same standards.