Sheffield Wednesday supporters will still have nightmares about 2018 Dejphon Chansiri decision: View | OneFootball

Jos Luhukay's time in charge of Sheffield Wednesday in 2018 will not be fondly remembered by supporters.

Sheffield Wednesday will be hoping for a much-improved campaign in the Championship this season.

Wednesday narrowly avoided relegation last season following a remarkable turnaround under Danny Rohl, and there is plenty of hope among supporters that they can climb the table in the year ahead.

It may not have been the start to the season that the Owls were expecting, but Rohl still retains the full backing of the fan base, and the German is arguably the most popular manager to occupy the Hillsborough dug out since Carlos Carvalhal.

While Rohl and Carvalhal have been successful appointments by Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri, it is fair to say that not all the managers he has employed over the years have made such a positive impact.

Having failed to win a single game, Xisco Munoz will go down as one of the worst managers in Owls history, while Tony Pulis and Garry Monk will not be far behind him on that list, and Jos Luhukay is another name who will not be fondly remembered in South Yorkshire.

With Wednesday falling down the Championship table, Chansiri made the bold decision to part company with Carvalhal in December 2017.

While Owls supporters were sad to see Carvalhal depart given the outstanding job he had done at the club, there was a feeling that it was the right time for him to move on, but eyebrows were certainly raised when Luhukay was announced as his replacement in early January.

Few would have heard of Luhukay before his arrival at Hillsborough, and he had been out of work for the previous 15 months, but the fact he had managed a host of big German clubs, including Stuttgart, Hertha Berlin, Augsburg and Borussia Monchengladbach, offered hope that he could be a success.

However, it quickly became clear that Chansiri had made a huge mistake with Luhukay, and the following year under his guidance turned out to be something of a nightmare for Wednesday.

Jos Luhukay's Sheffield Wednesday spell will go down as a disaster

Luhukay's tenure started with three consecutive goalless draws against Sheffield United, Cardiff City and Middlesbrough, but while there were some encouraging signs in his early games, red flags quickly began to emerge.

The Dutchman won just one of his first 11 league games in charge of Wednesday, and fears of being dragged into a relegation battle were beginning to increase among supporters.

It was not just performances and results that were poor, but Luhukay's team selections became the subject of strong criticism, most notably when he fielded wingers Ross Wallace and Jack Stobbs up front in a 2-1 defeat at Millwall in February, despite having three fit strikers at his disposal in Atdhe Nuhiu, Lucas Joao and Jordan Rhodes.

However, there were some mitigating circumstances for Luhukay's struggles as he had inherited a serious injury crisis that plagued Carvalhal towards the end of his reign, and he had never managed in England before, so he needed time to adapt.

With key players returning to fitness, the Owls won six of their final nine games of the season, which secured Luhukay's position ahead of the summer, and the impressive form continued into the following campaign.

Wednesday sat sixth in the table after the first 12 games of the 2018-19 season, but things quickly began to unravel for Luhukay after the October international break, with his side going on to lose five of the next six matches.

Luhukay's man management came into question during the poor run of form, with many questioning why fan favourites such as Keiren Westwood and Sam Hutchinson had been frozen out, and when asked about the latter, the 61-year-old refused to give an explanation for his mysterious absence.

With some of the club's senior players forced to train with the reserves, Luhukay promoted a number of academy products into the first team, but many were either not ready or not good enough for the Championship, and his questionable tactical decisions were ruthlessly exposed as the Owls' form began to decline.

As the pressure continued to build, Luhukay hit out at some of the criticism he had received, pointing out that the mood around the club had been very different just weeks earlier when Wednesday were in the play-off places.

"I have given my best in the 10 months I have been here," Luhukay told The Star.

"And what I say before, four weeks ago, was I a king in Sheffield?

"We were in sixth position and stayed in a play-off position. From every side, it was positive.

"Four weeks later, I'm the same person and I'm the same coach and four times later you have a bad result and now I'm a bad person in Sheffield."

There may have been some validity to Luhukay's argument, but in truth, he was the architect of his own downfall, and his claim ahead of the Steel City derby against Sheffield United that he had managed bigger derbies during his time in Germany - at least in terms of attendance - further burned his bridges with a fan base who were rapidly becoming disillusioned.

Results failed to improve over the following few weeks, and after a horror run of just one win, two draws and seven defeats in 10 games that had left the club sitting 18th in the table, Luhukay was sacked in December.

With the likes of Westwood and Hutchinson back in the team, the Owls immediately experienced an upturn in form after Luhukay's exit under caretaker manager Lee Bullen, and they eventually finished the season in 12th place under his permanent successor Steve Bruce.

Given the failings of the likes of Munoz, Pulis and Monk in recent years, history may look back a little more favourably on Luhukay's tenure, but there is no doubt that it is a spell that Wednesday supporters will be desperate to forget.