Jewell hopes to polish rough diamonds

They say Bradford has been like a barber's shop this week. All those who doubted that City would survive their first experience of top-flight football since 1927 last season have been lining up to have their heads shaved, as they said they would if they were proved wrong.

So incontrovertibly wrong were they that, on Wednesday, Bradford had the financial confidence to introduce the curly head and shoulders of Benito Carbone to Valley Parade. Presumably both parties think Carbone is worth it.

At the same time, 40 miles further south in Yorkshire, the stylist of Bradford City's Premiership status was staring at the bald situation confronting him as manager of Sheffield Wednesday. Paul Jewell could be forgiven for scratching his head at the turn of events which saw him leave a club at which he had been conspicuously successful for one where under-achievement has become part of its character. And one, which in getting relegated, finished five points behind Bradford.

As a player and, latterly, as the youngest manager in England, Jewell spent 12 years at Bradford. His roots are such that his children went to see City's recent InterToto Cup matches in replica Bradford shirts.

Yet while his June departure resulted directly from a personality clash with Bradford's media-hungry chairman, Geoffrey Richmond, and had an element of injustice to it visible from a distant Riding, Jewell is determined not to become involved in an acrimonious public debate with his former boss. There is too much to think about at Wednesday anyway, a club Jewell describes as being "a mess".

The evidence for that claim is rather too obvious for the declining numbers heading towards Hillsborough in the past few years. The erosion of morale both on and off the pitch was so great that four Sheffield MPs called for Danny Wilson to be sacked last season, long before Wilson was eventually removed in March. Jewell came face to face with the disheartening reality in his first game in charge, a defeat at Chesterfield in a pre-season friendly. "A basic lack of desire," among his new squad was his worrying assessment.

Sitting in his office overlooking Wednesday's lush training ground on Thursday morning, Jewell said one of his first tasks has been to try to rectify that, to instill a new work ethic which in time may restore a semblance of the team spirit that is so clearly lacking. To that end, Des Walker has been made captain and Jewell foresees an important role for Alan Quinn.

Making it harder, though, is that simultaneously Jewell has been instructed to generate £7 million by his new board of directors by either selling players or reducing the wage bill. Unfortunately for the directors, Wednesday's players are so diminished by last season that only Nicolas Alexandersson, sold for £2.5 million to Everton, has moved for hard cash. Seven others have gone for nothing, which at least sliced a chunk off the wage bill .

"I've told the players that while a lot of them seem to think they are great, I've only had bids for two of them," Jewell said. "I'm not an unreasonable man, but sometimes you have just got to be hard with them. When I walked in the first day I could not help but notice the apathy. The team spirit was almost non-existent, there didn't seem to be any leadership and there was a lack of discipline. To say the place wasn't in a great state is an understatement."

Did it not make Jewell question his decision to leave Bradford, a club about to spend rather than sell?

"No," was the emphatic reply. "Yeah, of course it's frustrating having to shed so many players, but sometimes you've just got to manage. I don't look at Bradford with any envy, Chris Hutchings (City's new manager) is a friend of mine. I just felt that I needed a change and I actually feel in control of football matters here."

Therein lies the answer as to why Jewell resigned from Bradford - he always felt that Geoffrey Richmond wanted the final say on everything from signings to tactics. Then, three days after Bradford secured their Premiership survival with a final day victory over Liverpool, Jewell went for lunch with Richmond to be told that had Jewell's contract been up for renewal it would not have happened. Jewell knew that he had to get away. He resigned.

"Of course I made mistakes at Bradford," he said, "but show me a manager who has never made a mistake and I'll show you a manager who has never made a decision. The chairman was right, I did get things wrong against West Ham and Derby, but he seemed to have forgotten that we beat Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle. I just wonder if those managers were given an end-of-season bollocking by their chairmen."

Still only 35, Jewell has certainly garnered valuable experience of his trade's unpredictability. Terry Yorath has joined him from Bradford, and instead of the two heading for Anfield on the Premiership season's opening day next Saturday, tomorrow the two take Wednesday to Wolves.

To add to the already decimated Wednesday squad - 19 fewer professionals than last season - five senior pros are injured. But Blackburn's Simon Grayson arrived on loan yesterday, and Jewell has fond memories of Molineux, the venue of Bradford's promotion in May of last year.

"The final whistle that day was the greatest moment of my career," he said, "I'd settle for that result (2-3) again.

"But people can't be silly. This club's taken a big knock. At Bradford, when we got promotion we had only five points after seven games, so the most important is to be patient. We've got to build properly."