Out of interest I had another look at the Sheffield Wednesday forum this morning and they now have a thread called "I'm Glad We've Hired Monk Instead of the Cowleys".
So am I. But bearing in mind their earlier poll suggested 90% of their forum wanted the Cowleys, a little sample of some of the comments is below.
That thread is split in opinion but it shows you the mental gymnastics fans of any club will make in order to convince themselves everything's going to be ok.
It's the true definition of the misused term "sour grapes"
"the “smallest” club Monk has managed is Swansea. He will have a good grasp of big players’ mentality. The Cowleys were unproven in this aspect."
"The reason so many got excited by the Cowley’s is because they have no “baggage. IId expect a lot had never thought about the Cowley brothers until this week! Monk is the best appointment we could have made in my opinion"
"Unproven at this level and let’s say they got the job and we lost the first 5 games there would be hell on"
"Cowley were the new Hurst weren't they - Hurst was the next messiah but goes to Ipswich and fails massively. Monk is a solid appointment"
"Only at Wednesday could a fanbase get excited about the Cowley's who would be nothing but a punt"
"At Lincoln they are on a pedestal, here they would be cannon fodder if the results didn't turn out well"
"This forums obsession with Cowley is utterly bizarre, I have never known so much hype for a lower league manager"
"Think Cowleys are flavour of the month at the moment. Be interesting to see how they fare when they move on from Lincoln but not convinced they can deal with big ego footballers you get at Championship clubs and above"
"Cowleys will be another Nathan Jones at Stoke situation when/if they move to a bigger club. Fact he turned down Huddersfield because he feels safe at Lincoln tells you all you need to know about how confident he is about going to a bigger club"
To be honest I think a lot of our fans have been a little unrealistic in their thoughts on who the next manager should be. A lot of them didn’t like Carlos Carvalhal despite the two playoffs, blaming him for overspending and long term injuries we’ve had. Then the guy after him Luhakhy was a disaster. So most didn’t want a foreign manager.
So a British manager was the way forward. We’ve only really been linked with 6.. Hughton, Pulis, Monk, Rowett, Coleman and Cowley. Hughton wants a prem job so turned us down. Pulis nobody wants because he has a reputation for terrible football. Coleman has done nothing at club level and got Sunderland relegated. Rowett was keen listening to his interviews he did on Sky, but for whatever reason our chairman didn’t like him. Then we’re down to Monk and Cowley.
I think that some fans thought that because Cowley so far has an unblemished record in that you can’t deny he’s done an excellent job for Lincoln, that was preferable to other candidates who’ve tried but failed at higher levels. They also extrapolate out his promotion record as if that would just be directly transferable to championship level.
Personally I’m a bit more comfortable with Monk over Cowley because he’s managed 4 other clubs at our level and above. Cowley would have been a leap into the unknown and he’d have had a lot of adapting to do which could have gone either way. Football at Championship level now is more similar to the premier league than the lower leagues, with all the money and the egos flying around. It would be a big change.
Would have got behind whoever we went with though. Think the best thing would be if Cowley could keep proving himself with you, get a League 1 promotion too.. and take you to your max potential which with your gates could be bottom end of the championship. Best of luck for the season ahead