Sheffield Wednesday striker locked himself in a hotel for days after Wembley defeat

Atdhe Nuhiu and his Sheffield Wednesday teammates came so close to a return to the Premier League for the Owls a decade ago.

Atdhe Nuhiu back at Hillsborough years later. Image: SWFC YouTube

Today marks exactly 10 years since that day out at Wembley, when Carlos Carvalhal’s men in blue and white fell at the final hurdle against Hull City in what is still the closest they’ve come to being back in the big time.

Nuhiu, who came on as a substitute in the capital that day, would go on to play almost 300 times for Wednesday, and become one of only three players to score 50+ goals for the club this side of the millennium.

For him, May 28th 2016 was bittersweet, and in Carlos Had A Dream he spoke of how it felt to feel the supporter from tens of thousands of Wednesdayites that day - even in defeat.

Speaking to author, Dom Howson, in his book, the big striker said, “It meant everything to get clapped off by the fans after losing a game. That doesn’t happen very often. It felt like they were saying: ‘What you’ve done this season is unbelievable, and we’re with you. The result hurt, of course it did, but the message was: ‘We’re proud of you.’ That’s something that stayed with every one of us.

“The final was the best and the worst feeling of my Wednesday career. I believed we had a good team and we could go again. But in that moment, it was a big blow. Whatever anyone said right after... it was just words. You’re too deep in the pain to feel anything else.”

Locked in a hotel room

And that was certainly the case in the days that followed, for the Kosovan certainly. He explains in the book how he locked himself in a London hotel room for four days after that loss under the arch.

“I didn’t want to go out,” he says. “I kept thinking: we were 15 minutes away from the Premier League… Those first days were tough. It hits you hard when you’ve been that close to achieving something so special. All of us are proud when we look back on it now. But at the same time, you let something slip away and that’s part of the story too.”

You can grab yourself a copy of Dom’s Carlos Had A Dream by clicking this link here if you want to relive one of the most exciting periods of the Owls’ recent history.

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