Thursday 11 January 2018 10:20, UK
Former Sheffield Wednesday striker Gerald Sibon has fond memories of the Steel City derby. Adam Bate caught up with him to discuss his old club, their new manager, his passion for darts and why he wants to return to the Owls as a specialist striker coach…
"I watched it until the semi-final. I am Dutch, you know?"
Gerald Sibon is talking darts. "When Michael van Gerwen went out, the adrenaline was all over the place," he tells Sky Sports. "So the last game with Rob Cross, I just thought I am not going to watch this anymore. It was too bad for Phil Taylor that he didn't win it. He is a legend but sometimes you get surpassed by the younger people. It happens to everyone."
That did not stop the 43-year-old from playing in a tournament last year. "It was in Holland with all of the BDO players like Ted Hankey and Tony O'Shea," he says. "I know some of the Dutch guys and they invited me to play along. It was great, a nice tournament with a few beers. I am at an OK level but not close to those guys. I need six darts in my hand not three."
The BDO World Championships concludes this weekend but for Sibon, the former Sheffield Wednesday striker who was the club's 2001 player of the year, eyes will be elsewhere. Especially on derby weekend. "I am still in touch with my former neighbour in Sheffield but he is a Blade," he laughs. "So there is a bit of rivalry between us."
Sibon tasted both victory and defeat in this fixture during his four years in the city from 1999 to 2003 and those matches remain fresh in the memory. "The first time I played in that game was unreal," he explains. "I had played for Ajax against Feyenoord and that is the big game at home here in Holland but it is not a city derby. This was a city derby.
"It was a cup game and we beat them 2-1 in extra time at Hillsborough with a goal by Efan Ekoku. Wow. The people went mad and everything, it was great. A year later we played them in the league and I scored a cracker. It was one of my best goals ever actually but we lost that game. It is nice to play those games because the city lights up. It is amazing."
Not everything about Sibon's stay in Sheffield was so exciting. A tall and skilful striker, he was capable of unusual quality but consistency eluded him. He also had the misfortune to join the Owls just as their lengthy stay in the Premier League was coming to an end. By the time that Sibon had settled, the team was well on its way to relegation.
"The first season was especially difficult," he recalls. "There was not a good balance in the team. For me, it was hard to adjust. I came there with my style and everyone was expecting a different player to me. It also took me a little while to adapt. After four to five months I was OK and played from then on. Unfortunately, we went down and didn't come back."
Sibon was Sheffield Wednesday's top scorer for each of the next three seasons, but it was an awkward situation. "I was very expensive to the club because I was on Premier League wages and we were not in the Premier League," he adds. "From their point of view I had to leave. From my point of view, I didn't. It was a nice city and I was enjoying Sheffield."
He has been back a couple of times since then and is planning another visit now that Wednesday have put two of his compatriots in charge. Dutchman Jos Luhukay has been chosen to replace Carlos Carvalhal, and his newly-appointed assistant manager Remy Reynierse was Sibon's coach during the early part of his career at VVV-Venlo.
"I know him very well," says Sibon. "I don't know the manager so well. I know he worked in Germany for a long time and he has quite a good record of winning promotion with his teams so hopefully he can do the trick again. Probably not this year but maybe next. Of course, we were close to going up last year and the year before."
So would he consider a role at Sheffield Wednesday himself? "I would love to come back," he admits, and the prospect is not so far-fetched given his plans. After four years as a coach at Heerenveen, Sibon is styling himself a specialist striker coach and it is a subject that he speaks about with passion - as well as typical Dutch logic.
"I have been talking to a lot of people about it because I believe that, for football, this is the future," he explains. "There will be a lot more focused training. It will become more specialised and less general. Goalkeepers have their own coach so why not strikers?
"There is a lot to gain. The contact time with the players is better because you are only dealing with a handful of players. Every player has his own things that he needs to improve and it is not the same for 20 different players. One must work on his speed, another must work on his strength and another must work on tactics. It will become more specialised.
"Coaches put a lot of time into the first 50 metres of the pitch. They work on the build-up in the defensive phase. But when they reach the opponents' half, it is all up to the strikers. They leave it to their creativity and their ability. But there are things that can be done. You can work on it. You can train for situations and the more you train the better you get."
That is the future. In the meantime, there is a Steel City derby to look forward to. So will Sibon be contacting his old neighbour before kick-off on Friday night? "I will be in touch before the game," he says. "After the game, I really hope I will be in touch with him again."
