Though the Championship Owls come to the Toughsheet tonight with a squad severely depleted by injury, suspension and a summer of massive financial uncertainty, the Bolton boss also saw quality in their performance at Leicester City on Sunday.
Schumacher was assistant manager to Ryan Lowe back in 2018 when financial issues first started to impact upon the squad at Bury.
The Shakers won promotion from League Two that season despite the crippling off-the-field issues that would culminate in expulsion from the EFL just a few months later.
With that in mind, he knows what a difficult job his opposite number Henrik Pedersen faces in keeping the players’ attention fixed on the right subjects.
“There’s a lot of outside noise,” he recalled from his time at Gigg. “The way we coped with it was just to try and explain to the players that they had to focus on the things we could control on the pitch, in training, on a match day.
“All that turmoil that the team went through, it sort of galvanised the squad. We created a siege mentality and we managed to get our heads down and get on with business.
“From the outside and looking at Sheffield Wednesday I’d ve very surprised if that is not what they are speaking about because they have got good experience in that squad. They have got good leaders like Barry Bannan, experienced players like Jamal Lowe, Dominic Iorfa, Liam Palmer – my God, he’s played a million games for them – so that type of player will be brilliant to go round and speak to the younger players who may be a bit uncertain, and say ‘look, don’t worry about what you can’t control right now, get the football right.’
“And as I say, sometimes it can bring you closer together and make you a tighter unit.”
Steven Schumacher back in his Bury days as assistant manager (Image: Bury FC)
Steven Schumacher captained Bury in his playing days (Image: Bury FC)
Bury achieved promotion in second spot behind Lincoln City despite the meltdown going on around them but the stresses and strains did affect players differently.
“Everyone’s circumstances are different,” he said. “I don’t know what the players’ are like financially at Sheffield Wednesday but I know that this kind of situation affects people who work in the club who are not on the same salaries as the main players, and that you worry for everybody.
“I do think those players will be thinking they will get through it eventually. They’re the type of club that will get through this hard time that they’re going through.
“And when they do come through it, they’ll probably be stronger for it. So up until that point, the players have got to do the business to try and get them points. And I’m sure they will want to get into the next round of the cup as well.”
Preparing for a team which local reports suggest could be completely different to the one that played against Leicester is also a challenge for Schumacher and his backroom staff.
“I’m guessing that their young players are good players because you don’t get into Sheffield Wednesday’s academy if you don’t know what you’re doing,” he said.
“Whatever team that they pick, we’re expecting it to be a tough game. Like all clubs at this stage of the season, their main priority will be the league games and they’ve got a huge home game against Stoke at the weekend, which they’ll have one eye on.
“They have also had a couple of injuries and a suspension from the game at the weekend that they’ll have to deal with – but we’re expecting a tough game regardless.”