With players returning for preseason, the transfer market open and a new set of fixtures released these are normally times of fresh optimism in the world of football.
Then, there’s Sheffield Wednesday, a club that has used the 55 days since the end of the last Championship season to reinforce its credentials as the EFL’s basket case.
Reading, mercifully for them and their long-suffering fans, have new owners and the promise of happier times ahead. At Wednesday, they are buckled up for a deepening crisis because the outlook is gloomy at one of English football’s oldest clubs, founded in 1867.
Players reported back on Thursday to a training ground where a seven-figure upgrade to the pitches is incomplete – although only a week behind schedule according to the club – and reports in the Sheffield Star that head coach Danny Rohl had opened talks to formalise his exit.
Under-fire owner Dejphon Chansiri then issued a statement to justify his inertia and inform fans that one vocal consortium circling for takeover was not offering the sort of money in private it claimed to be offering in public, had declined an invitation to lodge a £5million deposit in return for exclusivity rights and had failed to show for a meeting on Zoom.
‘I am willing to sell but the deal must be correct on all fronts – it is not just about the price,’ said Chansiri, who went on to apologise and promise he was doing all he could to sort it out.
A decade on from when Dejphon Chansiri took over Sheffield Wednesday they are in crisis
Head coach Danny Rohl is said to be in talks to leave the club during a tricky period in Sheffield
Wednesday are slowly becoming the basket case of the EFL with even their training ground upgrades behind schedule
The trouble is he has been running the club badly for years. Having bought it for £37.5million from Milan Mandaric in 2015, he set off by overspending in what proved a reckless quest for an instant promotion to the Premier League.
The Owls almost made it up. They reached the playoff final in 2016, beaten by Hull City, and the semi-finals a year later, beaten on penalties by Huddersfield Town.
But they subsequently broke Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and spent two years in League One, relegated after a points deduction in 2021.
They have not finished higher than 12th in the Championship since the initial splurge and owner Chansiri, whose father Kraisorn controls a family fortune estimated by Forbes at more than £400million and chairs the Thai Union Group, the world’s biggest producer of canned tuna with annual revenue of £3.5billion, appears to have run out of ready cash.
Sheffield Wednesday paid wages late in March and May, incurring EFL charges against both the club and Chansiri which have led to a transfer embargo until all outstanding debts are cleared and a three-window fee restriction for exceeding 30 days of late payments during the year which ends on Monday June 30.
This week it emerged that the club had received a further embargo from the EFL for payments owed to HMRC.
Wednesday intend to appeal but the next pay day looms on the same date, Monday 30, which means the Owls will risk further charges if they fail to pay the June wages by the end of July under the 30-day rule.
The independent disciplinary commission which will hear the case has powers to impose fines, deduct points or, in extreme cases, expel clubs.
Trouble at the club has been happening ever since Wednesday lost in the Championship play-off final to Hull City in 2016
Hillsborough’s facilities are weathered with the iconic North Stand yet to have its safety certificate next season
Wednesday is a club locked into a depressing cycle from which the only visible means of escape is via new ownership.
A decade under Chansiri has seen facilities already in need of modernisation fall further into disrepair. Hillsborough’s iconic North Stand, the country’s first cantilever design of its size, opened in 1961, requires remedial work to earn its safety certificate for the new season. The club insists this will be done.
It will come as little surprise to various people with plenty of experience in the football industry who have passed through Wednesday in recent years saying they have never known a club to operate in such a manner, with no real board, no executive tier, minimal infrastructure, and an often-absent owner/chairman.
Rohl, with two years remaining on his contract and a £5m release clause, has decided he wants out. And while his conduct, appearing to down tools at the end of last season while openly discussing his next move, has not gone down well with fans, most understand his desire to leave.
If he moves to Leicester, where he is among the candidates after Ruud van Nistelrooy’s sacking, he will face the Owls on the opening day of the Championship season.
Others on the coaching staff are out of contract on Monday, although one of them – Henrik Pedersen – is Rohl’s most likely successor.
10 first-team players have departed leaving a depleted squad, and the futures are unclear of three more, including captain Barry Bannan, because they are out of contract with offers on the table, but the EFL financial restrictions are now in force, limiting new recruits to £7,000 a week.
Only one pre-season friendly is in the diary, at Frickley Athletic on July 11, set originally as an Under-21 fixture.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was sacked by Leicester City following relegation from the Premier League on Friday
Rohl, who was appointed by Wednesday back in 2023, has been shortlisted by Leicester
Former owner Milan Mandaric even threw his hat in the ring at taking the Owls over again but changes his mind two days later
Owls fans are out of patience – last season ended in protest and dissent has risen
In Sheffield, meanwhile, barely a week passes without another farcical twist.
Former owner Mandaric, 86, resurfaced on Monday talking about a rescue package before retreating two days later saying it would be for the best if he kept out.
There are serious prospective buyers, including the consortium referenced by Chansiri, which is fronted by Sheffield-born Florida-based businessman Adam Shaw, and reported interest from John Textor after he sold his shares in Crystal Palace.
Chansiri’s statement on Thursday is his first open acknowledgement that he is trying to sell, and hints that his asking price might be more realistic than it once was, when he expected to fetch more than the £100m paid by a US-consortium for Sheffield United in December.
Owls fans are out of patience, though. Last season ended amid protest and dissent has risen.
James Silverwood of the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters’ Trust told Mail Sport: ‘It has become apocalyptic. There’s a real despondency and a lot of anger.
‘I know season ticket holders not only talking about whether they will go next season but whether the club will exist in two or three months and whether we should be putting plans in place for a phoenix club. It really is that desperate. There is no confidence in Chansiri. Nobody trusts what he says anymore.’
Thursday’s statement was met with a response from the Trust issuing a dozen pertinent questions and demanding answers. ‘Stop blaming others and take responsibility,’ said their statement. ‘You are killing the club, not saving it. Just sell.’
