As the second tier season prepares to reignite after the October international break, the Owls remain in limbo regarding a takeover amid continued fan protests and unrest relating to Dejphon Chansiri’s day-to-day running of the Steel City club.
Just over a decade after acquiring an upwardly-mobile Championship side, Chansiri has been at the forefront of several negative headlines whilst overseeing Wednesday’s drastic plight from potential Premier League material to a League One side within a four-year period, to now seeing the club’s immediate and long-term future plunged into doubt as he seemingly holds out on what many believe is an obscene valuation for a side that hasn’t tasted the riches, glitz and glamour of the top-flight since the year 2000 – a time when football finances were extremely different to the current climate.
Despite there being a distinct lack of current value in this part of South Yorkshire, several high-profile bidders such as former Crystal Palace and Lyon stakeholder John Textor, ex-Newcastle United custodian Mike Ashley and Owls supporter-turned businessman, David Richards, all reportedly remain interested in a takeover.
For one, it remains to be seen if talks continue or begin with the aforementioned parties, and two, what price they would be able to relinquish Chansiri’s control for, as he reportedly holds out for £100m.
With that being said, Football League World asked our resident Owls fan pundit, Patrick McKenna, what the most realistic valuation he could place on the crisis club would be at present.
The aforementioned claim was made public in July, during a chaotic pre-season in S6 which saw a mass exodus of senior players and manager, Danny Rohl, amid initial instances of delayed payments.
In recent weeks, senior staff and players were told their wage packets would be delayed for the fifth time in six months, with a points deduction expected whilst Chansiri continues to seek investment to help pay off wage bills and other payments before the threat of administration or winding-up orders comes in from HMRC.
A total of six transfer or registration-related embargoes have also left Henrik Pedersen with a seemingly impossible task of avoiding relegation whilst a takeover remains up in the air.
Speaking to FLW, McKenna cited refused takeovers in the summer of £30m and £40m within his own valuation claim, whilst slamming that of Chansiri, who could budge as low as £70m despite hitting a snag with the aforementioned Textor.
“The valuation of £100m for Sheffield Wednesday is, quite frankly, ludicrous and laughable,” he said.
“The fact he’s been putting out ridiculous prices and not negotiating them in good faith is going to really bite him.
“In the summer, he was allegedly offered £40m. Mr Chansiri, no one is going to offer you anywhere near £40m now,” McKenna claimed. “Rightfully, it is going to be a lot less.
“Why would you pay that sort of money for an asset that is simply declining by the day. The value of the club is just going down and down.
“People are going to wait until they can get it as cheap as possible, he is going to lose money and that is tough.
“If we’re talking figures. Right now, this club is a zombie club where staff aren’t paid, the stadium is decaying, there’s very few playing assets. We are very certain to be a League One club next season,” our fan pundit stated.
“I’m really struggling to think of a valuation above £10m,” he added. “There is no value in the club right now.
“As I said, that’s all Chansiri’s fault. He’s hung on with the delusion of getting his money back or £100m, but we were never, at any stage of his reign, worth £100m.
“We are really low value because of him.”
It has been impossible to justify Chansiri’s aforementioned valuation claim, and even a low offer of £70m even seems so far-fetched at this moment in time, such is the dire predicament Wednesday find themselves in.
At present, Pedersen’s squad is the only one in the division worth less than £20m, whilst Hillsborough remains in the hands of Chansiri after he purchased the historic, yet currently dated, stadium for approximately £60m back in 2019.
It remains to be seen if this ongoing and seemingly never-ending saga can be resolved as swiftly as possible, with staff and players at the club still having fears over its very existence, albeit they are expected to eventually receive their outstanding wages ahead of this weekend’s clash with Charlton Athletic.
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