Exclusive: Don Goodman reacts to Sheffield Wednesday, Mike Ashley takeover news | OneFootball

Mike Ashley has been reported as a potential candidate to take over Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday are on the lookout for a new owner after being placed into administration.

The Owls have suffered a traumatic 2025 under the rule of Dejphon Chansiri, who failed to pay players on time for five of the last seven months.

This led to key operators such as Josh Windass and Michael Smith exiting the club for free, joining fellow Championship sides Wrexham and Preston North End respectively.

Wednesday were placed under five embargoes due to their owner’s incompetence, which limited their transfer business to loan deals for Ethan Horvath and Harry Amass. This made the Owls’ task of staying in the Championship tough enough, with that feat almost unachievable due to the automatic 12-point deduction handed to Wednesday after going into administration.

With the administrators now on the lookout for a new owner and former Newcastle United chief Mike Ashley has been repeatedly rumoured to be in that hunt.

Journalist Alan Biggs has suggested on a number of occasions that Ashley has been keeping tabs on the situation, whilst the Daily Mail recently reported that he is weighing up his next steps, with Wednesday searching for a new owner.

Don Goodman weighs in on Mike Ashley’s Sheffield Wednesday links

Ashley’s previous history of owning football clubs is controversial to say the least, with his era in charge of Newcastle including two relegations and strong distaste from supporters towards the businessman.

However, he has an estimated net worth of £3.12 billion and could very quickly eradicate Sheffield Wednesday’s financial woes.

With all this in mind and speaking exclusively to Football League World, Sky Sports pundit and former EFL striker, Don Goodman, believes that the positives and negatives which could come from Ashley taking over the Owls are clear to see.

“Anybody that is that sort of calibre being interested is good news for Sheffield Wednesday,” stated Goodman. “When you cast your mind back to the beginning of Mike Ashley's Newcastle tenure, he was flavour of the month.

“But then when you think back to the end, the fans really couldn't stand him and wanted him out. He wasn't really investing in the playing side of things and so on and so forth.

“So, it's a little bit of a mixed bag, really. On one hand, pretty much anybody is going to be better than Chansiri.

“On the other hand, Sheffield Wednesday will be desperate for somebody who will pump money in initially and will want to keep funding the club until they get back to the Premier League.”

Sheffield Wednesday supporters will be wary of Mike Ashley’s past

Sheffield Wednesday supporters have endured a torrid year and will be desperate to finally see someone who isn’t Dejphon Chansiri leading their club forward.

However, they must be wary that they don’t bring another negative influence in to address the situation at Hillsborough.

As previously mentioned, Ashley’s time with Newcastle was filled with controversy and included stunts such as renaming Newcastle United’s famous St. James’ Park ground to the Sports Direct Arena.