How much West Brom and Derby County were bought for amid Sheffield Wednesday takeover talk | OneFootball

We looked at how much West Brom and Derby County were bought for amid speculation about a potential takeover at Sheffield Wednesday.

It has been a nightmare start to the summer for Sheffield Wednesday, but supporters have been given a glimmer of hope that owner Dejphon Chansiri's turbulent 10-year tenure could be coming to an end.

Wednesday finished in a respectable 12th place in the Championship last season, but far from building on that progress, it looks like a tough campaign could be ahead for the club next term after a summer of off-field problems.

Having failed to pay the wages of players and staff on time for the second time in three months in May, the Owls and Chansiri were charged by the EFL earlier this month, and with some still waiting to receive the money they are owed, the club remain under a transfer embargo.

The embargo will be lifted once the outstanding salaries are paid, but Wednesday will be living with the consequences of the saga for a long time to come after being hit with a three-window ban on paying transfer fees, although they are planning to appeal that punishment.

If that was not bad enough for the Owls, they have fallen well behind their Championship rivals in preparing for the new season, with no new signings, ongoing uncertainty over the future of manager Danny Rohl and no pre-season fixtures in place, despite the fact that the players are due to return to training in a matter of days.

However, recent developments have generated fresh optimism that a takeover could be on the cards at Hillsborough, with at least two parties expressing a desire to buy Wednesday from Chansiri.

Sheffield Wednesday takeover latest

Chansiri claimed in April that he would be open to selling Wednesday if he received a suitable offer, but he has recently rejected two bids from a US-based consortium worth $65 million and $75 million.

However, it appears that Chansiri's stance may be changing, with Adam Shaw - a member of the group who has been in discussions with the Owls chief for the past two years - revealing that positive conversations have been held about a potential takeover.

"Very recently the landscape surrounding Sheffield Wednesday has changed somewhat in the last week, which I’m sure as fans you can appreciate," Shaw said in a statement released to the Wednesday 'Til I Die Podcast.

"We can also confirm that, as the Florida-based US consortium, we are now in constructive open dialogue with the professional London-based law firm that represents the Chansiri family.

"We hope we’ve now struck the right balance — providing the fans with the transparency you’ve been asking for, while also allowing negotiations to proceed in a discreet and professional manner."

Shaw and his consortium are not the only party interested in purchasing Wednesday, with former owner Milan Mandaric revealing that he is flying to the UK this week to explore a possible takeover bid to "rescue" the club, and the 86-year-old warned Chansiri that he is "going to destroy the club unless he lets new people like me get involved".

With Chansiri's reign at Hillsborough potentially coming to a conclusion, we looked at how much two of the Owls' fellow Championship sides - West Bromwich Albion and Derby County - were bought for to assess what the valuation of the club could be.

How much Sheffield Wednesday's Championship rivals West Brom and Derby County were bought for

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to a potential sale of Wednesday in recent years has been Chansiri's valuation of the club, and an intermediary involved in trying to facilitate a potential takeover recently revealed that he is asking for over £100 million in order to sell after claiming that he has previously turned down an offer of £160 million.

The two bids made by the US-based consortium were well short of that figure, but according to The Athletic, somewhere in the region of between £50 million and £55 million is thought to be a fair estimate of what the club is worth, so Chansiri may need to lower his valuation significantly if he is to strike a deal.

After years of mismanagement under absentee owner Guochuan Lai, West Brom were sold to American businessman Shilen Patel for £60 million last year, while property developer David Clowes bought Derby for £55 million in the summer of 2022 at a time when the club were in administration and had just been relegated from the Championship.

The fees paid to purchase the Baggies and the Rams are both in line with the estimated valuation of Wednesday, and given that the Owls' do not have a proper structure in place at board level, as well as possessing a stadium and training ground in desperate need of renovation, Chansiri may find it difficult to convince anyone to pay over £60 million for the club.

However, with negotiations with Shaw's consortium seemingly heading a positive direction and Mandaric jetting in for talks this week, Chansiri may finally be willing to reduce his unrealistic asking price.