Sheffield Wednesday takeover news: John Textor latest, £100m price slammed, EFL Statement | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday start their season at Leicester with the future of the club under threat. Here's the latest on the takeover that could save them.

Sheffield Wednesday kick off their Championship season at Leicester on Sunday afternoon with the future of the club under threat. Here's the latest on the takeover that could save them.

The Owls start their EFL season on Sunday afternoon with a trip to Leicester City, but whether the club will complete the season is a different matter altogether.

Wednesday remain mired in crisis upon crisis, from the safety of their own stadium to a threadbare first team squad.

The solution to the club's current woes would be for owner Dejphon Chansiri to sell the club, but this is proving to be complex, and isn't being helped by some of the owner's thinking.

Here's the latest news on the takeover which could yet offer this troubled club a lifeline.

Textor interest in buying Sheffield Wednesday confirmed, but no negotiations yet

There has been considerable speculation that the American businessman and 'disruptor' John Textor could have a role to play in saving Sheffield Wednesday, and this week he confirmed that he could have an interest in doing so.

Speaking to journalist Alan Myers, Textor said, "It’s true that I am looking for a traditional English club to buy, or with which I can partner… I just have not spoken with anybody at Sheffield Wednesday yet, and I am monitoring the situation, hoping to better understand it".

Textor had a lot of praise for Wednesday as a club, saying that, "Whenever I talk about how I think the system should be better, I often use Sheffield Wednesday as the example of the big traditional club that deserves to be champions or at least have the opportunity to be."

This, however, seems to be the limit of his interest in the club at the moment, and there is no suggestion that he is actively negotiating a purchase with the club's owner at present.

Former Premier League CEO says that Chansiri's Wednesday price-tag is too high

Speaking to Football Insider's Inside Track podcast, former Aston Villa CEO Keith Wyness has explained the reasoning behind why Chansiri wants £100 million for Sheffield Wednesday, even though most estimates value the club as being worth substantially less than that.

"Apparently he wants over £100m for his shares", Wybness told them, "I know he’s put money into the club. But I think he probably wants to get too much of the money he’s already put in back." Most estimates of Wednesday's current market value put them as being worth between £40 million and £50 million.

This isn't, of course, how business transactions work. Chansiri has lost a vast amount of money on Sheffield Wednesday, but the current value of the club as a business will not take that into account.

In theory, Chansiri's investment should have increased the value of the club to a level which covers that initial in-flow of cash. But most of that money was spent so badly - very little of it, for example, has been spent on infrastructure - that it is essentially a sunk cost. Wednesday simply aren't worth what Chansiri is demanding for the club. Until that fundamental contradiction has been addressed, a sale of the club remains unlikely to proceed.

Henrik Pedersen on takeover: "I have not been told anything about the future"

New Wednesday head coach Henrik Pedersen has spoken to the Sheffield Star about the current state of play at Hillsborough, and has admitted that he is largely in the dark when it comes to the takeover. "I have not been told anything about the future," he told them, "The chairman told me he would do some things to solve the problems we have right now and it is all part of the relationship."

Pedersen faces an uphill battle, trying to manage a team under such circumstances, with only 16 senior players and conjecture that captain Barry Bannan, who signed a new contract with the club, might not be registered for Sunday's match.

And he was full of praise for the way in which his players have conducted themselves throughout an extremely challenging pre-season: "When I meet the players in the morning there are some football things, some tactical things, but of course in the last period I have had a lot of focus on creating the right environment so the players are ready to make a top performance in training. The players have been fantastic at supporting each other, helping each other."

EFL Statement confirms further sanctions over late wages

The EFL have issued a statement regarding Wednesday's current position, in which they confirmed that the club had extra sanction added as a result of their failure to pay wages on time. Their transfer embargo has now been extended to the end of the winter 2027 window, while the club can only register new player contracts if owner Dejphon Chansiri can provide assurances that he can satisfy the payments to them.

But otherwise, the statement was about as 'positive' as Sheffield Wednesday could have hoped for. They confirmed that there were no reasons from their end why the Leicester match couldn't take place, and that Hillsborough still meets their requirements, despite the closure of its North Stand after "extensive corrosion" was found in its roof, meaning that at least the club aren't to be rendered temporarily homeless as a result of the current fiasco.