Sheffield Wednesday news: Takeover twist, embargo hope, players leave, Hillsborough corrodes | OneFootball

The best route for Sheffield Wednesday out of their woes remains new ownership, so here's a round-up of all the latest news on that subject.

The wages may have been paid for the end of June, but Sheffield Wednesday remain in a state of limbo over the takeover that has been discussed all summer. Here's the latest news from Hillsborough on a story which seems set to run and run.

Sheffield Wednesday remain in a state of flux, with complete uncertainty over the future of Danny Rohl, a continuing issue with paying wages on time, and players having handed in their notice with the intention of the leaving the club.

All of this could start to feel like distant memories for fans if a long-trailed takeover can be completed, but this is unlikely to be a completely straightforward process. Here's the latest from Hillsborough, at the end of yet another difficult week for the club.

Latest reports suggest that an imminent takeover has stalled

There has been much reporting of various groups that could have an interest in buying Wednesday, but a sobering counterbalance to this was published by the BBC's Rob Staton on Thursday. Staton reported that we are "back to the drawing board" with regard to the club's sale.

He confirmed that there remain multiple parties interested in buying the club, but that earlier reports which implied that a takeover was close to completion were wide of the mark.

Several parties had been named in connection with the club, including the American billionaire and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, as well as an Italian group headed by Francesco Guardascione, but Staton reported that the mood has changed around these stories since the start of the week. Earlier in July, the Sheffield Star had reported that ‘an agreement has been reached with at least one prospective buyer for Sheffield Wednesday’, but this has now been replaced by a somewhat gloomier mood.

This matters, because although Wednesday are now believed to have settled up outstanding wages for the end of June, the end of July is now less than a fortnight away. The club's financial position unlikely to have improved on a month earlier, and it was believed that any new prospective owner would have to put money into the club to ensure that their end of July obligations could be met on time.

Wages and HMRC have to be paid on time at the end of each month, and a failure to do so only increases the likelihood of further sanctions from the EFL above and beyond the three-window transfer embargo already applied and a further drain of players away from Hillsborough.

There is one small positive development regarding Wednesday's transfer embargo

One of the potential major stumbling blocks for any takeover of the club could well be the small matter of what any prospective new owner would be getting for their money, and that applies to staff as well as bricks and mortar. And in this respect, there is a tiny degree of good news in that the aforementioned transfer embargo has been loosened by the EFL.

Wednesday had previously been under embargo for three reasons; a failure to pay players and staff on time, a failure to pay HMRC on time, and outstanding payments to other clubs with respect to transfer fees. The Sheffield Star has reported that the first two of these three reasons have now been removed by the EFL, so although the material position hasn't changed, two-thirds of the reasons for it being there have; for now, at least.

Even when the embargo is gone, Wednesday will not be able to pay any loan or transfer fees for players because of the "thirty-day rule", but it's a glimmer of positivity amid the bad news that has been suffocating the club all summer.

Two senior players have now had their contracts terminated

There have been conflicting reports concerning what players any new owners may have at their disposal for the start of the new season. The Daily Mail has reported that two senior players, Michael Smith and Josh Windass, have had their contracts terminated by ‘mutual consent’, which was confirmed by an official statement from the club.

It had previously been reported that some of Wednesday's players had been paid at the eleventh hour before the expiry of the FIFA "15-day rule" which allows players to terminate their contracts if they're not paid on time by their club for two consecutive months. This should have stopped the drain of players away from the club.

But to lose both Smith and Windass for nothing is a huge blow. These were their two top goalscorers in the League for the 2024-25 season, with eight and thirteen goals respectively, and the embargo places severe restrictions on who could be brought in to replace them.

Elsewhere, the club's personnel situation remains mixed and complex. Dejphon Chansiri has given Danny Rohl's assistant Henrik Pedersen a new contract containing a clause offering him the manager's job after Rohl, while the sale of Djeidi Gassama to Rangers was finally completed with the belief that a takeover was close.

North Stand corrosion is proof of the amount of repair work required to be carried out at Hillsborough

As if a drain of players away from the club wasn't enough to concern Wednesday fans, there have also been reports this week which serve as a reminder that new spending on the part of any new owners will not end with the team itself.

The BBC has reported that there is a possibility that the North Stand at Hillsborough may not be open for the start of the new season because Sheffield City Council have not yet issued a safety certificate for it after substantial corrosion was found in its roof. They also report that the club was already aware of this, as they had requested an away match for the first weekend of the 2025-26 season.

The North Stand at Hillsborough was considered an architectural marvel at the time that it was built in 1960-61, only the second in the country with a 'cantilever' roof which offered everybody sitting in it a view of the match without restrictions. But at almost 65 years old, it's been showing clear and obvious signs of its age and there has been no significant renovation work carried out on the ground in years.

Any new owners would need to give serious consideration to modernising the stadium, in the event that they purchase the club, and the stadium, which is currently owned by a third-party company owned by the club's current owner Dejphon Chansiri. The fact that one stand could be closed for the start of the season is a reminder of how urgent that work is.