Fresh Sheffield Wednesday takeover update emerges involving James Bord - Owls could face big transfer issue | OneFootball

The troubled Championship club may have to sell players in the January transfer window if the sale of the club cannot be completed during the month.

Sheffield Wednesday face a fresh crisis at the end of January, should they not be able to complete a sale of the club by that point.

Troubled Championship club Sheffield Wednesday face a potential crisis at the end of January, should they not be able to complete a sale of the club by the end of the month.

Wednesday have been in administration since the end of October, but while it had been hoped that a sale of the club would be completed by the end of the year, it now seems certain that any sale will not be completed until January at the earliest, even though a preferred bidder has now been named, in the form of the former Sheffield United advisor James Bord.

The club remain marooned at the bottom of the Championship table with just one league win all season, but the big concern now is that an already threadbare squad may have to be further gutted at the end of January, should a sale not have been completed by that point.

Sheffield Wednesday may have to sell prized assets if a sale cannot be completed in January

On his Patreon on Sunday morning, journalist Alan Nixon has reported that Sheffield Wednesday could be forced to sell their most prized assets at the end of January transfer window.

Nixon reports that, "Once the window shuts at the end of next month there may be a shortfall of money before it opens again", and that "keeper Pierce Charles could have to be sold along with some other youngsters."

He explains that the reason for this is that the financial security that the club had found with the departure of Dejphon Chansiri will start to erode with time. One anonymous fan gave the club a £1 million loan, and this, alongside other money-raising efforts, gave the club the working capital to be able to ensure that all players and staff were paid on time for the end of October, November and December.

Nixon also confirms that manager Henrik Pedersen may be expensive to replace, should Bord wish to do so, saying that, "The Dane signed a three year deal and insiders reveal his settlement is ‘big’ if he is sacked."

Threadbare Sheffield Wednesday can ill-afford to lose further players in the January transfer window

Sheffield Wednesday fans may be alarmed to hear that they could be losing further players at the end of January, since they have so few to start with.

And Pierce Charles would be a big loss to the club. The 20-year-old goalkeeper has been with the club since 2021, though he's missed much of this season with a shoulder injury. It's also the case that, should potential buyers be aware of the club's financial predicament at the end of next month, offers for him may not be as high as Wednesday would hope.

But the club needs more working capital to get through to the end of the season. It had been hoped that this would be tied up by the end of January, but delays put back the announcement of a preferred bidder until just before Christmas, meaning that the race is now to get the deal over the line before the end of January.

Alan Nixon mentions in his article that James Bord was understood to have been one of the prime movers behind the decision made at Sheffield United to offload Chris Wilder at the end of the 2024-25 season and replace him with Ruben Selles, a decision which had lasting ramifications for Wednesday's rivals' season. Viewed from this perspective, the cost of getting rid of Henrik Pedersen may not even start to be such a bad thing for them.

Sheffield Wednesday fans will therefore be fervently hoping that the administrators can get the sale of the club completed before the end of the January transfer window. The loss of further players is something they can ill-afford, even if this season has already been declared a write-off, with relegation from the Championship already considered an inevitability before Christmas had even arrived.