Sheffield Wednesday takeover news: John Textor update, fan protest, player statement, wages unpaid | OneFootball

John Textor may be interested in buying Sheffield Wednesday, but the players are furious and wages remain unpaid. Here's the latest from Hillsborough.

The team may not have played their friendly at Burnley at the weekend, but it's still been a busy week at Sheffield Wednesday.

Wednesday remain deep in crisis, with a transfer embargo in place, one stand at Hillsborough closed for safety reasons, and new head coach Henrik Pedersen trying to assemble a team for their Championship season, which is due to start at Leicester on Sunday afternoon.

It remains the case that the club's best hope of salvation would be a takeover, but after a flurry of conjecture earlier in the summer this had fallen somewhat quiet, with reports that negotiations that had been taking place had fallen through.

But the fast-approaching new season makes this takeover all the more important, so here's the latest on what is - and isn't - happening over it, from Hillsborough.

Textor may be leading American-based consortium to try and buy the club

Following recent reports that previous takeover talks had collapsed, it felt as though Sheffield Wednesday were back to square one, but there have been reports that the businessman John Textor could be ready to head up a consortium to buy the club.

Textor has recently sold his shareholding in Crystal Palace and would therefore be able to do so.

Journalist Alan Nixon has reported that Textor could be heading a group to try and buy the club.

He reports that an American group is interested, but that after the collapse of earlier talks, these are being carried out under much more secretive conditions. It's also been reported that players are being told that a takeover is "close" to try and persuade them not to leave on account of the non-payment of wages, or to sign new contracts with the club.

Sheffield Wednesday supporters plan protest action on first weekend of season

If Sunday's season-opener at Leicester does go ahead, there'll be some empty seats at kick-off at The King Power Stadium.

Wednesday supporters travelling to the East Midlands at the weekend have been asked by the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust to delay entry to their seats until five minutes after kick-off, while a large banner will be displayed in “a visibly empty away end” at the ground.

A statement released by the Trust on X on Sunday afternoon also confirmed plans for a further protest on the occasion of their first home league match of the season, which is due to be played against Stoke City the following Tuesday night.

Wednesday players' statement doesn't discount the possibility of further action

Sheffield Wednesday's players have issued a statement explaining their reasoning for not playing the Burnley friendly and discussing the impact that the club's failure to pay them has had upon them. They confirmed that they are continuing to train as normal but, arguably tellingly, there is nothing specific saying that there won't be any action taken this coming weekend.

Instead, it says, "This is proving to be really challenging and we have made it clear to the club that we want this situation to be addressed as soon as possible so decisions taken like the one not to play at Burnley are avoided in the future", which may be interpreted in several different ways. Further action this weekend isn't confirmed, but it certainly isn't ruled out.

Wages were unpaid again at the end of July, but Barry Bannan is staying

The root cause of all this is that wages were unpaid at the end of July, the third successive month that this has happened at Hillsborough. The club is already down to a senior squad of just 16 players, and with reports that full-back Max Lowe has also now handed in his 15-day notice under FIFA regulations, even that meagre number could be a little on the optimistic side.

The news that captain Barry Bannan has signed a contract extension with the club adds a little cheer for Wednesday supporters, but with the transfer embargo drastically which players they could bring in - and that's without asking what professionals would want to go to a club at which there's every possibility they may not get paid at the end of the month - there remains a possibility that any Sheffield Wednesday team that does take to the pitch at the King Power Stadium will be very bare bones indeed.