David Storch sent financial warning after Sheffield Wednesday takeover | OneFootball

David Storch officially completed his takeover of Sheffield Wednesday earlier this month

Sheffield Wednesday celebrated the completion of David Storch’s takeover of the club with a 2-1 win against West Brom on the final day of the season.

The Owls won their first game at Hillsborough of the campaign thanks to goals from Liam Palmer and Nathaniel Chalobah.

The Yorkshire outfit went into administration in October, and had to wait until the start of May to have a new owner in place.

Henrik Pedersen’s side suffered relegation as a result of the significant off-field issues, with a limited squad struggling for results.

A combined deduction penalty worth 18 points handed to the club by the EFL ensured they ended the season with a tally of zero.

Storch will now be hoping to rebuild Sheffield Wednesday as quickly as possible in order to turn things around and get the team back into the Championship.

David Storch issued investment warning

Football finance expert Stefan Borson has warned Storch that a lot of money will need to be invested in Sheffield Wednesday’s infrastructure, and quickly, as part of the club’s rebuild.

He believes that it could be quite costly for the new owners, and that it could become a major issue with supporters if work doesn’t go into improving the stadium and other facilities as a top priority, despite the obvious goodwill of the takeover.

“They seem to have managed to stave off some of the restrictions on transfers and wages, which is a positive to an extent, but it is also going to ramp up the pressure on the new owners to spend and spend quickly,” said Borson, via Football Insider.

“That in itself is going to quickly become a problem.

“They’ve got a lot of goodwill when you buy the club in the way that they have.

“When you talk the game that they’ve talked, you’ve got to build up goodwill.

“They need to do the spending in a phased way.

“They’ve got a lot to spend.

“The stadium, the infrastructure and the training ground is all going to cost them an absolute fortune, so all of that has got to be prioritised.”

Sheffield Wednesday were initially set to be purchased by a consortium led by James Bord, as they were named the preferred bidders in December after a number of interested parties stepped forward.

However, the £47.8 million offer collapsed in February, which paved the way for Storch to complete his takeover by May.

The group led by Storch, known as Arise Capital, also involves his son Michael, as well as Tom Costin.

The Owls will now be preparing for life in League One, where they will start with a clean slate after the club avoided a 15 point deduction penalty.

It was feared that the Yorkshire outfit would start the next campaign on the backfoot due to failing to meet the EFL’s rules regarding insolvency.

But an arrangement was made with previous owner Dejphon Chansiri that led to the threat of a further penalty being dropped.

Pedersen is set to remain in charge of the first team squad, with it being reported that Simon Wilson is set to become Sheffield Wednesday’s sporting director.

David Storch has a lot of work ahead of him as Sheffield Wednesday owner

There is no doubt that Sheffield Wednesday are one of the sleeping giants of the EFL, and that a club of their size could be competing in the Premier League under the right ownership.

But a decade of mismanagement has brought them back to League One, and it means that a lot of work needs to be done to turn things around.

Not only is investment needed in the first team squad, but Hillsborough and the training facilities also need a lot of work to improve the infrastructure.

While Storch no doubt has grand plans, and the proactive moves they’ve made so far are encouraging, it will be a big test of his commitment to the club to see the level of investment that goes into improving these important off-field aspects of Sheffield Wednesday.