Mike Ashley backed for Sheffield Wednesday takeover - 'I look enviously at where Newcastle are now' | OneFootball

Former England cricketer and Sheffield Wednesday fan Michael Vaughan has called for former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley to buy the Owls.

Former England cricketer and Sheffield Wednesday supporter Michael Vaughan believes Mike Ashley would be the perfect new owner for the Owls after the departure of Dejphon Chansiri.

After a nightmare few months of financial problems and off-field turmoil, former Wednesday owner Chansiri put the club and the company through which he owns the stadium into administration on Friday, bringing his decade-long tenure at Hillsborough to an end.

The Owls may only have been in administration for a few days, but it seems there has been plenty of interest in the club, with joint-administrator Kris Wigfield revealing on Monday that "there are already four or five interested parties that look like the real deal", and he predicted that a takeover could be completed before the end of the year.

It is unclear exactly which parties Wigfield is referring to, but ex-Newcastle United owner Ashley is one of a number of individuals who have been linked with a takeover of Wednesday in recent weeks, along with former Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor and businessman David Richards.

Ashley was the owner of the Magpies between 2007 and 2021, and of those 14 seasons, they spent 12 of them in the Premier League, while they even qualified for the Europa League after a fifth-placed finish in the top flight in the 2011-12 campaign.

However, Ashley was a deeply unpopular figure at St James' Park, with supporters often protesting against him due to what they believed was a lack of ambition, and his reign came to an end in October 2021 when he sold the club to a Saudi-led consortium for a fee of £305 million.

Michael Vaughan makes Mike Ashley, Sheffield Wednesday takeover plea after Dejphon Chansiri exit

Reflecting on the situation at his beloved Wednesday, Vaughan expressed his relief that Chansiri is no longer in control at Hillsborough, and he revealed that he would like to see an owner like Ashley take over the club, admitting he feels a sense of envy when looking at where Newcastle are now.

"It might seem a strange thing to say on what is a dark day in Sheffield Wednesday’s proud history, but I am actually quite happy we have gone into administration," Vaughan wrote in an article for The Telegraph.

"It means our owner Dejphon Chansiri should finally be out of the club, and we can start again. He has been mismanaging the club for a long while, failing to pay players on time, and allowing Hillsborough and the training ground to decline. He had to go. This is the moment for that, and in a funny kind of way going into administration could be the best thing to happen to us.

"Yes, a 12-point deduction hurts. It will mean we almost certainly get relegated from the Championship, but we were already bottom of the league and that looked very likely anyway. It is not a disaster to be relegated; we can start again and take small steps. Clear the decks. We need a business model, and to take our time to build something sustainable.

"It needs a huge amount of money, investment to redevelop the training ground, the stadium and the playing squad. Every fan, myself included, is hopeful someone has the vision. I wouldn’t mind a Mike Ashley-style owner. People criticise him but I look enviously at where Newcastle are now, so you never know."

Mike Ashley could be ideal for Sheffield Wednesday despite Newcastle United controversy

As the founder and former chief executive of Sports Direct and the Frasers Group, Ashley has enjoyed plenty of success in the business world, and Newcastle were always incredibly well run from a financial perspective during his time at St James' Park.

Ashley has an eye-watering net worth of $5.6 billion (£4.2 billion), so he would certainly have the financial means to make Wednesday a sustainable club once again after the turbulence of the Chansiri era, even if he may not be willing to spend as much as supporters would like in the transfer market.

Newcastle were a stable Premier League club for much of Ashley's tenure, and on the two occasions they were relegated from the top flight, they won the Championship title the following season, which shows the 61-year-old is more than capable of leading a rebuild.

Ashley has shown interest in two clubs since selling the Magpies — Derby County and Reading — both of whom were in similar situations to Wednesday's current predicament, so there is every chance he could try to secure a deal for the Owls for a cut-price fee now they are in administration.