Sheffield Wednesday face off-pitch 'threat' to club's academy | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday's poor training facilities could see their academy drop down in grading ahead of next season

Sheffield Wednesday's rebuild from the ashes of Dejphon Chansiri's reign at Hillsborough is set to be one that will take a long time to complete.

The Owls have been in administration for over six months now, but the hope is that the US-based consortium, Arise, led by David Storch, will be in office by Friday, May 1.

It'll be a celebratory occasion if completed then, especially with the prospect of a sold-out Hillsborough on the cards the following day for the visit of West Brom in Wednesday's final Championship game before their League One return.

However, it won't be long after that before the focus shifts to building Sheffield Wednesday back up from effectively the lowest point a club could be while still operating, both on and off the field.

On it, the Owls' threadbare squad will get even weaker when their loan players head back to their parent clubs, and then they're set to begin the upcoming third-tier campaign with a 15-point deduction after that.

Off the field, it's an unfortunate reality that Dejphon Chansiri never put much care into maintaining and developing the training ground at Middlewood Road, and that may have a knock-on effect on their academy grading in the short-term future.

Sheffield Wednesday at risk of a drop in academy category level

According to a report from the Sheffield Star's Alex Miller, Sheffield Wednesday are at risk of seeing their academy classification levels drop from Category 2 to Category 3.

The drop would impact Wednesday's EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan) and their funding going forward, while also lowering the level at which the Owls' youth squads will be able to play.

Understandably, that's not something that anyone connected with the club, and especially prospective owners Arise, wants to let happen, and the report states that sources close to the consortium are prepared to do what is necessary to retain a Category 2 placing.

That may include moving some of the academy off-site and away from Middlewood Road, where they've been left to train on artificial surfaces at times, and links with local universities are in the early stages of being explored.

That would be the short-term solution, with the longer-term project potentially leading the club to move away from the current facilities altogether, with a source telling the Star that the training ground right now is "inadequate" for what Arise has in mind.

It just resembles yet another worrying aspect of the takeover, and once again highlights the decrepit nature that Sheffield Wednesday was in under Dejphon Chansiri.

It will take a while to fully rid Dejphon Chansiri's impact at Sheffield Wednesday

Ultimately, while the recent reports do reaffirm that the talks between the Arise consortium and the EFL are at the "business end" and are still hoping to be completed by Friday, it just resembles part one of what is looking to be a long and tiresome journey to get Sheffield Wednesday back on its feet.

This isn't a revelation which will shock the wider footballing world, though, as the last six months have only gone to show what a state the club was in when Chansiri finally left.

After all, one of the first things that the administrators did when they took charge was to replace some of the computer equipment, which "was older than some of the staff."

It turns out that it's not just the facilities surrounding technology that are in much need of some refreshment; the playing ones do, too. But if the correct investment was put into such aspects over the past five to 10 years, that wouldn't be necessary.

A lot needs to be done both in the short term with the academy and the first team squad, and in the long term regarding the facilities at the club to get Wednesday back and operating at a level appropriate for a club of that size.