Sheffield Wednesday owner told consortium is ready and waiting to buy ‘sleeping giant’
EXCLUSIVE: Fans of Sheffield Wednesday are becoming increasingly impatient with owner Dejphon Chansiri – and it has been claimed a US-based consortium is waiting in the wings to launch a takeover bid
Initial success saw Wednesday flirt with a first return to the Premier League since the turn of the millennium, falling short in successive playoff campaigns.
But the proceeding years have been played out amid a backdrop of chaos, including a points deduction, transfer embargo and relegation to the third tier.
Chansiri even asked supporters to stump up the cash for an unpaid tax bill in 2023 and, at a disastrous fans’ forum earlier this year, told attendees his plan for the future of the club was none of their business.
Now, fans are mobilising behind the scenes to try and force change at Hillsborough. Owls supporter Symon Quick, a stock market trader with a background in owning businesses, is fronting a social media campaign with the tagline: #EnoughIsEnough.
“I give him [Chansiri] three options,” Quick told The Mirror. “1. Show us your plan to take the club forward. 2. Accept, implement and fund our plan to take the club forward. Or 3. Stand aside for a new owner who has the strategy, leadership and capital to take the club forward.
“Option one, I don’t think is ever going to happen. Option two, I also don’t think is ever going to happen. That being said, it is a genuine offer. If he wants to work with us and he needs ideas to take the club forward because he wants to change things around, we would love to be able to come in and help.
“However, over his decade in charge so many others have tried, from individual fans right up to a very experienced and highly respected football person who prepared a full dossier after a root and branch investigation into the running of the club, and he still refused to listen and accept his plan. So if he won’t listen to someone like that, I can’t imagine he’ll listen to me.”
Some fans are demanding change at Hillsborough(Image:Â Getty Images)
Quick is assembling a team of fan groups, accountants, barristers, analysts, agents and other senior figures in football and finance in a bid to help facilitate change at Wednesday.
And he claims a US-based consortium with the resources at their disposal to make the club a force again within the English game is ready and waiting to take over the club – if Chansiri is ready to talk.
“If he would come to the table, I believe a deal could be concluded very quickly,” Quick claimed. “The consortium I have been speaking with will be able to put in place everything that we as fans would like to see put in place.
“All the things I’m discussing with other fans are already part of the consortium’s package. These are serious players who want to do a serious job. They are involved in business which would work very well with Sheffield Wednesday being a part of their portfolio.
“I’m hoping that we might hear more from them soon, but I don’t have any control over what they say or don’t say. We have eight matches of this season to play and we are still in with an outside chance of a play-off spot. They don’t want to do anything that might interfere with that focus.
“There has also been some concern that there is a lot of anger and frustration amongst fans and even a bit of infighting. They don’t want to get caught up in that.
“However, in the last few weeks I sense the tide has turned. Fans are broadly in agreement that enough is enough and there has to be change. It feels to me that anyone offering a solution right now would be welcomed with open arms. Maybe they will come forward soon. I’ve certainly asked them to.”
Current Owls boss Danny Rohl(Image:Â PA)
Chansiri has forged a reputation as a tough negotiator during his time in English football, which saw a legal wrangle with Newcastle when they poached Steve Bruce from Hillsborough.
He priced Southampton out of a move for highly-rated current Owls coach Danny Rohl earlier this season, although it may be a different story in the summer with the German’s buy-out clause reportedly smaller for a club in the same division as Saints head back to the second tier.
Quick says Chansiri’s reputation makes a sale more difficult, but insists Wednesday are still an enticing prospect for potential new owners.
“I was told this week that the reputation of Sheffield Wednesday is absolutely dreadful,” he said. “It’s in the mud. People in football often don’t want to deal with our club because they anticipate difficulties.
“But lots of people are interested in buying football clubs. And Sheffield Wednesday are going to be very high on their list because we’re one of the last big sleeping giants that might be available at a sensible price.
“There are not many other clubs that you can buy at the price we are probably worth at this moment in time that have a potential as high as ours. It’s not an exaggeration to say that we should be a very competitive Premier League team.
“Given the size of our fan base, we just simply need someone to take over and run the thing properly. We have far more potential than Bournemouth and Brentford and teams like that. Even though they’re streets ahead of us financially right now.”
Chansiri has been at the helm at Wednesday for the last decade(Image:Â Phil Duncan/REX/Shutterstock)
The big question is whether Chansiri would be willing to sell Wednesday for a fair price without reaching the promised land of the Premier League, given the money he has spent bankrolling the club over the last decade.
But Quick is more optimistic than some. “I have very solid reason to believe that Mr Chansiri would like to be out,” he added.
“If he could find a way to drop his ego, people would be happy to pay a fair price. I’m told he’s had the club valued and the price that he has been told is a figure that I know is in the ballpark of what people would pay. But I am not the buyer or the seller, so it’s not up to me to try to negotiate a price.
“In terms of being able to do a deal, it just simply needs sensible negotiations and a show of good faith from both sides. I think that if the asking price was around what the club is currently worth, then people would probably be happy to pay it.”
Ownership of clubs is a hot topic within English football currently given the problems at Reading under Dai Yongge. Further down the pyramid, Morecambe and Scunthorpe are also facing uncertain futures.
Despite falling on harder times more recently, Wednesday are one of English football’s traditional juggernauts. But Quick warns that isn’t enough to save them from a potentially similar fate.
He concluded: “That’s the reason I’m motivated to do this because I’ve always been somebody who said no it’s not going to happen. I’ve changed my opinion of recent times.
“It’s not off the table that we end up in a Reading scenario. But we’re relying on him [Chansiri] to do the right thing.
“So we need to do something about it and we need to do something about it now.”
