Sheff Wed 'days from takeover' with Ashley leading contender

Former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley is one of two bidders close to buying Sheffield Wednesday, with captain Barry Bannan saying the squad needs the "boost" of a takeover.

The Owls were placed in administration in October, which effectively ended Dejphon Chansiri's decade-long ownership of the Championship club.

Joint-administrator Kris Wigfield said in a statement on Friday that "periods of confidentiality are essential" but "genuine progress is being made" to name a preferred bidder.

That could come soon, according to Bannan.

"There should be a new owner coming in the next couple of days, hopefully," Bannan told BBC Sport. "We're looking forward to that, we see that the takeover's close.

"We definitely need it. We need a boost at the minute because we've lost a lot of games.

"It's hard to keep people going when you're losing games, but this could be the boost that we need."

When the first stage of the takeover process was completed on 21 November, there were understood to be around 10 parties left in the running.

Today, it appears there are two rival offers remaining.

One is from Ashley and the other is a joint American bid by billionaire John McEvoy and members of the Storch family.

The cost of paying the creditors and the administrators is reported to be around £35m.

If the new owner pays less than this it will fall below the English Football League (EFL) insolvency threshold. This requires unsecured creditors, those not directly related to football or HMRC, to be paid at least 25p in the pound for their debt.

If that level is not reached the club face a deduction of 15 points. That will be applied at a time to be determined by the EFL, but ordinarily it is at the start of the following season.

If Wednesday - currently bottom of the Championship on -9 points - begin League One next season on -15 points it would make an immediate return to the Championship very difficult. Leeds almost managed it in 2007-08, losing in the play-off final to Doncaster.

Whoever buys the Owls will face a great deal more expenditure to bring the Hillsborough stadium and the training ground up to modern standards.

The council closed the North Stand in the summer because of concerns around its structural integrity, before lifting the prohibition notice just before the club's first home game of the season.

If Ashley is announced as the preferred bidder it would, subject to EFL approval, mark a return to football after his ownership of Newcastle from 2007 to 2021.

The founder of Sports Direct was not a popular figure for many supporters. During his tenure the Magpies were relegated to the Championship twice, but he did have a reputation for running the club within its means.

Newcastle was valued at £131m when Ashley bought the club. He sold it to the Saudi Public Investment Fund for £305m.

The 61-year-old, who at one stage owned a minority stake in Rangers, has been linked with investment in several ailing clubs in recent seasons, including Derby County and Coventry City.

Ashley's Frasers Group bought Coventry's ground out of administration in November 2022, before selling it to the club this summer.

Wednesday have been deducted a total of 18 points this season; 12 for entering administration and a further six for financial regulation breaches.

On Friday, the EFL formally confirmed that there would be no further sporting sanctions applied this season.

The Owls have won only one Championship fixture, losing 13 of their 20 games. They are rock bottom and 29 points from safety, with relegation to League One looking a formality.

Bannan, 36, insisted the players must find a way to dig deep to improve their form.

"There's only so much that you can blame administration for and the points deductions," he said.

"Now we need to start winning games. We're not happy with our performances. We need to be a lot better.

"There's no time for excuses now. We're looking forward."

The club were left with a threadbare squad in the summer after Josh Windass and Michael Smith walked away from their contracts. Star players like Djeidi Gassama and Anthony Musaba were sold.

Wednesday will play four games in 10 days over Christmas and resources have been further depleted.

Yan Valery and Sean Fusire have left for the Africa Cup of Nations while injuries have started to build up.

Manager Henrik Pedersen said this week he has only eight "senior players with Championship experience" and has had to utilise the U21 and U18 squads.

"It's hard," Bannan said. "That's why you see some performances are high level and we're really strong in games and then other games we probably die off a little bit.

"That's down to the size of the squad and not really being able to make a lot of substitutions.

"We're asking the same players to churn out minutes after minutes. It catches up.

"But there's no time for excuses. We know what we signed up for. We just have to keep going and hopefully there's good news around the corner."

Wednesday were given special dispensation to sign Liam Cooper and Nathan Redmond as free agents last month to bolster their numbers.

Bannan said "it would be great" if a takeover is completed in time for next month's transfer window.

"We can get to January and hopefully get a bit more help with players and start to go on a run," he added.

"If we want to do anything this season we need to start winning games, and we've not done that recently."