Football Season Guide

There are genuine questions about Sheffield Wednesday’s continued existence following a summer of turmoil at Hillsborough. The troubled ownership of Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri has lurched into a full blown crisis having failed to pay both players and staff their March and May salaries. The club have been placed under a three-window transfer fee restriction by the EFL. The subsequent failure to pay June salaries on time has seen several players take the opportunity to terminate their contracts. Attacking midfielder Josh Windass and striker Michael Smith are the two most high-profile players to have done so, and have signed for Wrexham and Preston North End respectively. Centre-back Akin Famewo is another to have moved on and their departures are a huge blow, and leaving for nothing just adds to the feelings of dismay in the Steel City. Transfer fees have been received for strikers Anthony Musaba and Djeidi Gassama from Samsunspor and Rangers respectively, albeit nowhere close to their true market value and those sums are likely to disappear into the black hole of Chansiri’s financial mismanagement. Manager Danny Röhl has spent the summer looking on at this even-increasing farce whilst searching for an exit-strategy. Links with Championship sides Leicester City and Southampton and Bundesliga clubs RB Leipzig and Werder Bremen came to nothing but a parting of the ways was always inevitable and he left by mutual consent just 12 days before the start of the new season. Röhl’s assistant Henrik Pedersen has taken on the role and he’ll be working against a chaotic backdrop whilst Chansiri attempts to recoup as much of his investment as he can. A sale certainly isn’t imminent and fears of administration loom large. With such grave concerns, the fortunes of the team come secondary. It’s extremely unlikely a scratch squad of those who remain under contract, supplemented with under-21’s players, will be able to survive in the Championship.