Sheffield Wednesday takeover: Simon Jordan urges people to 'get a bit more realistic'
Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has urged people to “get a bit more realistic” over the future of Sheffield Wednesday.
The Owls have been in administration since October, when Dejphon Chansiri’s crisis-ridden tenure as owner was brought to an end.
A consortium led by James Bord were granted preferred bidder status on Christmas Eve, but withdrew from the process yesterday (February 25). The consortium said Wednesday’s value was below the figure they had tabled.
Jordan took a look at Wednesday himself earlier in the process, alongside Sheffield-born entrepreneur Ryan Howsam. He has since distanced himself from the Owls but has not shied away from sharing his thoughts on the current situation at Hillsborough.
Simon Jordan weighs in
On talkSPORT, he said: “The administrator has other bids in town and people are going to have to get a bit more realistic about this.
"It's all well and good suggesting that you want to buy something, that's why I wouldn't get in with my guy into a bidding war.
"Do you want this? Go bid for yourselves, go pull your own arm off at the shoulder, you're not going to me in an auction to pay twice what the price of this business should be bought for.”
Challenges ahead
Jordan has repeatedly spoken of Wednesday’s potential but the club’s eventual new owner will face challenges.
Unless they stump up a 25 per cent payment on monies owed to the football creditors upon exit from administration, the Owls will be docked 15 points next season in League One.
Jordan said: "Great football club, great potential, it's going to take a hell of a lot of work, going to get relegated, might even take a 15-point sanction next year if people are sensible and don't want to pay Chansiri 25p in the pound.
"Then you've got six years [of] hard work and hundreds of millions of quid to get it back to where you might want to get it back to, because anyone buying a football club that isn't a Sheffield Wednesday fan, is buying it as an investment."