Sheffield Wednesday 2025-26 season preview: Henrik Pedersen and Barry Bannan offer hope but regime change essential

One thing we should be reasonably confident of is that the Owls are too big, too historic, too important an institution in English football and their community to go to the wall. There always seems to be someone daft enough to come to the rescue.

But this summer has certainly pushed that theory to the limits.

It is hard to imagine much more having gone wrong for the Owls, with pretty much all the blame lying at the door of Dejphon Chansiri.

The first soap opera started long before 2024-25 ended, with Danny Rohl's unhappiness with the owner seeping out in the open before the Christmas decorations came down.

It started a crusade by the German coach to talk his way into a new job. Even that failed.

Despite touting his wares left, right and centre, plus a well-earned reputation as one of football's brightest young coaching talents, it took until July for Rohl and the Owls to cut their losses and agree a divorce, rather than the well compensated move to a high-profile club both wanted for different reasons.

Things moved up a notch in March with wages for players and staff unpaid. It was hardly a first under the Thai's mismanagement, but three months running – so far – from May to July was.

Cue free transfers for key players Josh Windass and Michael Smith, the sale of wingers Anthony Musaba and Djeidi Gassama, the departure of the backroom and even the players going on strike, refusing to play a friendly against Burnley. It seems that nuclear option at least will be avoided at Leicester City on Sunday when the Championship campaign is due to start live on Sky Sports.

Four transfer embargoes – two still in place – plus wage and fee restrictions, not to mention no cash, mean not a single new signing has yet held a blue-and-white scarf over their head or shirt in front of them.

Adding insult to injury, the Owls have been denied a safety certificate for the North Stand.

Unless it is made safe next week, Hillsborough risks leaving the seats facing the main TV cameras empty and the club having to relocate already disgruntled season ticket holders. If so, the name written in those seats will be on show for all to see on August 16 – Chansiri. There really is no escaping the damage the chairman and his ego have done.

With disciplinary charges against the club as well as him, and “previous” to take into account, a points deduction seems highly likely.

All of which means a manager with no first-team coaches – those in the youth set-up have stepped up to help Henrik Pedersen – and a squad not big enough to fill a bench with senior players go into the new season on a hiding to nothing or, for those whose glasses are half-full nothing to lose.

Distracted by Rohl's escape plot, the Owls’ 2025 form was the Championship’s 19th best even before an exodus which will see boys asked to men's jobs.

That the Charles brothers – Shea only on loan, Pierce still here for now – did so well last season shows relying on kids is not always the worst thing but pushing too many too hard, too often, too soon could be damaging for their welfare.

The hope has to be that the cavalry ride over the horizon sooner rather than later.

Not just new, robust players ready for a fight against the odds but more importantly new owners – credible and wealthy enough to lose money, engaged enough to work with, not against, the fans.

There are still talented players left – 20-year-old Northern Ireland goalkeeper Charles the pick – but when will their patience snap? You could hardly blame them.

Even if they dig in, will Chansiri flog them to pay the next bills?

Thanks goodness, then for Pedersen, Rohl's assistant who has come back to replace him, and captain Barry Bannan. Both saw their contracts end in June, both could easily have got fixed up elsewhere, but both are head over heels in love with a bonkers football club.

There will be plenty on the terraces in the east Midlands and at S6 this season against their better judgement too. It is the addicts who follow the Owls you feel most sorry for – wrestling with how strongly to support a team that needs them, knowing doing so helps prop up the man destroying it.

Everyone wants to see the back of Chansiri, but his stubbornness and tone deafness have been a problem in the past, and one gets the impression would-be buyers are not finding dealing with him all that easy.

As long as there are Pedersens, Bannans and the supporters who make every football club what it is, there will always be hope.

But it promises to be a hard battle until regime change takes place.

In: None.

Out: Djeidi Gassama (Rangers, £2.2m), Anthony Musaba (Samsunspor, £800,000), Akin Famewo (Hull City, free), Callum Paterson (Milton Keynes Dons, free), Josh Windass (Wrexham, free), Michael Smith (Preston, free), Mallik Wilks (Pendikspor, free), Michael Ihiekwe (Blackpool, free), Pol Valentin (Preston, free), Stuart Armstrong, Ben Hamer, Ryo Hatsuse and Marvin Johnson (all released).