Sheffield Wednesday Championship Odds: Getting through the season is Owls’ main aim

To say Sheffield Wednesday have been through turmoil this summer is the understatement of any football season. After a progress-filled 2024/25 campaign which saw them finish in 12th place, the Owls’ disastrous activity away from the field over the past decade has well and truly caught up with them.

Cash-strapped owner Dejphon Chansiri has gone AWOL during a spell which has seen them reduced to 16 players and three stands against the backdrop of mayhem in S6. Below you can find my Sheffield Wednesday Championship Odds as well as a season preview. Caution: Rated X for Owls fans.

Manager Danny Rohl left Hillsborough this summer having performed miracles with one of the poorer squads in the second tier over the previous couple of years, but even his inevitable exit was handled badly. Chansiri fought to force the manager back to work but then allowed him to depart for a small pay-off, having previously been steadfast in wanting the German’s £5 million release clause to be met.

Rohl’s number two, Henrik Pedersen, takes the reins now with a much-reduced coaching staff and half as many senior players as the club had last year. And if they continue to be left unpaid month after month, there’s no guarantee many of them will stick around beyond the first few games.

Championship Odds

Transfer business

In: Erm… None.

Out: Djeidi Gassama (£2.2m), Caelan Cadamarteri (£1.5m), Anthony Musaba (£800,000), Michael Ihiekwe, Pol Valentin, Mallik Wilks, Michael Smith, Josh Windass, Callum Paterson, Akin Famewo, Stuart Armstrong, Ben Hamer, Ryo Hatsuse, Marvin Johnson, Joey Phuthi, Sam Reed (all free).

It’s not even worth comparing Wednesday’s transfer activity to the 23 other teams in the league. The summer has been punctuated by bad news related to the make-up of the squad, with players and club staff having failed to be paid on time in four of the last five months.

That directly led to the departures of Michael Smith and Josh Windass to Preston North End and Wrexham respectively, with both exercising their right to walk away from contracts on which the club had initially triggered one-year extensions.

They’ve also lost further attacking spark in livewire wingers Anthony Musaba and Djeidi Gassama, who has gone on to score four goals in his first three Champions League appearances with Rangers. The total amount received for those two – around £2.5m after Paris Saint-Germain’s sell-on fee for Gassama is taken into account – went towards settling salary and HMRC bills rather than giving Pedersen greater resources.

Even had they approached players to sign, there’s no guarantees that would have been possible since the club is now under a three-window transfer fee embargo due to a failure to pay clubs for previous switches. The same imposition also means they are unable to offer more than £7,000 per week in salary to any new signing.

The actions of Chansiri have been truly debilitating and Wednesday are in absolutely no state to compete in the Championship, with more players likely to consider their futures in time should wages continue to go unpaid.

There’s every chance they fail to make it to the end of the season as things stand.

Key Player: Barry Bannan

Bannan cemented himself as a club legend in the past week with his decision to sign a new one-year deal with the Owls on vastly reduced terms. He had spent the previous month training as usual at Middlewood Road despite not being contracted following the expiry of his previous agreement.

Amid interest from Middlesbrough and Millwall, the widespread belief was that his 10-season association with Wednesday would come to an understandable end. But the 35-year-old Scot astounded everyone by signing up again, citing the need to be there for the club staff who are struggling to meet their bills as the main driver behind his decision.

At a time when Wednesday have been shorn of all their main assets, nobody would have begrudged the club captain one final payday elsewhere. But in showing his love for the club by signing on for the insurmountable task of keeping this squad in the league, he has ensured his place in Sheffield Wednesday folklore.

If there is still a club beyond this season, a Bannan statue might well be commissioned outside Hillsborough before long.

Prediction: 24th

Most 1-24 predictions this season are basically 1-23s. When Wednesday begin their schedule at Leicester City on Sunday they will do so with next to no fans in the away end for the first five minutes as the majority of the 3,287 attending supporters protest against Chansiri’s running of the club.

Then six days later, when they welcome Stoke City to Hillsborough, they will likely have nobody in their predominant North Stand which bears Chansiri’s name on its seats, with Sheffield City Council having issued a prohibition notice for the structure due to poor maintenance dating back years.

Add that to the financial issues, lack of senior players and various other problems – fans are currently boycotting any spending on official club merchandise in a bid to expedite the owner's exit – and what you have is an absolute clown show, to use a PG phrase.

Football Odds

Among Wednesday’s current 16-player senior squad are centre-backs Di’Shon Bernard, whose recovery from ACL surgery will continue into October at the earliest, and Gabriel Otegbayo, who has made only four league starts and never played a full 90 minutes.

Chuck in Sean Fusire, whose only league appearances came in a Carlisle United side relegated from the Football League last season, and you’re left being generous to Pedersen’s resources by calling them threadbare.

These are going to be nine long months for Wednesday fans. In a best-case scenario, they escape a points deduction and can challenge Rotherham United’s Championship-worst mark of 23 points back in 2016/17. Worst case? Players and staff aren’t paid and there’s nobody left to fill the shirts beyond Bannan and Liam Palmer.

Upon the announcement of Bannan’s new contract last weekend, former Wednesday youth-teamer Palmer shared an Instagram story which suggested a pact between the pair to stick it out at Hillsborough “Till the wheels fall off”.

The club’s biggest hope is that the wheels are still turning for a League 1 campaign next August.

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