Sheffield Wednesday are so broke they cannot afford sock tape

The depths of Sheffield Wednesday’s plight hit home when it became apparent in pre-season that there was no tape to strap up ankles and keep up their socks.

Salaries had not been paid in full to staff, training facilities were not ready, manager Danny Röhl was leaving and one of Hillsborough’s stands was deemed unsafe. Sock tape, a basic tool of the trade for a footballer, was clearly not the most important item on the agenda for the Championship’s crisis club.

But it just went to show how deep the financial turmoil under Thai owner Dejphon Chansiri ran. The tape supplier needed to be paid before Wednesday’s players could prepare for training sessions with their customary strapping.

Just getting onto a training pitch has been a miracle during pre-season for the troubled club, who start their season at Leicester City on Sunday amid the backdrop of protests against Chansiri and his running of the club.

‘We hope he sells up before it’s too late’

There are plans for a plane to be flown over the King Power stadium, carrying a banner denouncing the owner. The match is being shown live on Sky Sports, giving it maximum coverage. Wednesday fans have taken their full allocation of 3,287 tickets and will not take their seats until five minutes after kick-off, in a protest at the situation they find themselves in.

The Sheffield Wednesday Supporters' Trust will be flying a plane over the King Power Stadium to protest against owner Dejphon Chansiri ✈️.

The protest will be live on Sky while the world is watching 🎥#SWFChttps://t.co/nzM78tqraZpic.twitter.com/88dlN47yVg

— Championship Terrace Talk (@ChampionshpTalk) August 6, 2025

“We are now into desperate times, with the club on the precipice,” said Paul Holmes of the SWFC Engagement Panel. “We all hope Mr Chansiri sees the damage that is being done to the club and the effect on the mental health of the fan base. We hope he sells up before it is too late.”

Wednesday have crammed years worth of upheaval into just six weeks of a pre-season that started on June 26. Players returned from their summer holidays less than a week before another payday where salaries were not paid in full.

The club’s training base at Middlewood Road, half a mile from Hillsborough, was undergoing renovations so there were no suitable pitches. This was not helped by the summer heatwave as turf was relaid, meaning players started their pre-season off-site.

Some fitness sessions could be held at the Jubilee Sports Club a mile from the training ground on artificial turf that “modern-day footballers don’t get on with,” according to captain Barry Bannan. There were also individual programmes for players, as there were during the Covid lockdowns in 2020. 

The club also trained at St George’s Park in Burton, but the sessions were not taken by the manager Röhl as he was in talks over his severance package after almost two years in charge. Instead, players were put through their paces by Under-21 coach Andy Holdsworth.

Röhl had brought relatively stability to the club after being appointed in October 2023, masterminding Championship survival when, in his own words, they had “one leg” in League One. They flirted with the play-off positions last seasons before finishing a creditable 12th as the German coach moved onto the radar of other clubs.

He returned a fortnight into pre-season and an agreement was eventually thrashed out last week. It was hardly ideal preparation for the upcoming Championship season.

With wages paid neither on time nor in full for three successive months, some players have handed in their notices. Players to move to other clubs include Josh Windass (Wrexham), Djeidi Gassama (Rangers), Michael Smith (Preston) and Callum Paterson (MK Dons) – a cohort who provided 34 goals in the Championship between them last season. Max Lowe is expected to leave and Marvin Johnson is now a free agent.

Henrik Pedersen has been kept on from Röhl’s staff and is now in charge. He at least has Bannan in his squad after a new contract was agreed but special dispensation from the EFL is needed for him to play against Leicester as the league has imposed registration restrictions on Wednesday for failing to pay their bills.

Pedersen told BBC Sheffield that he is speaking regularly with Chansiri following his appointment, which is more than can be said for the owner’s dialogue with others. “He gave me the indication that he would do all that he can to solve the problems and that he would like to do it as quick as possible,” said Pedersen.

When Röhl ended last season, there was barely any communication with the owner and Bannan had a Zoom call with him immediately after the campaign. They have not spoken since. “He was really sorry and was trying to get us paid as quickly as possible,” said the captain.

Bannan was part of a team meeting last month when players held clear-the-air talks and frank views were aired about the club’s predicament. The Scottish midfielder has been privately impressed with the effort his team-mates have put into pre-season despite the uncertainty around the club.

Sheffield Wednesday fans with a yellow and black balloon protest against the running of the club, ahead of today's game v Portsmouth. #swfc | @footballheavenpic.twitter.com/D0jwSdpJyz

— Andy Giddings (@SportGids1) April 26, 2025

“I’ve been there a long time, this is my 11th season, and it’s part of my family now. It was an easy decision but also a really hard one,” he said on TalkSport.

It was Bannan who had been part of the decision-making process to cancel the friendly against Burnley. The issues that the club faced were covered daily in the local media, with Sheffield Star and BBC Sheffield journalists covering the crisis in detail every day. But it had gone quiet elsewhere and players wanted to make a public show of support for the non-football staff who had not been paid.

“It’s happened too much now,” said Bannan. “That was our choice to say ‘enough’s enough’. We need clarity.”

Clarity is in short supply at the moment. Chansiri gave a lengthy statement, giving a blow-by-blow account of his rejection of a £40m bid for the club from Florida-based property investor John Flanagan. Chansiri says he was contacted by a person “supposedly representing the consortium” after the offer was declined, but they did not turn up to a Zoom meeting or pay a requested deposit.

His 854-word missive included insistence that he wanted to sell the club for the right price – but did not explain why the money tap had been turned off by the man whose family has amassed wealth from their tuna business. Or why the club are waiting for solidarity payments from the Premier League to pay wages this month.

The EFL says Chansiri “needs either to fund the club to meet its obligations or make good on his commitment to sell to a well-funded party”. It also believes he intends to sell. That said, it has not spoken directly to him, with communication coming through lawyers and advisors.

US businessman John Textor has interest in buying Wednesday, having sold his stake in Crystal Palace. Breaking his silence on the subject, he said there have been no talks yet over a deal. So the impasse will rumble on into the season, with immediate worries over the start of the campaign still needing to be sorted.

Sheffield City Council has issued a prohibition notice over the North Stand of Hillsborough because of safety concerns, so their first home match of the season could only have three sides of the stadium open, causing re-seating chaos.

It is just another part of the most chaotic pre-season an English club has faced.