- today
Sheffield Wednesday have a bit of a good news and a lot of bad news. It's a never-ending cycle at the moment. Join us this week as we go through all the latest on All Wednesday.
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00:00The amount of things up in the air in terms of player availability, contracts, potential walkouts,
00:06all of that stuff is just, it's something that needs a line drawn underneath it and it needs
00:11to have a line drawn underneath it quick because the way things are going at Sheffield Wednesday
00:16at the moment with a potential points deduction on the horizon as well, it's all just very, very messy.
00:30Welcome to All Wednesday, the Sheffield Wednesday show, I'm Chris Holt stepping in this week
00:40into host duties because Joe is going to be the expert, Joe Crane is here with me, your
00:46usual host of All Wednesday, it's been another, it's been a week, Joe, it's been a week at
00:59Sheffield Wednesday and now we're just going to go through it all and kind of get your
01:06insight into the absolute madness that is Sheffield Wednesday Football Club as things stand
01:12at the minute.
01:14Beginning of the week, we're going to start off, beginning of the week they acted almost
01:20like a normal football club and went away on a pre-season camp.
01:24So, however, that's not quite the full story because, well, there weren't that many people
01:33there and there were quite a lot of kids.
01:36Yeah, the problem that Wednesday had is that it was, look, I feel for a lot of people at
01:40the club, there's a lot of people trying to do incredible things in very difficult circumstances.
01:46You know, they obviously went away to St George's, which is a great facility, genuinely state-of-the-art
01:51facility. It's the same place they went with Danny Reel last year. Danny Reel is still the
01:57manager, but he is not there. And, you know, that's where you talk about the people that
02:03are taking it.
02:05In a normal situation, the manager goes with his assistant manager and his coaching staff
02:11and his goalkeeper coach. And when is this case, it was the under-21s manager, the under-18s
02:17assistant and the academy goalkeeper coach who were in charge for the first little bit.
02:23It's been a weird week because there was a little bit of, oh, that young player signed
02:28a new contract. That's great. And they've just, Henrik Pedersen's come back. That's great.
02:32And then it all just started to go downhill again because that's what happens at Wednesday.
02:36Nothing good ever seems to last for very long.
02:39Yeah, well, you just touched on it there. So, as you said, it was kind of, right, how
02:48many coaches have we got still at the club? Can you all take yourself off to St George's
02:53Park, please? And we'll give you something to do. But then, as you pointed out there, good
03:01news in that, you know, he's a very popular person with the fan base and clearly with the
03:06players as well. Pedersen signed a new contract, interestingly, a new contract as assistant
03:13manager. And he took himself straight off there, didn't he? Straight down, almost as soon as
03:21the, before the ink had dried on the contract, he was straight down to kind of oversee the
03:27sessions. I think that was Tuesday, Tuesday or Wednesday, wasn't it? Tuesday?
03:31I have no idea anymore, Chris.
03:33Yeah, it doesn't really matter. It just all kind of melts into one. But yeah, so that
03:40was the good news. He went down there. That was treated, well, we didn't really know what
03:49to make of it because if we're honest, we kind of thought, right, he's been signed a new
03:56contract as assistant manager. But as soon as things are sorted out with Danny, then there's
04:01a fair chance that he is going to take over as manager. No sooner had that happened, 24
04:06hours later, we find out that the boy Danny is apparently making a return.
04:13Yeah. And obviously that was met with mixed signals, I suppose, from Wednesday fans, I think
04:20understandably so. I think there's been this idea of having to pick a side, I think, for a
04:27long time at Wednesday. You're either sort of team Danny or team Chancery. I think that
04:32the way things have played out over the last however many months, you know, it's fair to
04:37criticise both.
04:39You know, I think...
04:39I think you can say both teams are rubbish.
04:43I just want both teams to lose. But no, I think, yeah, the situation with Danny, that
04:49was interesting because no matter, no sooner had that story come out that it was Rob Staten
04:56at Radio Sheffield who did the story, it started filtering through that a lot of people weren't
05:02very happy about that. That he was... People felt like there was a bit too much water had
05:08passed under the bridge for him to just walk back in. You know, that's not me saying that.
05:13That's come directly from camp. There was a meeting that took place, from what I can gather,
05:19and that was the general consensus, which left things very open in terms of what happens
05:25next. It's another... It just feels like every time, you know, the pieces start to lay flat
05:32on the table, everything just gets chucked up into the air again. And that... It just kind
05:36of feels like that's the resting state of Wednesday now is that it's... You have a period of relative
05:42calm and then it's all just carnage. I think, you know, there's a ton of phrases you could
05:48use to describe Wednesday at the minute. You know, car crash, dumps the fire, whatever
05:53you want to pick. Wednesday were all of them at the moment. And we are literally flying
05:58by the seat of our pants at the moment. I've been in this industry a long time and I have
06:02never covered anything like this before.
06:07I don't want you to kind of assume what people are feeling. But what do you think would be
06:17the reasoning behind the players' reluctance to accept Danny back with the kind of open
06:23arms that many people felt that he would be?
06:28I think if I was to guess, it was the... I mean, the fact that he wasn't there for pre-season.
06:33Look, we've been left in the dark officially on most of this. You know, we've not been given
06:39any reasons from the club. I mean, we had the long statement from the chairman about Adam
06:47Shaw, you know, Devar Cullen and everything was going on there. But there was so much that
06:52wasn't addressed in that statement. You know, the expiring contracts weren't addressed, the
06:56unpaid wages weren't addressed, the situation with Danny wasn't addressed. And it was one
07:01of those that I think a lot of people after reading that statement were like, well, that's
07:06all well and good, but what about everything else? Like, are we just going to sort of cherry
07:10pick what we want to talk about here? So I think that, I mean, the fact that Danny hasn't
07:14been there for the whole of pre-season, he's been linked with a lot of football clubs over
07:19the last few months, which, you know, it's not his fault. You know, he's a very good,
07:24very exciting, talented young manager who did an incredible job at Wednesday in his first season
07:30and did a very good job in the second as well. I mean, obviously things fell off after the Southampton
07:35interest and the January transfer window that was. And, you know, obviously there's a lot can be said
07:40about the, what, it feels like 15 years since then, but it is only about seven months.
07:46But yeah, I think that the, it kind of felt like the, maybe the players felt a little bit left out
07:54to dry in a very trying time. Again, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to make assumptions.
08:02I'm not going to speak on behalf of the players, but I think that that is possibly a large part of
08:07that, but if they just felt like too much had happened between the end of the season and where
08:12we are now, for Danny to just walk back in and sort of go, right, well, let's get back to work then.
08:21It's not even just the end of the season, it really is. I mean, since January, really, or December, I guess,
08:30whenever, you know, when things started to kind of unravel, or certainly publicly, the relationships
08:39between Danny Royal and Chan Ciri started to unravel. It just hasn't really been the same, has it?
08:46Yeah. So something broke in that period. The relationship, the fans forum that followed it,
08:53I don't think was helpful to anything. And I think as soon as that press, well, not press conference,
08:58as soon as that fans forum was announced, I think the general feeling was, what are we doing this for?
09:05I think that was not just from us as journalists and the media, but I think that was the general
09:10view from everybody is like, this is not, nothing good can come from this. And, you know, as predicted,
09:16nothing good did come from it. Everything went downhill. Wednesday's slight chances of a playoff push
09:22were completely derailed. And I was going to swear then it all went to pieces. And we've, we know,
09:28we're still now reeling from all of that because obviously there was the payment issues and I think it was
09:33March. Then we are where we are now, where Wednesday are in just a chaotic state. I was chatting to a few
09:43different people and I don't think there's anything that Wednesday are going through at the moment
09:47individually that hasn't happened somewhere else before. I'm not sure there's another club where
09:51it's all happened at once, where everything that Wednesday are currently dealing with is all in
09:57one horrible bowl of slop. And that, you know, that, that is what Wednesday is trying to get
10:02themselves out of now. Put that on a flag.
10:12In other news, a couple of players
10:17are leaving or certainly are expecting to leave at this stage. And we just get a kind of bit of an
10:24update on that. Musaba is all but gone. Is that, is that fair?
10:33I don't know what I, I don't know what anything is anymore, Chris. I don't know what the point of
10:37my job is. I've kind of lost the will to live on transfers because I think the, the, the precursor to
10:44this is the Jeddy Gosarma thing. I think you've got to talk about Jeddy to talk about Antone. With,
10:49with Jeddy Gosarma in a weird twist of fate, Rangers who are interested in Jeddy are also at St.
10:56George's Park. They can literally go see him, you know, or he can come see them pop over the road.
11:01You know, they can have a chat. And it was no surprise. I don't think to see players like Jeddy and
11:08Antone linked with teams elsewhere. You know, they are young players who are seen as assets.
11:14Wednesday need money. Everybody knows Wednesday need money. So they can be got on terms that they
11:20probably shouldn't be available on, if we're being honest. And what happened was Rangers came in for
11:26Jeddy Gosarma. And as things stand, terms have been agreed. Jeddy Gosarma has done his medical. He's,
11:34um, aside from one signature, practically he's a Rangers player, but until that signature is done,
11:41he's not. And, um, he's, he's been with Rangers. Like I say, he's done his medical,
11:46he's agreed terms. All of that has been done, but yet we have not had a confirmation of that.
11:52That could change. I mean, literally while we're recording this, that, you know, it could be called
11:57off. It could be confirmed. It could drag on longer. Um, and because of that, even though the president
12:03of Samsung sport in Turkey has said that Anthony Masaba is flying in on Friday and we're going to,
12:08you know, confirm as a player on Saturday, I can't, I can't trust that that's true. And it's not
12:13because I don't trust him. It's because I don't trust this, this bunch that we're dealing with
12:17at Wednesday. Um, you know, I think the fact that there's probably an argument to be said that
12:24Jerry Gasama is maybe a bigger asset than the Nante Masaba. He was a bigger player for Wednesday
12:29last season. He's younger. I think people would probably argue he's got a higher ceiling.
12:35So, you know, there is probably less of a reluctance to lose Moussa than there is to lose Gas.
12:42Um, but the, the, the honest thing is right now, I don't know. Um, we can only go on what we've
12:49been told and as things stand, Jerry Gasama should be a Rangers player. He's not. Um,
12:55Anthony Masaba should be a Samsung, Samsung sport player by the end of tomorrow night.
13:00Who knows? Probably, maybe not. Um, the reason why, um, the, the delay to the Kusama move to Rangers,
13:13um, has kind of peaked interest, I guess, from, from Wednesday fans is that it was revealed this
13:23week that a number revealed in, you know, by yourself, that a number of very interested parties
13:32are making it a bit of leeway, shall we say? We, we can't say much more than that, but they're a
13:38little bit closer to taking over than anybody has probably been previously. I think it's probably
13:45the best way of putting it. Um, so there, there's, there's perhaps, uh, quite frankly,
13:51it could be completely wrong, but people are looking at that putting two and two together and thinking,
13:56well, actually maybe the owners or potential owners are saying put a stop on that because
14:02we're coming in and we don't want him to go certainly on the cheap anyway. Um, with that in mind, what
14:14this can't really be condensed because there's so much has been going on about it. Um, because we've
14:18had reports, you know, Sheffield reported early and quite early in the week that, that a party from
14:24the US, I think they had said, um, had kind of made, made themselves, you know, they've gone quite far.
14:36Uh, we've got, uh, knowledge that there's another party potentially in the same position and potentially
14:45another one on top of that as well. And then John Dexter's name is still kind of floating around as well.
14:51Yeah. Where, where, where are we at? Well, I think where we're at now is, is that, um, my understanding
14:59now, and it's something that has not been the case for a lot of this period is I think that
15:04the Ponchan series is very much open to selling Sheffield Wednesday now. I think for a long time,
15:09that hasn't been the case, even when it's been said, you know, the chairman has said at times,
15:13I'd be willing to sell to the right bit of the right person. I think that it's moved on from that a
15:19little bit now. And now it is a case of, right. I think the time has, has come. Um, and you know,
15:25as again, as reported by, by Robert, Radio Sheffield, then there was a little bit of a,
15:30well, I say a little bit, there's a quite a big change in, in the way they're going about things.
15:34They're, they're now directing potential buyers to serious people who have done football deals
15:40before. Um, one of the guys involved is, is one who I know has done a lot of deals in the,
15:44in the Premier League and the EFL. That, that shift, I think has alerted quite a few people
15:51who have now gone, Oh, we could actually do something now. Because I think aside from what
15:56a lot of people will want to tell you, Sheffield Wednesday, if you can get it right, it's in its
16:02current state is a, is a smart purchase because there is a lot of room for growth. There is, um,
16:10um, I don't think many people make money from football clubs, but I think that, you know,
16:16there is a potential to do that with Wednesday because of how low things are at the moment.
16:20You know, you can turn things around and get them running like a function football club again.
16:24They are, uh, uh, they're a, they're a smart purchase. And they're one of the,
16:28the last clubs that haven't really had that. Um, you know, the last, you know, big clubs to have,
16:34um, the scope to do something like that. So I think with that in mind, there is a lot of,
16:41a lot of interest. I use the word, a scramble, and I think that is the case. I think there are,
16:45there are a lot of people asking very serious questions at Sheffield Wednesday now.
16:48Um, I know there's, uh, there's a party with links to Monaco, the place, not the pub. Um,
16:56and obviously the John Texter's name has been mentioned. He was on TalkSport talking about Wednesday.
17:00Uh, so there's, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of moving parts now. And I think
17:06we're in a, we're in a very difficult position because, you know, I, I, I don't think it's any
17:11secret to say that we don't report everything that we hear. We don't report necessarily all that we
17:16know because for various reasons, we have to verify them. We, we, we can't just, you know, hear
17:22something and stick out on Twitter five minutes later. That's not how, that's not how our job works.
17:26So there's a, there's a lot that we've been sort of picking through over the last
17:30little while. And I just, I don't know, I get the feeling that things are, I'll say it this way.
17:38I think things are closer now than they have ever have been in terms of, um, a sale of Sheffield Wednesday.
17:42And, um, there does seem to be a, a, a growing hope that there will be a change of ownership
17:48coming this way, um, at some point in the not so distant future.
17:53You and I have spoken about this earlier in the week. Um, it, it, it has to be pointed out to
18:02everyone that, you know, just because Chancery has agreed to sell to a particular party doesn't
18:12mean that that particular party moves in, starts sitting at his desk there, you know,
18:18there's a process that goes on after that. So we can't, we have to be careful to point out to people
18:26that there is a process and it'll take a little bit longer beyond that. Certainly if EFL are doing
18:34what they should be doing anyway.
18:35Well, yeah, I think one of the things we spoke about is that you'd like to think there would be,
18:40um, potentially a little bit of an expedited process on this one, considering the, the sheer
18:45state of carnage that's going off at Wednesday. Um, but it's a, it's one of those where if something
18:51wants to happen, I'm very wary of giving people false hope and stuff, because I don't, I think it's
18:56maybe a bit irresponsible to sort of suggest that something is imminent and I don't want people to
19:01read into this as, as being that. Um, but I think that there is the potential for something to be
19:09agreed and for them to start getting a bit involved. If that was to be the case where they can maybe
19:14start paying off people, they can get embargoes lifted. They wouldn't necessarily be the owners
19:19on paper, but they would start giving a helping hand. Um, but yeah, there's, there's a lot that needs
19:26to be done for stuff. We we've seen it, you know, across the city with, with United, how long these
19:31things can take. Um, but you know, if, if there is a, uh, a healthy process going on and everyone's
19:38acting in good faith and depending on the people, you know, if, if the checks and stuff can be done
19:44quickly, you know, this, this isn't something that has to take six months, you know, but likewise,
19:50it's probably not going to be done next week. Even if, even if everything was agreed this afternoon,
19:54you know, we're not going to be seeing, uh, you know, those Chan series seats taking off
19:59that North stand in the next couple of weeks. Um, dude, what do you, what do you make of this
20:07state of, I mean, this seems like a weird thing to say. The state is the correct term for everything
20:13at the moment. But how badly off are they from a playing perspective, given everything that's
20:23going on at the moment? It's a, it's a strange one because obviously Wednesday have got just on
20:28top of all this nonsense, they've also got the situation regarding the players and those
20:33that have handed in the notices. We don't know exactly how that process works. I've tried reaching
20:38out to FIFA, got nowhere yet. Um, in terms of the timeline of what happens in a few days time,
20:44when that 15 day notice has been served, if we know, we understand that there's six, seven,
20:50eight players that have handed in the notices, those seven, eight players leave Sheffield Wednesday,
20:57they're, uh, up a creep without a paddle. Um, and that's a problem. We, we don't know,
21:03and it'd be, it'd be, say, I think it'd be irresponsible to presume because we don't know
21:07where they're going to be at. Um, losing Gossama, if he goes, would be a blow. Um,
21:14Barry Bannon doesn't have a contract. The captain doesn't have a contract. So it technically
21:18isn't a Sheffield Wednesday player at the moment. Um, I mean, he deserves an entire
21:22video of his own for his conduct throughout this whole thing. So I think he's,
21:27he's shown him, he's shown what everyone knows him to be. He's a, like, he's, he's blue and white
21:32through and through that bloke. Um, but that's a, that's for a different day. Uh, but yeah,
21:36so Wednesday are in, uh, they're in pretty dire straits at the moment, but with the current squad that
21:42they have with a couple of, you know, the youngsters coming up and stepping up, are Wednesday, you know,
21:49going to be anywhere near challenging for the playoffs? Absolutely not. You know, that's,
21:53that's nowhere near where they're going to be, but they have with a little bit of luck,
22:01I think as things currently stand, they have a decent squad. Um, that could all change very,
22:08very quickly. And that I think is the concern is that Wednesday really don't know where they're
22:14going to be. Fans don't know where they're going to be. The, you know, the, the amount of things
22:20up in the air in terms of player availability, contracts, potential walkouts, all of that stuff.
22:27It's just, it's, it's something that needs a line drawn underneath it. And it needs to have a line
22:31drawn underneath it quick because the way things are going at Sheffield Wednesday at the moment
22:37with a potential points deduction on the horizon as well, it's all just very, very messy.
22:46Well, Joel, thanks for that really uplifting 23 minutes of, of, uh, joyous insight into what's
22:56going on at Sheffield Wednesday. Um, fair to say that by the time we come back, well, it probably
23:01won't be me, but by the time you and Alex are talking next week, there will be a whole new raft
23:07of, uh, of subjects to talk about and pour through because that's just the way it's been all summer.
23:13It certainly hasn't been without its news. I think you could have done with, uh, putting your feet up
23:20this week, just like Alex has done. Um, no, uh, I think you deserve to have a bit of a break yourself
23:28as well. Uh, we'll be back or certainly Joe and Alex will be back next week for another edition of
23:33all Wednesday. Thanks very much.
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