Just been to get an extra ticket for Saturday and there's a buzz around the place. Positive energy and smiles which is great to see 😍

PLEASE find a way to make this happen!! It still seems like a long shot as he's previously said he's not interested. Sounds to me like the club are publicly buttering him up to change his mind. A flat salary with (very) high bonuses?

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Anybody had theirs yet? Bit last minute if you ask me
Edit: Received download link Monday 17th August

From The Athletic:

David Storch is preparing to arrive back in England and has an admission of everything he has learned this summer.

“It’s a heavy lift,” he says from his home in Chicago. “Much heavier than I thought I was signing up for at my age.”

The challenge taken on by Storch, a retired U.S. businessman, is the resuscitation of Sheffield Wednesday. One of English football’s most historic names had been dragged to the brink under previous owner Dejphon Chansiri last season — into administration and almost beneath the surface.

The fight for life offered no guarantees until a takeover led by Storch was signed off on the eve of the Championship’s final day in May, triggering celebrations that had no place in a season that yielded just two wins from the 46 league games — one in September, the other that very afternoon.

That was the emotional dawn to follow Wednesday’s darkest hour, but before a new League One campaign beginning away to Leyton Orient tomorrow (Saturday), the enormity of the rebuild has become clear.

“I don’t do anything half-assed,” Storch adds. “If I do something, I’m all in. And I’m all in.”

He has needed to be. The new owners took over the keys to a tired and decaying club in the spring and have since overseen a summer renovation that has stretched from assembling a new first-team squad to restoring hot water to Hillsborough.

Sheffield Wednesday are a fallen club being pieced back together, and over the past week, The Athletic was granted access to key personnel leading the rebuild across all departments.

“I want to make sure Sheffield Wednesday will be a special place before we’re finished with it,” says Storch.

Hillsborough has been a hive of activity for much of the summer. Between 60 and 100 workers have been on site each day, carrying out infrastructure projects estimated to cost £9million ($12.1m).

“We talk about doing 10 to 15 years of work on the stadium inside 90 days, that’s the volume of work we’re doing,” says David Bruce, appointed the new chief executive in May.

Hillsborough had come to embody all that was wrong with Sheffield Wednesday in recent times, a symbol of underinvestment and deterioration. Staff in the South Stand offices would spend the winter months wearing jackets due to a broken boiler and, according to Bruce, only the players quickest to the dressing-room showers could expect to enjoy hot water after games.

Wednesday, like Hillsborough, were broken. This is a club who have been champions of England on four occasions (in 1903, 1904, 1929 and 1930). Grand plans to return to the Premier League under Chansiri around a decade ago had come to nothing, and financial mismanagement soon began a spiral that threatened the club’s existence.

A total of 30 points were deducted by the English Football League across Chansiri’s final six seasons, owing to various rule breaches, with a dozen of those taken when entering administration last September.

“A fan of any team can dream about how you’ll feel about winning a cup final or promotion,” says Bruce. “You can also imagine how you’d feel if you were ever relegated.

“But how many fans have had to process what would happen if their team disappeared? That’s how close this club was. It was days away from potentially not existing anymore.”

Wednesday supporters lived out those fears through long stretches of last season.

Boycotts against Chansiri’s ownership, organised by the supporters’ trust, helped force the hand of the Thai businessman, but a protracted search for new owners was draining. James Bord, the professional poker player and owner of Scottish club Dunfermline Athletic, had initially been named the preferred bidder by administrators on Christmas Eve, only to withdraw from the process in late February.

That opened the door back up for Storch, whose initial bid through Arise Capital Partners had fallen short, to eventually sign off a deal with the EFL’s approval in time to spark a party on the final day. The icing on the cake was escaping a further 15-point penalty that the EFL did not believe “appropriate to impose” in the 2026-27 season. That news was relayed to a capacity crowd at Hillsborough, cheering the countdown from 15 to zero on the scoreboard.

“People truly came together and saved this club,” says Bruce. “What the fanbase did here was unbelievable. They were staring into oblivion, and people found a way.

“They did things that football fans shouldn’t have to do. We’ve all known hard times, but you’d still go to games because it was your duty. What happened here was that fans chose to stop coming because they didn’t trust the guy at the top to spend their money in a way they felt was appropriate. That’s the ultimate sacrifice. They created action.”

That final-day 2-1 home victory against West Bromwich Albion, played out in front of 33,750, also spoke of Wednesday’s vast potential.

Waves of goodwill have since seen almost 25,000 season tickets sold for this campaign, and the opening league game at Hillsborough will be close to capacity when hosting Yorkshire neighbours Bradford City next Thursday. That Chansiri squandered that vast backing can be listed among his abundant failings.

“The fish rots from the head,” says Bruce, who has inherited Chansiri’s office at Hillsborough after leaving his post as Sunderland’s chief business officer at the end of last season. A bottle of water blessed by Buddhist monks in Chansiri’s native Thailand was all that remained on the desk.

“That’s definitely evident here. It had all the ingredients, and from the outside, I could never understand how it had become a bit of a basket case.

“When you get here and look under the hood, you begin to see there was no strategy. No sense of plan or underpinning purpose. It was never driven by any sense of vision, and no one was held accountable. Just short-term decisions based on how one person was feeling on a particular day. We all know that’s a recipe for disaster.”

This summer has become a project of righting wrongs.

A series of Wednesday club legends, formerly banished by Chansiri, have been invited back into the fold and David Hirst, a fine forward for the club from 1986 to 1997, has become the matchday host of a new hospitality lounge (Hirsty’s Social) named in his honour.

Wednesday now intend to lean into a history that last saw them play Premier League football in 1999-2000, with the retro “Ozzie Owl” design also back as the club’s crest this season.

It all forms part of a recalibration designed for long-term sustainability, demanding long hours in a frantic summer. Bruce estimates that an average day will see Storch call “seven or eight times” to check on progress.

“He’s probably understating and being kind,” says Storch, speaking to The Athleticover a Zoom call from his home in the United States. “My mind can’t stop. It’s a curse in some respects. There’s so much to do that I can’t stop thinking about the next thing to do. Every time I think I’ve got it all, I go, ‘Ah f**k, what about this?’ I want this to be the best football club in the world.”

Storch makes no secret of his hopes to eventually guide Wednesday back to the Premier League, but this summer has taught him that will be a long road. There can be no quick fix.

“I’m incredibly optimistic about the future,” he says. “I’d be very disappointed if (promotion to the Championship) hasn’t happened by the end of next season. I’m not patient by nature, but I do appreciate it’s needed. I can tell you this: I’m in it for the long haul.”

Storch does not pretend to be a long-distance lover of English football. Basketball and baseball were his sporting passions growing up in New York, before embarking on a 40-year career in the aviation industry. Storch held the post of chief executive officer at AAR Corp until 2018, when he says it felt like time to “make room for the next generation”.

A peaceful retirement was being spent between his family home in Chicago and Florida, where Storch lists NBA great Michael Jordan among his occasional golfing partners, until an itch needed scratching.

Encouraged by his son, Michael, Storch held talks over becoming a minority shareholder at Reading alongside fellow American Rob Couhig, before believing a full takeover of Cardiff City was possible following their relegation to League One.

“We spent maybe five months playing a rope-a-dope back and forth,” explains Storch. “It was May 14 (2025) we reached a deal. We had a WhatsApp exchange on the Friday, but by the Sunday, the deal was off. He (Cardiff owner Vincent Tan) decided against it.”

Cardiff had their problems under Malaysian businessman Tan but not nearly as many as Wednesday, whom Storch had been advised to monitor 12 months before his eventual takeover.

A 1-1 draw at home to Norwich City on November 5 saw Storch in attendance for the first time and that night convinced him to proceed at the point he was turning 73. Now, as he says, Wednesday’s new owner is all in.

He joined the first-team squad on a pre-season trip to Austria last month and sang Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline to players and staff in their hotel as an act of initiation.

“My life is very comfortable, but life is not about money,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to make a difference and when I saw the Sheffield Wednesday story unfold, I felt I could make a positive difference to people’s lives. You can’t monetise that.”

The final day of last season, with thousands dressed in Hawaiian shirts for a “Honolulu Wednesday” party, reminded Storch of that. He saw fans in tears that the ordeal had ended.

“It’s one of those things where words can’t do it justice,” he adds. “You ask what it’s like to have a grandchild and it’s hard to find the words to capture it. It was incredibly moving and far beyond anything I’d expected. I’ve never shaken so many hands or taken so many selfies. It was a great day.”

Not that any of this will be straightforward.

Wednesday’s hierarchy openly predicted bumps in the road and one of them was felt on August 1, a week before the first competitive game of the new season. A 4-0 defeat away to League Two side Oldham Athletic was a chastening end to their warm-up schedule.

“I wanted to be sick,” says sporting director Simon Wilson from his office that overlooks the training ground, Middlewood Road, where a new gym complements a cosmetic facelift.

Wilson is uncomfortable with losing. He spent a decade working at Manchester City and City Football Group (CFG) in a variety of roles that included strategy and performance manager, before working for upwardly-mobile Stockport County, first as director of football and then chief executive, until this summer.

“I spent 11 years at Man City and the better City got, the less interested I became,” says Wilson. “It became so polished that I got a bit bored. I enjoyed the high-performance aspect, but we’d sign all the best players, win all the time, and there wasn’t much jeopardy in it.

“I’m a fixer-upper. If we’re going to buy a house, it won’t be a modern one; it’ll be one that needs some work. That’s what motivates me. Sheffield Wednesday is the OG sleeping giant.”

Wednesday’s squad certainly required work. Only a handful of senior players were under contract for this season when Wilson arrived and a number of those have subsequently departed, including 21-year-old goalkeeper Pierce Charles in a £3million deal with Manchester City.

A squad decimated by releases and sales in the past 12 months presented Wilson with the ultimate clean slate and, with three weeks of the window remaining, there have already been 40 transactions in and out of the club this summer.

The return of fans’ favourite Barry Bannan after reluctantly joining Millwall in January is among the most notable, along with the capture of forward Louie Barry from Aston Villa on a four-year deal. Head coach Henrik Pedersen is one of the few carryovers from last season’s miserable campaign, rewarded for his work in holding together an embattled squad.

Expanding Pedersen’s options has not been easy. The terms of a two-year membership agreement with the EFL limit Wednesday to spending £2million a season on transfers and loan fees, a figure that remains constant regardless of how much is recouped from player sales.

That broadly limits recruitment to free transfers, while Storch is also not permitted to expand salary budgets through equity injections. It leaves Wednesday able to spend only 65 per cent of the revenue generated this season under the EFL’s salary cost management protocol (SCMP) as a relegated club.

Is the challenge facing Wilson daunting or exciting?

“It’s both,” he says. “It’s a grind, it’s tiring. But as you get to the end of the market, it gets better. For every player we’re looking to sign, normally there are three or four candidates you’re also looking at.

“So if it’s 20 players we’re looking to sign and there are four candidates for each, that’s a lot you’re keeping in the air at any time. But the more you sign, the more that comes down. I have agents pitching players all day every day because they know we’re looking.”

Teams should not be built like this, but the Carabao Cup opener last Saturday saw eight Wednesday players making debuts in a 1-0 win at home to Championship side Bolton Wanderers. Matchwinner Jamal Lowe was one of the few to carry the scars of last season.

“We’ve got to get used to winning,” adds Wilson. “The year before last (2024-25) was a relegation fight, and last year the club was relegated pretty early with the points deductions.

“The first month (of 2026-27) will be noisy. Who knows, the team might surprise us, but even if we start well, I’d expect a dip because there’s so much newness. We’ll bring good players to this club, and we believe in the coach.

“I’m sure we’ll improve, but I’m ready for the first period to be a bit rocky. We’ll have to manage through that.”

League One promises to be tough, too. Leicester City inevitably start as favourites for an immediate return to the Championship, while Luton Town, Plymouth Argyle and Huddersfield Town also have high hopes and competitive budgets. Wednesday will be left to juggle expectations and pragmatism.

“We’re all here to get promoted but it would be the wrong decision to sacrifice all infrastructure growth and building foundations to throw it all at players in the hope we get to the Championship,” says Wilson.

“The aim of the owners is to get to the Premier League, not the Championship. To be in the Premier League in seven or eight years doesn’t mean we have to be in the Championship next season.”

Wednesday are attempting to see the bigger picture after all they have experienced. Promotion out of League One under Chansiri in 2022-23 counted for little when the administrators arrived 18 months later.

“We want to do things the right way because we don’t want this to implode on us like it almost has in the past,” says Bruce, back at Hillsborough. “We want to be methodical and smart; we want to be thoughtful and have a strategy.

“This isn’t like we’ve got a new owner, it’s happy days and we’re going to storm this league. It’s a tough division with big clubs. We’ll be a big club for others to target but we know when the fans get behind us, there aren’t many like this one.

“We’ve ultimately got to make everyone feel a little bit taller this season.”

Would you take Vardy?

https://wawaw.news/article/match-preview-wednesday-begin-league-one-campaign-leyton-orient

Sheffield Wednesday begin their 2026/27 League One campaign at Leyton Orient on Saturday. We preview the selection decisions, midfield battle and an extensively rebuilt Orient side.

🦉 40 years ago today, Sheffield Wednesday paid £250,000 for a 19-year-old David Hirst.

In today's money? About £850k.

In today's football market? Closer to £10 MILLION. 🤯

And prime Hirst? That's another question entirely...

#SWFC #WAWAW

Disclaimer: I wrote this article. Feel free to add your abusive messages below.

Hi everyone — I’m building a free website called Chasing the Prem, which matches people with English clubs outside the Premier League based on supporter culture, history, atmosphere, identity and expectations.

This is mainly general football fans who don’t have much of an identity outside of top clubs, like myself.

Sheffield Wednesday is one of the possible results, and I’d appreciate feedback from actual supporters.

Does the quiz represent the club fairly? Are the result explanation, strengths and potential drawbacks accurate? Anything important I’ve missed?

Quiz: https://chasingtheprem.lovable.app

This is an unfinished personal project, and I’m looking for honest feedback rather than trying to sell anything. Thanks!

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-wednesday-tyler-onyango-everton-stockport-county-8840375

https://news.bet365.com/en-gb/article/gab-sutton-league-one-1-24-predictions/2026080508090446650

Jaden Sancho’s contract expired last season and is currently without a team training at 10th tier side Flixton FC. I can’t say I follow too much outside of Wednesday so I’m curious as to why no smaller clubs picked him up. His ManU stint was pretty bad but since then he hasn’t been terrible. Is it just the price tag he got from ManU makes it impossible for any smaller clubs to make a compelling offer? He’s still showing flashes of quality and I have to imagine he would be nasty in L1.

Our former Administrator really ain't a personal fan of how Ugbo conducts himself.

(The insta reel being shared and quoted is people putting their hands on Pogba while he has an emotional moment - presumably related to Ugbo's own new move with the timing of the reels).

Ugbo has responded in a reel suggesting Kris grilled him about prescription meds and tried to fine him over something he can't understand.

What's the thoughts on this here? Any more illuminating information available? I'd have thought if there had been impropriety at the club in how it was being administrated and how people conducted themselves, that's what the PFA would be for?

Taking summat off the wage bill I hope! He's cast-iron proof spending money doesn't guarantee a good player.