Henrik Pedersen offers view on strong David Storch statement - wants 'reasonable' Sheffield Wednesday solution
Earlier this week prospective Sheffield Wednesday owner David Storch released a strong statement arguing the EFL’s stance on a points deduction likely to be levelled at the club next season.
Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen hopes for a ‘reasonable solution’ to the club’s ongoing discussions with the EFL and made clear he supports the statement made by the club’s prospective new owner David Storch.
As things stand, Wednesday are set to start their rebuild in League One with a 15-point deduction, a decision the US businessman said the club’s preferred bidders ‘fundamentally disagreed with’ given the mountainous context surrounding the circumstances that has led them here. Conversations are ongoing but the EFL appear to have drawn a red line under a ruling they believe to be ‘enshrined’ in their regulations.
Sources have suggested to The Star an alignment with Storch’s insistence that the consortium are still looking to complete the takeover of the club and that their May 1 target date remains. The Owls are facing a manic summer of change in which their recruitment activity will of course be influenced heavily by what constraints are placed on their finances. Pedersen believes the club will remain a big pull for new players whether a point deduction throws it into a relegation scrap or not.
“First of all, I support David a lot for the statement - and of course from a manager's perspective I would rather have zero than minus 15 points,” he said. “For the recruitment, I think Sheffield Wednesday is still a big, big club and many, many players would love to be a part of Sheffield Wednesday in the future, but of course we are not in the first, second or third row when we have to choose players.
“We have to work hard, but I think with the football we're playing, how we integrate young players and how we work with the human behind the football player, we are attractive address for the future and I'm sure we will put a very, very strong squad together for the coming season.
“I know that David and his team are working very, very hard to do all what they can and do all the best they can for Sheffield Wednesday and I cannot say now how long things take. I know they do everything to solve it before the end of the season and yeah, they do everything.”
The Wednesday camp has had a great deal thrown at it over the last year or more and while encouragement grows for the possibilities heading into next season, any final confirmation of a 15-point deduction would of course serve as a further blow. Pedersen repeated his feeling that the club has ‘suffered enough’ throughout the downfall of the club and hopes for a ‘reasonable solution’ going forward.
The Dane said: “With David and his people, it's so positive and if we have the big picture and we have the right light for the future, then we can go through anything. And then the minus 15 point, of course, we'll also handle this.
“But in the bigger perspective, as I said before, I understand the statement from David and I think that everyone has suffered enough this season. We all just want to look forward and start to work for the project forward and use all our energy for this. And of course, I hope there comes a reasonable solution for the future.”