Michael Gray reveals what Sheffield Wednesday need most from takeover and makes Mike Ashley admission
Former Sheffield Wednesday utility player Michael Gray has shared his thoughts on the prospect of Mike Ashley buying the club.
Former Sheffield Wednesday ace Michael Gray has said stability is what the club needs most from a takeover, admitting no club bigger than the Owls has experienced what the Hillsborough outfit have been through over the last 15 years.
After having a total of 18 points deducted for going into administration and failing to fulfil financial obligations, Wednesday are set to be relegated to League One for a fourth time since dropping out of the Premier League back in 2000.
The Owls are currently rooted to the foot of the Championship table on -9, a whopping 29 points from safety after just 19 matches. Their squad was decimated during the summer, meaning manager Henrik Pedersen has been left working with a threadbare squad with no room for rotation.
After administrators originally set a deadline of December 5 to name a preferred bidder, that target date was delayed due to the volume of interest that has been expressed in buying the club. Talks with interested parties are understood to still be ongoing and it remains to be seen who will succeed Dejphon Chansiri in the Hillsborough hot seat.
Having finished his playing career at Hillsborough Gray, who is fondly remembered by Wednesdayites for providing the assist for the Owls’ opening goal in their 2-1 win over Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in February 2009, knows exactly what Owls need from the next chapter in their history after being put through the wringer by Chansiri.
Gray, speaking exclusively to The Star, via the home of online casino, said: “Well, stability is the word because I mean the club's just been, what, for over the last decade or maybe even longer than that, it's just been all over the place with different ownerships, dropping down to League One and fighting their way back into the Championship.
“And now with a points deduction, it looks like they're obviously going to drop back into League One. I think Chansiri didn't help the football club in any way at all. The players that have walked through the door have just not been good enough for a club like Sheffield Wednesday.
“I mean, you talk about sleeping giants, I don't think there's a bigger club than Sheffield Wednesday that have had to go through what they've gone through over the last 10 to 15 years. It's a shame, really, because I spent quite a bit of a period there, a season and a half, and I absolutely loved it.
“I had great rapport with the supporters and it's not a nice place to be at the moment. You've got to give the players a lot of credit because they've been playing every single week without being paid.”
Gray delivers verdict on Ashley amid Owls verdict
As the takeover race continues to play out, it is understood former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, as reported by The Star on Tuesday, is mulling over the prospect of making a second offer. Gray, who is, of course, a boyhood Sunderland supporter, believes he could have the ability to take Wednesday back to the Premier League in the future.
He continued: “Well, I think looking from the outside, the only thing that I kind of know about Mike Ashley is if he takes over your club, expect a lot of advertisement from Mike Ashley's companies around you!
“But what I would say is he was honest in the fact that when he had Newcastle in the Premier League. He just said, ‘Look, I haven't got that amount of money to compete with everybody else in the Premier League now’.
“He said it's not just healthy owners that are coming into clubs now, it's countries that are actually owning football clubs. And he went, ‘I can't compete with that’.
“So I think a man like him may be going into, for instance, let's say it's going to be League One, because it probably is, then he probably would be the right man to get Sheffield Wednesday out of League One, and maybe even as far as getting them out of the Championship. So, for the near future, absolutely he's worth speaking to.
“You talk about establishing a club and running a club in a proper way. If he then turns around and says, ‘Look, this is my club now, I'm going to try and get Sheffield Wednesday back into the Premier League. But when I do so, I'll walk away’, I think then he’d be a fantastic appointment.”