Could this be the way to ease Dejphon Chansiri away from Sheffield Wednesday?

Finally you’d struggle to find a single Owls fan, or anyone with football’s wider interests, who wouldn’t wish to see Sheffield Wednesday under new ownership - and you certainly won’t find one here.

The club’s entire future, even existence, could depend on it. It’s the how that’s problematic. So much so that I imagine uncomfortable compromises cannot be ruled out.

For openers, a new start for Wednesday needs two things - Dejphon Chansiri coming to the table and parties ready to buy the club from him. Or is there a third scenario, some sort of ownership split that eases Chansiri out with a minority stake as a soft landing?

Whatever the solution - for club, fans and also owner - I doubt it would be simple and quick. First barrier, assuming Chansiri has been backed into finally listening to offers, is the price.

Rumours abound that he’s been quoting upwards of a ridiculous £250m, redeeming his self-inflicted losses, when even a third of that looks generous and much more realistic. Maybe realisation has dawned.

Then there is the question of whether the chairman would wish to retain a stake.

For all the fully justified criticism of his strife-torn tenure, one redeeming feature. I truly do believe he cares for the club and what becomes of it. He has to - his name’s all over it and he’s lost untold millions in the cause of that! He’s just gone completely the wrong way about it.

If he made a condition of sticking around, albeit not in majority control, would the supporters accept that? Should they?

Obviously a total buy-out - and I can’t believe there are not interested parties - would be the much more popular and less divisive. But if Chansiri were to insist on retaining a share, how would that work? Could it? And would that be preferable to a continuing stand-off?

I wouldn’t presume to answer one way or another. It is a matter for supporters, whose representative groups are now happily aligned rather than splintered. But you wonder if some kind of fan-induced buy-out might be possible. Suppose a split ranging from 51%-49% to 70%-30%, backed by venture capitalists and/or wealthy individuals?

That would not be futile in that the chairman would become a back seat figure, powerless to call the shots as has been his way on every aspect of the club’s operation.

Ironically, it would represent the sort of step back that could have saved him, with the right people in executive control of affairs.

Sheffield Wednesday can’t continue to go on this way

All of this is theorising and thinking out loud. Takeovers are rarely straightforward, this one likely to be particularly fraught. Wednesday simply can’t carry on in its current chaotic fashion. But compromises cannot be ruled out because I think that, in order for Chansiri to move aside quickly, it might require for him to step back, or down, with a vestige of pride intact.

Even some of his severest critics would allow that, should he do the right thing for the club, he would be properly thanked for his investment and good intentions. If he has to go, and I’ve believed for some time that he does, hopefully it’s in a way that allows the club to move on as rapidly as possible.

So pragmatism, rather than idealism, may be an initial factor. A stepping stone? How would the fans feel about that?