Sheffield Wednesday tipped to 'storm' League One next season - but it rests on one condition
Everyone associated with Sheffield Wednesday is looking ahead to the start of the 2025/26 campaign with a sense of optimism and excitement.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes Sheffield Wednesday have the potential to bounce straight back to the Championship next season - but has admitted it will rest on everything on the football side of the operation falling into place.
Wednesday are preparing for life in League One with the slate wiped clean after Arise Capital Partners bought the club out of administration at the very start of May. The threat of a 15-point deduction was immediately quashed, meaning the Owls will head into next season on a level playing field.
As a result, everyone associated with the club is looking ahead to the 2026/27 campaign with a sense of optimism and excitement. More than 20,000 season tickets have been sold, a proper off-field structure is in the process of being assembled, infrastructure improvements are being made and a wave of new arrivals are expected to follow the opening of the transfer window next week.
Among all the major challenges Arise need to oversee, short-term, rebuilding the squad and getting it ready for the forthcoming campaign is the most important objective. Owls boss Henrik Pedersen worked with a skeleton squad throughout the 2025/26 season and desperately needs new faces to arrive at Hillsborough to increase both numbers and the level of quality.
With the appointment of sporting director Simon Wilson understood to be imminent, Wednesday’s recruitment plans are expected to gather plenty of momentum. And if they can get their recruitment right, Maguire does not see any reason why the Owls cannot push for an immediate return to the second tier, outlining how they are now in good shape off the pitch.
“The good thing is that Chansiri is no longer there,” Maguire told League One Lowdown. “His competence issues, if I look at my three criteria, were very concerning, so that is behind them.
“In a certain way, they are in a fantastically strong position. They have sold an amazing amount of season tickets; you’ve got to give the fans a huge amount of credit for sticking with them. It is absolutely superb. We have got that as a positive.
“The manager, effectively, can recruit who he wants, because there are not that many players rolling over [into next season] in terms of contracts. So, there is the opportunity to mould the squad as they see fit.
“The new owners are saying all of the right things. They are not inheriting any debts. The unpaid taxes, the unpaid amounts to local suppliers, that is the problem of the administrator. That, ultimately, is an ex-issue as far as Chansiri is concerned.
“On the back of that, I think they and Leicester are the two clubs you would expect to be promoted. Oxford, I think, are in a very different financial environment.”
Maguire added: “I can see Sheffield Wednesday storming that division, if they get the football side of things right.”