It's party time before the onus shifts - Sheffield Wednesday deserves the very best
Sheffield Wednesday are under new ownership. The mood is feverish and celebratory - and the rescue mission is enormous. At the end of a busy day, Alex Miller pens his thoughts.
So there it is. The tears, the fears and the suffering abated. Sheffield Wednesday will live on and celebrates in hope of an exciting new dawn.
It wasn’t always crystal clear that new ownership would be secured. Last year Dejphon Chansiri’s ownership fell from hapless mismanagement to a source of genuine concern over the future of the club and left hard-working, loyal staff members unable to fulfil their financial commitments.
And now here we are. The Chansiri era is over and after a monstrous effort to get here, Arise Capital Partners have picked up the task of turning this creaking tanker around towards a better destination. It won’t be easy.
This is a weekend for celebration, no doubt. What Wednesdayites have had to contend with over the past 18 months is beyond the analysis of a single column. It is the fans that helped push Chansiri from his post and it is the fans that kept the lights on. The dignity with which Sheffield Wednesday supporters have carried themselves and the football club in the face of such ridicule has been truly awesome.
Staff stuck by the club despite it all; the conditions some had to face under Chansiri’s rule and the disregard for their personal circumstances when payments were missed. Again, dignity and loyalty in soldiering on - many of them for the good of the club they call theirs - has been mountainously impressive.
Both sets of Wednesday stakeholders owe one another a great deal, but the sum of story is the effort from all involved.
Now, somewhere beyond the inflatables and the Hawaiian shirts that will provide the colour for Saturday’s celebration day, the onus will almost instantly shift. The work put into Arise’s takeover of Sheffield Wednesday has been huge, constant talks and battles for the betterment of the club’s immediate future undertaken. In amongst the easy PR wins and forward-thinking appointments and preparations a whirlwind of positivity has been generated and for excellent reason; the club has the opportunity to build again and the harnessing of fan momentum behind that mission is vital.
It cannot be underestimated the scale of the task ahead for Storch and co and the wave of euphoria that will envelope this weekend and its coming days will soon turn to what comes next. Wednesday have no squad to speak of, the stadium requires immediate attention. Structures need building from a standing start and there are decades of catching-up to do.
Conversations with those with an insight to the bid suggest they are very aware of the scale of the turnaround required and have drawn up short, medium and long terms plans to deliver the club to a better health. Plans are already in action on the rescuing of Hillsborough’s facilities, with work undertaken on the Megastore and aspects of the stadium. Work on a squad rebuild will start in earnest.
Eat, drink and be merry. This is a weekend of fiesta; built from the carcass of background efforts to oust the bogeyman, of tearful boycotts and queues outside the King Power. It’s one of endless defeats and existential threats, of miserable records and relegation down the road. The year just had was a death by a thousand cuts, rescued at the last. Honolulu Wednesday indeed.
Once the grass skirts have been hung up and the hangovers have subsided, the road ahead is long. The onus shifts from rescuing Wednesday to enhancing it. But the feeling now is that Sheffield Wednesday will at last get a square chance of emerging from the rubble he left behind. How that is carried out is up to the new owners and the people employed to achieve it.
After all that has come in the last year especially, what Wednesday fans and staff so clearly deserve is the very best. It won’t be easy. Mistakes are inevitable. But get this crumbling old beast into fighting condition and the rewards are huge. Over to Arise.