Ex-Hearts and ex-Arsenal names linked to major role in proposed Sheffield Wednesday rebuild
Completion of a Sheffield Wednesday takeover by US consortium Arise Capital Partners would usher-in a new era for the club - with plenty of changes planned for the coming months.
Amid continued discussions with the EFL, the US group, led by David Storch, is in the final fortnight of the time targeted to complete the process, with hopes a deal can be signed-off by May 1. They would be buying a club Storch himself has described as being ‘distressed’ and a great deal of work is needed, with exploratory plans long since in place to rescue the club to better health.
A major part of the plan is to install fresh infrastructure into the club, with executives brought in to oversee its operations. Dejphon Chansiri’s chairmanship of the club operated with no board in place and ultimately ended in lonely chaos. With plans drawn-up to remedy the lack of infrastructure at S6, it’s understood that Arise are already going about identifying the right people for the right roles. The Star reported earlier this week that outgoing Sunderland business chief David Bruce is all-set to take on the role of CEO should the takeover complete.
The Star has heard that the plan would be to create a role to oversee the football side of matters, with a sporting director or technical director role opened up to assist both management and recruitment in building a fresh sporting operation. It’s understood that unlike that of CEO, any decision on who would take on such a role is not yet made.
In the last 24 hours two names have been linked with the role; namely James Ellis (Football League World), and Joe Savage (Football Insider).
Ellis most recently spent nearly five years at Arsenal, working as a scout and then head of recruitment before rising to technical director. He announced his departure from the Premier League giants in February. He previously worked at Fulham and at Swedish club Östersunds FK.
Speaking to the BBC just this week, Ellis told the BBC he was looking for a senior leadership role heading into next season and said: “I feel I have unfinished impact and objectives I would like to achieve. I have been through rejection, education, coaching, scouting, senior leadership all in this and would like to carry on.”
Savage has previous experience in the Championship having worked at Norwich City and Preston North End as a chief scout and went on to become Hearts’ sporting director between 2021 and 2024. He played a key role in a resurgence that saw the Tynecastle club achieve promotion to the Scottish Premiership and three successive European placings in the top flight.
He stepped down from his role with the Edinburgh club citing ‘much-needed time out from the demands of the football world’.
Speaking on the importance of a strong infrastructure across the club, Owls boss Henrik Pedersen told The Star: “They (Arise) are very, very hungry to get a strong organisation and I know, again, David and his team are working very hard to find the right people with the right knowledge and the right human quality and I know they are top here. We are just looking forward.”