This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Things are going from bad to worse at Sheffield Wednesday this summer.
It was recently revealed that some players won’t be getting paid on schedule for the fourth time in five months, which led to a friendly against Burnley being cancelled in protest.
Due to the club’s ongoing financial concerns, pre-match accommodation isn’t being provided for Henrik Pedersen’s side for their season opener against Leicester City.
Wednesday’s players are reportedly considering paying for their own hotel rooms ahead of the clash, instead of completing the 70-mile journey on the day of the game.
Football League World’s Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit, Patrick McKenna, believes that the club should be embarrassed of such a situation arising but isn’t overly surprised.
Sheffield Wednesday slammed for accommodation stance ahead of Leicester City clash
“It’s just absolutely farcical,” commented Patrick. “It’s not a story that should ever be written about a professional club at any level.
“It’s as if we’re talking about a Sunday league team here. It’s just inconceivable that such a basic expense isn’t being covered and then the bare-faced cheek of asking the players themselves to cover it.
“These are the same players who have not been paid four out of five months on time, and yet they are being asked to cover the financial shortfalls of our moronic owner.
Sheffield Wednesday’s league finishes under Dejphon Chansiri
Season
Division
Position
2014-15
Championship
13th
2015-16
Championship
6th
2016-17
Championship
4th
2017-18
Championship
15th
2018-19
Championship
12th
2019-20
Championship
16th
2020-21
Championship
24th (relegated)
2021-22
League One
4th
2022-23
League One
3rd (promoted)
2023-24
Championship
20th
2024-25
Championship
12th
“There’s really nothing else you can say about this. It’s embarrassing, it’s farcical and it’s as if we’re talking about the dog and duck league. I’m not surprised that it has got to this, but my word, it’s not something we should be talking about before the start of the season.
“The focus should be on normal things, about new signings, hopes for the season, how you think the match will go, but yet here we are, and I fear that more and more daft stories are going to be coming out in the next few days to match this or even to top the farcical nature of this story.”
Sheffield Wednesday supporters will be fearing their Leicester City trip
As Patrick mentioned, such has been the extent of controversies at Hillsborough this summer, football has taken a massive step back.
However, on August 10, the Owls will need to try and quell Marti Cifuentes’ Leicester City side.
The Foxes will likely be determined to start strongly in their bid for promotion back to the top-flight, which could lead to uncomfortable viewing for Wednesday’s supporters.
With such an unsatisfactory preparation for the season and no accommodation plans, Leicester could kill any optimism left within the Owls’ camp with a dominant performance.