Sheffield Wednesday captain expects Championship opener at Leicester to go ahead | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday captain Barry Bannan expects the crisis-hit club to fulfil their opening Sky Bet Championship fixture away to Leicester.

Wednesday’s players refused to feature in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Burnley on Saturday after wages were not paid on time for the fourth time in five months.

Sheffield Wednesday Supporters’ Trust plans to protest against under-fire owner Dejphon Chansiri during Sunday’s televised match against the Foxes at the King Power Stadium.

The Owls have sold out their 3,287 ticket allocation for the game.

Asked if there was a prospect of players going on strike, Bannan, who on Saturday signed a new contract at Hillsborough, told talkSPORT: “No, I don’t think so.

“We pulled out of the Burnley game at the weekend, that was simply because it’s happened too much now and I think it’s a lot easier to pull put of a pre-season friendly game than it is a Championship fixture.

“We’ve come into training and just got on with it and made it look to the outside world like we’re fine with it, so that was our choice then to say enough’s enough really.”

Amid ongoing financial issues stretching back a number of years under the stewardship of Chansiri, Wednesday have endured a summer of chaos.

The Owls were placed under several EFL embargoes for breaching financial rules and are currently unable to sign players for a fee until January 2027.

Former manager Danny Rohl initially failed to return for pre-season training before eventually departing by mutual agreement and being replaced by his assistant Henrik Pedersen.

A host of first-team players have also left South Yorkshire, including Djeidi Gassama, Anthony Musaba, Josh Windass, Callum Paterson and Michael Smith, who collectively scored 37 of the club’s 60 league goals last term.

In addition, the club have been forced to close Hillsborough’s North Stand after Sheffield City Council issued a prohibition notice following a meeting with the local Safety Advisory Group.

Bannan, who has made 447 appearances for Wednesday since joining from Crystal Palace in 2015, last spoke to chairman Chansiri on a Zoom call during his summer holiday.

“It was just asking the kind of questions that you can imagine about pay and stuff,” said the midfielder.

“He was really sorry and was trying his best to get us paid as quickly as possible.

“It’s all about communication for us going forward. We’ve not had a great deal of communication and that’s what’s really let the players and staff down.

“Players are all right; it’s the staff that we’re having to go in and look at every day who are cooking us meals and cleaners and the little things like that that really affect us as players because they’re not getting any help and they’re really struggling.

“We’re at the top of the ladder and it was a strong stance from us (not to play at Burnley) to say basically this needs to stop and we need a bit of clarity going forward.”

Bannan anticipates a difficult season, with only 15 first-team players currently remaining amid reports defender Max Lowe has handed in his notice.

“We’ve obviously lost a lot of good players this summer who were probably our best players and our goal scorers,” said the 35-year-old.

“No matter what happens in the coming weeks, it’s going to be tough because we’re in a race against time now to try and get people in, especially with embargoes.

“But we’re looking forward to it because it’s a challenge and that’s what you want in football, so we’ll take it head on and see what we can do.”

Thai businessman Chansiri, who bought Wednesday for a reported £37.5million from Milan Mandaric in 2015, is trying to sell the club and recently confirmed he had turned down a £40m bid.