"Pack up and go" - Key obstacle to Sheffield Wednesday promotion hopes highlighted | OneFootball

The Owls were relegated from the top flight in 2000, and have not returned since.

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...

Sheffield Wednesday have spent the last 24 years bouncing between the Championship and League One, mounting challenges for promotion to the Premier League on a few occasions.

The Owls' start to the season has not filled supporters with confidence of a top-10 finish, despite winning their opening game 4-0 at home to Plymouth Argyle.

Wednesday have lost their last three league games at a combined aggregate score of 9-0, and sit just outside of the relegation spots ahead of the first international break of the campaign.

Nevertheless, under Danny Rohl, they were excellent at the back end of last season and secured their Championship status on the final day.

It's going to be a steady process to grow Sheffield Wednesday into a solid and consistent second-tier team, and that may halt ambitions of any promotion back to the Premier League.

Sheffield Wednesday do not look like returning any time soon

Dejphon Chansiri took over the club in January 2015, and he targeted a return to the top flight within the next two years.

However, two failed play-off campaigns, including a loss at Wembley in 2016, have been as close as the Owls have got to promotion back to the Premier League since 2000.

Patrick McKenna, FLW's Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit, believes that Chansiri must leave the club if positive growth is to happen: “The one thing blocking progress to the Premier League is ultimately Chansiri. He just simply needs to cut his losses, pack up and go.

“If we're talking about what we need to get to the Premier League, we need to be a club that owns our stadium. We've seen with other clubs like Coventry how dangerous it is not owning your stadium and that is a stumbling block in any takeover as well and the strategy at the club just needs to be different.

“Maybe I will be proved wrong and Rohl will perform a miracle, and he will get us up, but that is wishful thinking. We can see the gap between the teams that got relegated with parachute payments and that makes it much harder when you're in our position where you haven't been in the top flight for 24 years.

“It’s been a long time out of it, and we have not shown anything that could get us back there. I don’t see us getting back in the Premier League any time soon.”

Chansiri's ownership has been disastrous for Sheffield Wednesday

Although there has been positivity over the on-field action at Hillsborough in the last few months, off the pitch it is a different story.

Fans are still begging for Chansiri to sell the club, and despite news in the summer that he was looking for more investors, there has not been anything of the sort since.

In October 2023, the Thai businessman asked Wednesday supporters to help clear a £2 million tax bill and unpaid wages, despite the very same fans paying week-in-week-out to watch the team that they love.

He has been a deeply unpopular figure in that area of Yorkshire, and his ownership has been called into question time and time again.

Perhaps with a new owner, the Owls can make their way back to the Premier League, but their current predicament seems too much to overcome for now.