Simon Jordan enjoyed a largely successful period as the owner of his boyhood club, Crystal Palace, and he recently tried to purchase Sheffield Wednesday.
The Owls are currently awaiting the news of who will be the next person in the boardroom after Dejphon Chansiri left the club in administration.
Wednesday were beaten again on Wednesday night as Millwall ran out 1-0 winners, even if Max Lowe did produce a standout performance.
The important thing for the club at the moment, however, isn’t really on the pitch, and the sooner the administrators pick the next owners for exclusivity, the better.
Jordan has previously tossed his hat into the ring, but he’s been keen to temper any excitement around the Wednesday fan base over his potential arrival.
Why Simon Jordan pulled out of Sheffield Wednesday running
Chansiri might be gone, but it would appear that he’s still having an impact on those willing to try and purchase the football club.
Jordan has now lifted the lid live on TalkSPORT over why he was, in fact, unwilling to press ahead with the purchase, despite putting together a consortium to oversee negotiations.
He explained: “I think you know about it, Jim, very well because I spoke to you about it. I put together a consortium of people, very wealthy people who put up £50 million to have a look at Sheffield Wednesday. It’s a club that I’ve always advocated for because it’s a big club waiting to happen again if it had proper management and proper ownership and proper direction and proper disciplines on building it back up as a football club.
“But it’s massively challenged and the reasons that I’ve decided not to go forward with it because I don’t like the idea of having to reward Chansiri by having to pay the money that he has to get to avoid the EFL regulations of being santioned again because if you don’t pay 25p in the pound then ultimately you get another 15 point penalty, then quite frankly I would be happy to have Sheffield Wednesday and have a 15 point penalty in this season because it doesn’t make any difference, you’re going to get relegated anyway”
“I think that’s probably behind Mike Ashley’s thinking because you can’t buy Sheffield Wednesday at £20 million with the debt that’s available to Chansiri if he’s to meet the 25p in the pound rule, along with the purchase of the stadium and all of that.”
Wednesday administrators need to ensure the right party buys the club
Whoever buys Wednesday has to be someone willing to put the club’s best interest at heart and also focus on restoring some faith among the fan base.
Chansiri drove the club to the brink of extinction and for a proud establishment like Wednesday that simply isn’t good enough.
Having been there, done it before and made money overseeing things at Palace, Jordan might have been the ideal fit to bring back the glory days at Hillsborough.
Now, the fans will be concerned that if someone with business acumen like Jordan is pulling out, what offers will actually be left on the table willing to take a chance.
This decision is going to be a massive one for the administrators and the hope will be that Wednesday can be taken over and then start to progress as a football club once again.