SWFC News: John Textor seeks ‘construction project’ amid Sheffield Wednesday interest
Joe Crann
Billionaire businessman, John Textor, is believed to have shown an interest in buying Sheffield Wednesday – and they’re a club that line up with his hopes for a ‘construction project’.
As reported on Monday night, The Star understands that Textor is looking for an immediate re-investment into English – most likely the Championship – after selling his stake in Crystal Palace, and that Wednesday are one of a handful that are being considered. The American is the owner of the Eagle Football Group – whose stable includes Brazilian side Botafogo, Belgian outfit Daring Brussels – formerly RWD Molenbeek – as well as French giants Olympique Lyonnais and youth project, FC Florida.
He’s explained since selling his Palace stake – which was 43% – that he was disappointed in the lack of ‘collaboration’ with the group, whereas in Wednesday’s case – with a transfer embargo and three-window fee restriction – there will be huge scope for potential loan moves from his various other clubs.
Speaking to The Athletic recently, Textor explained, “I believe Eagle is probably known to be the most collaborative multi-club in terms of the player movements between the clubs. We have something called roster optimisation where we are looking at what each player needs and wants and what each club needs and wants, and then we fill the gaps in our squads.
“Collaboration helped us (Lyon) bounce off of the relegation zone at mid-season right in the Europa League and now in our second season in the Europa League, that comes from collaboration. It has helped us go from second division to champions of South America (with Botafogo) and collaboration is how we just beat PSG.
“We’re turnaround guys…”
“It has disappointed me that our English league partner (Palace) has chosen not to accept any of our obviously qualified players from top teams, top leagues, and top national teams, and so to really promise player pathways to the players that we meet in different parts of the world, we have to have a collaborative UK partner. It’s a must. It is our promise to the athletes, it’s our promise to the community. That collaboration needs to go two ways and it doesn’t currently with Crystal Palace. That’s the reason we chose to sell.
“We’re turnaround guys, we like a construction project. There’s nothing more exciting for me than the idea of buying a second division team and getting promoted. But we might also look in the Premier League if we think there’s a real opportunity to catapult a team from mid-table to upper-table, we think we’re capable of doing that. Our strategy for Palace was to get to the Europa League every year, not just off of a cup win every hundred years.”
Whether Textor actually makes a move to try and buy the Owls from Dejphon Chansiri remains to be seen at this stage, and actually agreeing terms if he does is another challenge, but his comments to The Athletic certainly suggest that Wednesday are a project that fits the bill in terms of what he’s looking for.
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