Online Reporter
Sports Reporter
YOU can call it madness, if you want.
It’s hard to understand why Marvelous Nakamba decided to join Sheffield Wednesday on Monday given all the challenges which have been tearing the Championship club apart this season.
There is no doubt that Nakamba’s relationship with Luton was strained.
His wages were always a friction point once the club fell from the Premiership into League One in successive seasons.
He had to leave.
But, choosing the Owls, as Sheffield Wednesday are known by their fans, was a big surprise.
Of course, it’s better than Simba Bhora, the club which the social media experts had given Nakamba just a few weeks ago, simply because a photograph he was taken with Simba Ndoro last year, slipped into their hands.
Admittedly, it’s a short-term deal, until the end of the season, and Nakamba can argue that he needs the game time which Sheffield Wednesday will give him.
It’s something which Luton were denying him, once their relationship soured.
But, it surely doesn’t appear to make a lot of sense for one to leave a club in League One and join another which is set to fall into League One in just three months’ time.
The Owls have a rich past – they are three-time FA Cup winners.
But, their recent past is a tortured one and they slipped into administration last year and were charged with multiple breaches of regulations after they failed to pay their players’ wages on time.
They have been struggling to pay the players and there has been mayhem, including players boycotting a friendly match.
The English Football League docked them 12 points for entering into administration.
They were already bottom of the Championship table when they were docked those points and, four months later, they are still bottom of the table with a minus seven points tally on the board.
They are 20 points adrift of Oxford, who are one place above bottom place, 22 points behind Blackburn Rovers, and 27 points behind West Bromwich Albion, who occupy the final two places in the relegation slots.
They have only won once this season, a 2-0 away win over Portsmouth in September, they have not won in their last 24 league games and they have lost their last seven games.
But, that’s not all.
Only on Friday, it was revealed the EFL League were still assessing the prospective buyout of the club to establish whether the sale would be largely funded by the proceeds of gambling and crypto-gambling operations.
Two members of the consortium, which won the bid to buy the franchise, professional poker player James Bord and the crypto-gambling casino owner Felix Roemer, have been flagged.
A TIMELINE OF SHEFFIELD WENESDAY’S CHALLENGES LAST YEAR
June 3: The club and owner Dejphon Chansiri charged with breaching EFL regulations regarding payment obligations.
June 18: EFL imposes three-window fee restriction after exceeding 30 days of late payments between July 1 2024 and June 30 2025.
June 26: In a statement on the club’s official website, Chansiri said he was willing to sell the club.
June 27: Another embargo imposed on the club, relating to payments owed to HMRC.
June 30: Players and staff not paid on time.
July 17: Josh Windass and Michael Smith leave the club by mutual consent.
July 29: Danny Röhl leaves role as manager by mutual consent. The club were forced to close the 9,255-capacity North Stand at Hillsborough after Sheffield City Council issued a Prohibition Notice following a meeting with the local Safety Advisory Group.
July 30: Players and staff not paid on time.
July 31: Röhl’s assistant Henrik Pedersen signs a three-year deal to become the club’s new manager.
August 6: The EFL releases a statement explaining their stance on the situation. “We are clear that the current owner needs either to fund the club to meet its obligations or make good on his commitment to sell to a well-funded party, for fair market value – ending the current uncertainty and impasse.”
August 8: Transfer embargoes lifted after outstanding payments settled, but fee restriction remains in place.
August 10: The Owls lose 2-1 to Leicester in their Championship opener at the King Power Stadium.
August 13: Prohibition Notice on North Stand lifted after “necessary professional safety assurances.”
September 4: Wednesday fans launch protest against Chansiri outside Thai embassy in London.
September 30: Players and staff not paid on time.
October 4: Wednesday lose 5-0 at home to Coventry. Kick-off delayed after group of fans run onto the Hillsborough pitch in protest against Chansiri.
October 14: Players and staff receive outstanding wages from September.
October 16: News emerges of imminent winding-up petition over £1m owed to HMRC.
October 22: Wednesday fans boycott home game against Middlesbrough. No official attendance figure released.
October 24: Wednesday file for administration and receive 12-point deduction from the EFL. – Additional reporting about the timeline from SkySport
Bongani Ndlovu
The fact that Nakamba joined a collapsing team only underlines the player he now is. If a player finds no takers in the elite side of play, it clearly says he is past his sell-by date. At his age, Nakamba ought to consider coming home and age out gracefully and avoid embarrassing himself the way he is doing now.