Owls fans rally to show Wednesday's potential

You can forgive Sheffield Wednesday fans for pinching themselves after the last seven days.

The Dejphon Chansiri era is over. Three parties interested in buying the club have already come forward and produced proof of funds to the tune of £50m. More interest is expected.

Fans have rallied behind the club, putting money into the coffers through ticket and merchandise sales. Instead of staff having to wait for delayed wages, this month everyone was paid a day early.

The Supporters' Trust have donated £20,000 to the cause with another £30,000 raised (and counting) after an online appeal. The Owlstalk forum raised £10,000 in an hour to aid preparations for the Blackburn away game.

The staff at the club are going above and beyond to deal with the relentless pace. The communications team are constantly updating fans, documenting every moment with eye-catching social media posts.

Creative ideas like an open training session during the half-term holidays went down a storm, as did back-to-back days of 'meet the players' days at the club shop.

There's an electricity around Hillsborough that is the total opposite of what was happening before - from fans, to staff, to the players and everything in between.

The collective effort has been so impressive it actually reminds you why teams use the word 'club' in their names.

It's all vital too. Make no mistake, administration is not easy. The money being raised isn't a nice bonus, it's money being used to literally keep things going until there's a sale.

It's been mentioned a few times how unusual it is to see a fan base 'celebrating' administration, because typically it's a nightmare scenario.

Let's be clear - Owls fans aren't celebrating administration or its consequences.

They're celebrating the departure of the former owner who created the situation where the only two options were a winding-up petition being served by HMRC or this.

In this situation, administration was clearly the preferred option over going bust. Any negative surrounding administration lays firmly at the door of Chansiri.

He could've instigated a sale over the summer to avoid this. A lot of what we've seen this week, bringing everyone together, there's no reason that couldn't have happened sooner.

Instead there were unpaid players and staff, a rift with former boss Danny Rohl, a squad decimated to raise just enough to keep clinging on (until that wasn't possible anymore) and a wall of silence from the man at the top.

The last time he spoke in front of fans he spent a five-hour fans' forum telling supporters it wasn't his responsibility to find a new owner. How did he ever let it get to this?

Fans were resigned to relegation long before last week, so the 12-point deduction – often such a back-breaking consequence of administration – was taken in stride. The other challenges, such as needing to satisfy creditors to avoid a potential further points deduction, will have to be dealt with. Again, the former owner is responsible for all of this.

There's one more home game before a preferred bidder is expected to be identified. The Norwich City game is vital and not just because the club needs every penny to be able to continue running.

There are a lot of eyes on Sheffield Wednesday at the moment. There's interest, potentially from some very intriguing potential bidders. The club putting its best foot forward, selling out that game, and showing off its maximum potential, could be critical.