Sheffield Wednesday: “Four or five” serious bidders for the club

Wigfield hopes the sale will move quickly and the group will gain preferred bidder status next month, with a goal of completing the purchase on Wednesday before the end of the year.

“Because of the Premier League rules, we have to market the club for 28 days,” he said. “So it will take at least 28 days before we get close to preferred bidder status.

“So I hope that by the end of November, if all goes well, we might know who will buy the football club.

“Then hopefully the deal can be done this calendar year, so that the new owner will be in…the January transfer window, if the Premier League allows the new owner to buy players.”

Wednesday fans returned in their thousands on Saturday after their previous boycott and a season’s best crowd of 27,261 witnessed a 2-1 loss to Oxford at Hillsborough.

Wigfield says fans have already spent more than £500,000 on tickets and in the club shop to keep the Owls going.

He added: “We didn’t have the money at first, but fans have already given more than half a million pounds since Friday by purchasing tickets and merchandise.”

“So the response has been amazing, but we need to keep raising money so we can pay wages next Friday.

He added: “So more tickets will be on sale for the upcoming home matches today and we need fans to keep buying things. It is a very difficult circumstance, but this is what we need.”