2009/10 to 2017/18

Sheffield Wednesday never reached the Premier League in the nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18, spending seven in the Championship and two lower down. Their best finish was 4th in the Championship, in 2016/17. They didn’t win a major trophy. Over those nine summers they paid £16.5m in transfer fees and took in £2.5m, a net spend of £14m.

Sheffield Wednesday dropped out of the Championship in 2009/10, finishing 22nd, and spent two seasons in League One before returning for 2012/13. The climb back was steady: 17th, 16th, 12th, and then sixth in 2015/16, which took them all the way to the play-off final, where they lost to Hull. Fourth in 2016/17 brought another play-off campaign and another disappointment.

Spending rose with the ambition. Fernando Forestieri came from Watford in 2015 and Adam Reach from Middlesbrough for around £5m in 2016. The one that got away was Michail Antonio, sold to Nottingham Forest for £1.5m in 2014 and a Premier League regular with West Ham soon after.

Wednesday are the sort of club 115.football was made for: big support, big history and a decade of near misses. With £900m, Antonio stays, the 2009/10 relegation is avoided, and Hillsborough is back in the top flight long before those play-off heartbreaks.