Mandaric Targets Top Flight With Owls

Ambitious Milan Mandaric has targeted a Barclays Premier League return with Wednesday, and is hoping to do it within the next four years.

The former Leicester City chairman will take up his new position at new owner of the Owls in an official capacity on Wednesday, December 15, and will attend his first match next Saturday when Wednesday host Bristol Rovers.

But, although the Owls still have plenty of work to do to just get out of npower League One this season, the Serbian-American businessman has high ambitions at Hillsborough, with a return to the top flight in sight.

‘I want to be the owner and chairman of a Premier League club again, and I shall not be leaving England until I have achieved that aim,’ he told SkySports.com.

‘I am not taking over Sheffield Wednesday as a hobby. This is a cruel and serious business.

‘If you do it right you get your rewards, but if you do it wrong you get punished.

‘The first priority is to get out of League One and once we have done that we aim for the Premier League.’

Mandaric’s calls bear similarities to former boss Chris Turner’s statement that he planned to get the Owls into Europe within five years when he took over at S6 years ago.

But where Turner failed, Wednesdayites are expected to have more faith in Mandaric, who helped guide and keep Portsmouth in the Premier League,and who left Leicester City in a position to do the same under Sven Goran Eriksson.