Henrik Pedersen understands it will be tough for Sheff Wed to focus at Leicester

Henrik Pedersen accepts it will be difficult for his Sheffield Wednesday players to focus on Sunday’s task at hand after a chaotic past few months.

Wednesday are under a number of Football League-imposed embargoes for various financial breaches, including the payment of wages to players and staff being delayed for the last three months.

There are just 15 senior players left on the books at Hillsborough ahead of their season-opener at Leicester on Sunday, with the Owls red hot favourites to be relegated from the Sky Bet Championship.

Pedersen told the PA news agency: “Of course it’s not easy right now, it’s not easy for our boys coming in every day. If it was easy then everyone would make a top performance in a difficult environment.

“It says so much about the character and the environment right now that how the boys are supporting each other is amazing. That’s why we have a big hope for the future with all those good people.”

While Wednesday have sold out their allocation of tickets at the King Power Stadium, the club’s supporters’ trust has announced plans to protest the rule of controversial owner Dejphon Chansiri.

Fans have been called on to delay sitting in their seats until five minutes after kick-off while a plane is reportedly scheduled to fly overhead the stadium trailing an anti-Chansiri banner.

Owls manager Pedersen added: “I understand the protest but one thing I am sure of when the referee blows his whistle on Sunday is we need everyone, we need everyone to stay together.

“Our fans generally and our away fans especially are always a fantastic inspiration for us. They have a lot of intensity and they are always positive when we are in difficult phases of the game.

“We will have to try to mirror this because it will be very difficult on Sunday.”

Pedersen stepped from his position as assistant to replace Danny Rohl, who left the club along with backroom staff members Sascha Lense, Chris Powell, Neil Thompson and Sal Bibbo last week.

Powell lifted the lid on the escalating crisis at the club as he told The Sports Agents podcast: “It’s the most functional dysfunctional football club I’ve ever been at.

“(Chansiri) doesn’t sell players. He keeps them to the end of contracts, and they walk away. He was holding out for money for Danny. He was offered money (and) didn’t take it.

“Danny was linked to all these clubs, but he didn’t speak to them. I think (Chansiri) now thinks ‘now he’s gone, he hasn’t got anywhere to go, so I’ve won’. That’s the way he would think. It’s bizarre.”

With Wednesday among a number of clubs in financial trouble, former England full-back Powell has called for more scrutiny on prospective owners from the independent football regulator.

Powell added: “People come in, they flash the cash, they pass the (owners’ and directors’) test. I know that the test has changed somewhat in the last 10 years.

“There’s now a regulator, but they really need to start banging heads now…it could quite easily be another Championship, League One, League Two club in six months’ time.”