Alan Biggs: Dejphon Chansiri, Carlos Carvalhal and the wonders of hindsight in search for new manager

There are managers who transform clubs but in most cases the conditions have to be created for them to succeed. And it’s not just about money.
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Or about hitting on the right one. Unless you stick with him, knowing you have got it right.

Looking back, Sheffield Wednesday had the right one in Carlos Carvalhal. With hindsight, too, owner Dejphon Chansiri was arguably wrong to sack him after a disappointing four months in the wake of two play-off appearances.

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It was my mistake too. A section of fans were too harsh on Carvalhal and, on reflection, so were journalists like myself. He deserved to be cut more slack.

Carlos Carvalhal and Dejphon Chansiri were once the near-perfect partnership at Sheffield Wednesday.Carlos Carvalhal and Dejphon Chansiri were once the near-perfect partnership at Sheffield Wednesday.
Carlos Carvalhal and Dejphon Chansiri were once the near-perfect partnership at Sheffield Wednesday.

Carvalhal was the first appointment of the Chansiri era in 2015, a very good one, and I think he now represents the owner’s first major football error.

From which a succession has followed, though I believe an even earlier one was more fundamental.

Carvalhal was open, so I heard at the time, to overhauling a squad that had clearly passed its peak; Chansiri apparently opted to keep it together, certainly so in the case of Fernando Forestieri.

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And that misjudgment, I feel, was the catalyst for the stagnation and decline that has followed.

It’s why the identity of the manager has become far less a matter of public debate than the way the club is run.

But the main reason Chansiri and Carvalhal needed to stick together is that they got on so well; still do. Harmony between chairman and manager, lacking at the club since then, is all-important and the next appointment has to be based around it.

Many of us would like to see Chansiri, for his own benefit as much as the club’s, delegate & take a step back. But, however regrettably, we can only accept that’s very unlikely to happen and it’s his call.

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So it’s vital in the wake of the Tony Pulis fiasco that the chairman finds someone he can work with agreeably.

If I had to name an English equivalent of Carvalhal, in football style and personality, then Paul Cook would be somewhere close.

Certainly very different to Pulis. He might not get the job, despite being keen and among those contacted, but he’s worked harmoniously and successfully with boards at clubs including Chesterfield, Portsmouth and Wigan, winning promotions entertainingly and operating with distinction in the Championship.

Shane Nicholson, a member of his Spireites backroom team, said Cook “transformed the whole mentality of the club” as “an infectious and very likeable guy.”

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Of course, Chansiri might revert to the head coach model. Either way, I think Cook, if he could be persuaded following initial talks, would be ideal and also an overwhelmingly popular choice with fans.

In all other respects, so many managers can’t be wrong - Carvalhal, Jos Luhukay, Steve Bruce, Garry Monk, Pulis. It has to go deeper.

There are two sides to every story but the Pulis sacking, and the chairman’s extraordinary public onslaught against him, didn’t look good. The 62-year-old Welshman’s record and reputation in football, with many friends in high places, remains much higher currently than the club he left.

Was it not known that he was a straight talker? Wasn’t that what was needed? Who didn’t know the football would be pragmatic, at best

That said, seven points out of 30 was poor, even with four from the last two games and some players didn’t buy into his methods.

I don’t relish Pulis’s football, although I would have backed him to keep the Owls up, the only sensible expectation this season.

Where I do support the chairman - if you feel you have made a mistake then better to rectify it quickly.

Two admirably crowbarred wins under the interim charge of Neil Thompson and Lee Bullen do not remove the wider issue of managers finding the right environment but do provide breathing space.

Whoever the owner’s advisors, with a new one assisting from Spain, Sheffield Wednesday have a chance to show a lot more of the wise Owl about them.