Blunt honesty, friendship and understanding - Tony Pulis on his plan to get to know Sheffield Wednesday chairman

Typically it is club owners who put new managers through a grilling but new Sheffield Wednesday boss Tony Pulis is keen to turn the tables on Dejphon Chansiri.
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Pulis has bemoaned his inability to sit down in person with chairman Chansiri after accepting the Owls job last week.

And he is keen to know all about his new paymaster and what makes him tick as he plots a successful future for Wednesday.

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“The clubs I’ve been successful at are the ones where I’ve had really good relationships with the chairmen and the ones I’ve enjoyed,” Pulis said.

New Sheffield Wednesday manager Tony Pulis. Photo: SWFC/Steve Ellis.New Sheffield Wednesday manager Tony Pulis. Photo: SWFC/Steve Ellis.
New Sheffield Wednesday manager Tony Pulis. Photo: SWFC/Steve Ellis.

“I’ve made good relationships with certain chairman and they’ve accepted me for who I am and I’ve accepted them for them.

“If I can get a similar relationship going with the chairman and we can have a bit of understanding, it can help us collectively.

“I talk about the relationship that I want here - I had that with Peter Coates at Stoke.

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“We’d go out and have dinner with one another, argue and argue over certain points, he would put me in my place and I had so much respect for him that I would accept it.

“We got to the Premier League, the cup final, the later stages of the UEFA Cup, built a brand new training ground - we did everything we possibly could for that football club and all because we worked together.

“I think everybody will hopefully buy into it.”

Chansiri is currently unable to travel to England due to the Covid-19 pandemic but Pulis has plans for him as soon as he touches down.

He said: “I spoke to him the other day and said it would be lovely to sit down and have dinner with him and really talk man to man on the basis of which is the best way of getting this team and this club to push forward again.

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“I’d love to find out his background and his family and the make-up of his life, what sort of life he has had and how he’s become so successful.

“I look at things differently in terms of respect for other people, whereas maybe as a younger person I was a lot more single-minded and bullish and straight forward and abrupt.

“I’d love to speak to the chairman and try to get a feeling for what make-up he has.”

While he is looking to forge a friendship with Chansiri, Pulis has pledged nothing but honesty towards the chairman - even if it is not what he wants to hear.

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“I think the chairman is a very positive man and expects people to be positive around him,” he said.

“And I will be as honest as I can and that will remain solid all the way through.

“Whether the chairman likes what I say at times or doesn’t, that is something that me and him will have to sort out.

“But I won’t be dishonest with him. I’ll tell him the truth.

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“The amount of money he has put in, the respect he should have is enormous.

“Whether there have been people here who will say things just because he’s the chairman and are frightened to say other things because he’s the chairman, I don’t know.

“What I do know is, I am what I am.”

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