Ex-Sheffield Wednesday boss delivers scathing Dejphon Chansiri verdict - makes Chris Wilder point

Wednesday have lurched from debacle to debacle off the field in recent years and to date have failed to meet their basic financial obligations in paying a range of employees their full May salaries. It is the second time in three months payments have been late and follows a string of EFL sanctions for not following rules. In Chansiri’s time in charge of the club, the Owls have been relegated with a points deduction and now with the club facing a three-window spending ban. After a number of false starts, fan protest has begun to gather momentum.

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That momentum saw a three-figure tally of Owls supporters gather at a Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust Fan Forum at Wadsley Working Mens Club on Wednesday evening, where a number of speakers took the opportunity to have their say on where the club finds itself - and where things go from here. Among those were ex-player Jon Newsome and Chris Turner, the League Cup-winning former Wednesday player who later went on to manage the club.

Turner, now 66, spoke with passion on the state of things and expressed concern for the future of the club in the coming season and beyond.

“We need this man out..”

“I’m here as a Wednesday fan, not as an ex-player, ex-manager, ex-footballer,” he said. “I’m here because I’m one of you. I’m a supporter. And I’m really, really concerned about what’s happening at our club.

“When you look at the football side of it, we haven’t got a team for next season, it looks like we haven’t got a manager, we’re selling one of the best young players in the club (Caelen-Kole Cadamarteri). That can be good or bad, hopefully it’s not going to give him money to rally round for the next two or three months and pay HMRC and a few wages.

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“We need this man out,” he continued. “He’s got to go. We have to do it. He’s a proud man and he’s going to be difficult (to remove). If there are people that are out there that can buy the club and want to buy the club, then that’s going to take four or five months before that’s done. With the crap that we’ve seen - and there’ll be more - it’s going to be very hard. So we have to be patient. As individuals we have to be patient because we all want the same thing; we want the club to thrive, we want it to survive.

“Whoever buys it, we want them to be the right people, to come and take the club on; peel everything back and start again, because that’s what is needed. The academy is run well but it’s underfunded and has been for years. Them down the road (Sheffield United) have been so far ahead of us in the first team, in the under-21s, in the youth teams, academy, it’s embarrassing. And this t*** here? He couldn’t give a f*** about it.”

“Chris Wilder is right..”

In the wake of a second Steel City derby defeat for Wednesday in March, Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder took the opportunity to speak at length about the widening gap between the blue and red side of the city in terms of infrastructure and on-field success.

While the Blades ultimately failed to earn promotion from the Championship in a brutal late play-off final defeat to Sunderland, many of the points he raised were accepted by Wednesday supporters concerned at a lack of progression the Owls have made in recent years. Turner lays the blame at the door of Chansiri.

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He said: “When you see a friend of mine sat a table talking to Radio Sheffield, saying the 15 or 16 things they do better then us? He’s right unfortunately. Chris Wilder is right. And I’m embarrassed about it. The support home and away is incredible, but unfortunately the support we’ve got is the one thing that is keeping us in power. If we didn’t have that support, if we didn’t buy the season tickets, if we didn’t buy the crap shirts he produces, he wouldn’t have no money. He’d have to borrow it again or pack his bags and go.

“My personal thing is to try and starve him of money going into the club. We’re all passionate about the club. We should all keep calm so when the Trust are doing something, or the other parties, we have to get together, work together and work as one. Then we have a chance. But we are going to have to be patient because he’s going to be hard to get rid of. He’s the worst chairman we’ve ever had.”

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