The debate: Are Sheffield Wednesday right not to believe in ‘five or ten-year’ plans?

You can only assume it’s a minefield. In many ways, it’s a thankless task. The pressures, the pulling from pillar to post, the financial, commercial and footballing constraints and the fierce competition for every conceivable inch of advantage a club can hope to gain.

For two seasons, from the outside looking in, it seemed so simple. And for nearly three since it hasn’t.

The Thai owner spoke about his plans for the club in a recent interview, making clear his belief that the nature of the football business restricts the amount of long-term planning a club can do.

“Football is a very unique business,” he told Yorkshire Live. “Football operates and is budgeted for on a seasonal basis depending on which division your club is in.

“It is not the same as a normal business where you can plan ahead for five or 10 years, for example.

“It is difficult to look too far forward in football.”

It’s a statement that rustled a large section of the Wednesday support and again, he would be in some ways justified in pointing out that in all likelihood those baulking at his opinion aren’t au-fait with the business of football.

It’s also an opinion, though, that would be passionately argued against in boardrooms across the Championship, by many of those that do know what it is to run a club.

Brentford are the tier-two club time and again held up as the ultimate role models for forward-planning. The Bees have punched well above the weight with a rip-it-up-and-start-again approach to the transfer market, reserve team football and club infrastructure. And it’s getting results.

Every year Brentford sell on key players at several times the amount they paid for them. At last count, they operated on losses of £18.4m in 2018/19, almost half of that of Wednesday’s £37.3m the year before.

A new stadium is on the way and every year they edge closer to the Premier League – they’re among the favourites to do so this year and their last result, of course, was a 5-0 win over Wednesday.

“Brentford can't win by outspending the competition so we have to outthink them,” said their co-director of football Rasmus Ankersen to Bleacher Report in 2017 after a campaign that had seen them languish in midtable.

“And the question that comes from that is how can we be different? How can we do things in a different way? So, what are the inefficiencies in the system in football, and how can we exploit those?"

From actively developing players to be sold to scrapping the club’s academy, it’s a hugely radical approach not easily replicated, but it is also a stark example of a long-term vision paying off. By Brentford’s own admission, they are an exception to decades of rules.

Other clubs up and down the league have spoken on five-year plans. Whether that is a sign that they can work or that Chansiri is one of the owners brave enough to admit they don’t is perhaps a matter of opinion.

Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani spoke of a five-year plan when he took over the promotees-in-waiting in July 2017, ironically just weeks before parting company with current Wednesday boss Garry Monk.

The Elland Road model is perhaps another one perilously difficult to emulate, centring on the talents of director of football Victor Orta as well as a world-renowned coach in Marcelo Bielsa, but the blueprint is there. Big-money signings have been made, relationships with some of the biggest clubs in the country have been explored, but Leeds, too, operate at lower losses than Wednesday at last count (£20.4m in 2018/19).

Bristol City have thrown their weight behind a medium-term plan with Lee Johnson at the helm while riding the crest of a wave that saw the commercial virility of the club transformed and their Ashton Gate stadium handsomely redeveloped.

And over the border, Swansea City have publicly admitted a change in tack and have committed to a new vision for the future of the club with former England youth coach Steve Cooper steering the ship.

Big-wage players have been moved on and a new, younger, cheaper direction in recruitment taken.

“How long will it take? I don't know,” said Cooper when quizzed on the club’s forward plan in December. “But what I do know is that we're absolutely committed to getting back to that and we won't change from the plan in terms of style of play and how we prepare for games.

“We don't want anything to fall back on in terms of a Plan B or a safety net because if you have a Plan B it means you doubt what you're doing, and we don't.”

For every success story, there are failures of course – Bristol City are a long way from the Europa League qualification Johnson hinted at in 2016 and who knows where they or Swansea, for example, will be in two, five or 10 years time? For many, a five-year plan is merely a buzzphrase delivered to appease supporters and buy time.

Chansiri has made clear that while five years is too long a path to forge in his eyes, he admitted that the club has had to “step back, change some players and rebuild, then bring younger players in for the future.”

And while transfer market is a competitive place, he said, he is confident in the people he has around him. Sheffield Wednesday will go about it their own way.