Dejphon Chansiri deserves praise for Sheffield Wednesday coup as big news raises ceiling

‘Earlier this month’ may even come as a surprise to some. It somehow seems both yesterday and such a long time ago that goals from Liam Palmer and Josh Windass sealed the deal at Sunderland. After months of hard graft, three wins in three proved a fitting and hard-fought conclusion to a history-forging comeback campaign that deserved what it ended up with.

The celebrations were iconic, the achievement surely as great as anything undertaken by the club in recent years. To come back from the deep, deep depths of where they were at the start of the season? Utterly unimaginable.

It was an achievement masterminded of course by Danny Röhl. And herein came the nervousness. From the moment Röhl started mentioning the need for reassurances from Sheffield Wednesday with regard to its future strategy, many doubted the ability of the club and of chairman Dejphon Chansiri to deliver them. The German boss spoke on the need for a ‘clear direction’ and on similar themes in just about every press engagement of the final weeks of the season - we’ll leave the body language experts to comment any further.

But now, as a new euphoria swarms the conversation after confirmation of the new manager’s new contract - believed to stretch until the summer of 2027 - it delivers questions more exciting than doubting. Röhl is on-record describing his chats with the Wednesday owner in recent weeks as ‘very good’, with The Star having held the understanding throughout discussions that talks have been positive and that, in truth, the idea of the 35-year-old moving on was never especially realistic despite attractive interest both home and abroad.

The announcement of a new contract suggests one of the most highly-regarded young managers about sees Wednesday’s vision - whatever that might be - as one worthy of his talent. The broad understanding is that both parties were keen on agreeing a new deal, rather than it being a chase-down by Wednesday. The theme from both parties has been that they will push on.

Chansiri is a highly divisive figure whose time at Wednesday is littered with controversy, of that there is no doubt. But where he very rightly received criticism for his handling of last summer’s carnival of chaos last time out, praise surely must now be delivered for this highly encouraging start to the next campaign. Further back, his brave appointment of a largely unknown young manager has proven inspired where others - this writer included - would’ve broken glass for the short-term fix of a man of very different methods.

It’s no state secret that Röhl wanted to squeeze a lot more out of the January transfer window, but without the signings of any one of James Beadle, Ian Poveda and Ike Ugbo, it seems fair to argue Wednesday don’t stay up. The German’s expensively-assembled backroom staff are universally described as integral to what they went on to achieve last season.

The moments of chaos have been remarkable, the off-field pitfalls damaging. The bigger picture is clearly a hell of a lot darker than that of the last few months in isolation and when appropriate, fan chatter, radio airwaves and column inches have been devoted to criticism. But a phrase widely trotted-out on social media this afternoon seems appropriate; Credit where credit is due. Here, Chansiri surely deserves a great deal.

As is the case on the pitch, wins tend to be lingered on with far less passion than defeats. Attention now turns to what comes next, the outcome of plans old and new and how they are implemented. In his comments as part of the announcement of his manager’s extended new deal, Chansiri made clear summer work is already well underway and that these will continue. Röhl spoke of the ambition of all parties.

What it all looks like remains to be seen. All will be revealed in the coming weeks and months. A top 10 finish spoken about by Röhl feels somehow attainable even at the foothill of the summer months - their form since he came in with a browbeaten squad not specially designed for his efforts suggests as much.

The ceiling on what can be achieved has been raised at Sheffield Wednesday, as has expectation. It could well be a busy few months.