‘Need to move’ - Dejphon Chansiri on Sheffield Wednesday’s Middlewood Road training ground going forward

The Owls have been at Middlewood Road for over 40 years since moving there back in the 1980s, and have done plenty of work on it over the past four decades to get it to the level that it’s currently at.

But while things have been modernised, plenty of recent managers have suggested that they could do with more improvements to the training ground – however the size of the area makes it difficult to expand it any further.

Chansiri has spent millions of pounds on the club’s training facilities since his arrival at the club, however they’re still limited to three pitches – two grass and a 3G surface - with the grass being occupied by the first team and the 3G being used by the youth sides on an intermittent basis.

Speaking to The Star this month, when asked about potential changes to the training ground in S6, the Wednesday chairman explained, “From the beginning I have said that it’s difficult with the training ground, because we don’t have enough of an area…

“In my first year we tried to improve it, because we had three pitches and it was not enough. That’s why we wanted to expand.

“I asked people to speak to somebody about the police land behind the training ground - we wanted that so we could build another two pitches… But after we’d spoken, I was told that - even with another two pitches - if we get promoted to the Premier League then it won’t be enough.

“We’re going to have to move, so for now we tried to improve as much as we can without wasting money. This land belongs to the council, it’s not our land, so we do what we can.”

But there’s only so much he can do, he says, and the inevitable is that – at some point – the club will need to move venues in order to take things to the next level.

Chansiri went on to say, “I’ve improved what I can - but we’re going to need to move in the future so I don’t want to waste money. But I’ve brought in more fitness machines, more medical machines, and a swimming pool - we’ve got everything in the building.

“When I got to the club I was told that the academy didn’t have enough players to play - they told me that they needed to recruit more… So I told them to do it, to improve – we also work on improving the pitches at the training ground every year.”

Before Wednesday can dream at another shot of reaching the big time of the Premier League, they need to find their way out of League One – and while that chance could feel a while away at the moment, if the recent run of results continues then a return to the Championship could certainly be in their sights.

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