Peterborough United chairman delivers brutal assessment of Dejphon Chansiri's 'disastrous' Sheffield Wednesday handling

The Irish entrepreneur, who has been head man at London Road since the departure of Barry Fry in 2006, has previously spoken of his admiration for Wednesday as a club, citing its fanbase as a central factor in May's remarkable 5-1 semi-final comeback since known as 'The Hillsborough Miracle'.

A few months on, the Owls sit rock bottom of the Championship, nine points adrift of the safety spots and face a fierce relegation battle under new manager Danny Röhl.

MacAnthony has helped cultivate a record of player progression at Peterborough that has seen a great number of young players brought in and sold on for a handsome profit, several of whom have gone on to feature in the Premier League. He had plenty to say on Wednesday's recruitment strategy over the summer.

Speaking on his The Hard Truth podcast, MacAnthony was asked what he thought of Wednesday's predicament, some way short at the bottom of the Championship table, and how Chansiri has gone about steering the transition from third tier to second.

"I think he's had a disaster," MacAnthony said. "The high point was obviously the comeback against us and winning the final.

"It was a veteran, old squad. It was one of the reasons we felt confident in the play-offs to overpower them with pace and youth and all the rest of it, but we choked-up in the second leg. I looked at that squad and thought that two things were going to happen in the summer.

"One, he had his manager problem, he had to sort that. Darren Moore is showing he's not world-beater, really, with what he's doing at Huddersfield. I don't know what happened between the two of them but it was silly and it got played-out publicly. We've all had that happen to us, I'm guilty of that and nobody is perfect in ownership.

"But I would have looked at the squad and said; 'You're all going.' You can get sentimental that they've won us promotion or whatever but I'd have looked at it that 75% of them are too old, their legs have gone and they're on big money. How do we change it? How do we go down a different route?"

MacAnthony claimed he would have been looking to re-shape Wednesday's squad with a three-window plan of action, saying he felt it would have been difficult to achieve given Moore's likely loyalty to the squad he was promoted with.

He said he'd have taken a different route to Chansiri in appointing British managers after Moore's departure, citing Gary Rowett as the man he'd have sought to bring in following the end of Xisco's mini-reign last month.

"I'd have two minds now," he said. "If this doesn't work with the new manager, do we get a domestic manager that knows the leagues? Secondly do we start preparing for League One? How do we start sussing out some of the best players in League One that are affordable to bring in and be ready to get back up again.

"A club of Peterborough's size, you always have to plan for the eventuality of whether you can stay in the Champ. A club of Sheffield Wednesday's size, with 40 or 50,000 fans, they should only be planning for the Championship, only to stay in the league. They've had a f***ing disastrous five or six months.

"They're nine points adrift, it's not impossible. Maybe it's too early to be pulling the pin and planning for League One, but I think you need to do something to arrest the slide. Hiring and firing foreign managers isn't going to do you any favours in trying to stay up in the Championship. I don't think foreign managers are the best people to hire if I'm honest."