'There was no money coming in' - Sheffield Wednesday promotion hero slams Dejphon Chansiri
Former Sheffield Wednesday wing-back Marvin Johnson has admitted he and his former teammates always felt the club would eventually find itself in deep trouble under the stewardship of former chairman Dejphon Chansiri.
Almost a year after Johnson brought the curtain down on a successful four-year spell at Hillsborough, Wednesday find themselves gearing up for life back in League One after going into administration last October.
Following several months of financial turmoil, Chansiri filed for administration, bringing an end to his ten-and-a-half-year reign of chaos. The club was immediately deducted 12 points and then had another six removed from their total in December relating to the club’s failure to pay its players on time earlier in the year, meaning they were relegated before the end of February.
Less than three years after Johnson played a key role in helping Wednesday escape League One’s clutches, the Owls are now preparing for another stint in the third tier of English football with Chansiri’s failings the root cause.
The Thai businessman, who was recently slammed by former Wednesday striker Lee Gregory for a lack of investment, had a unique approach to running the club with it ultimately leading to the situation Wednesday now find themselves in.
Having experienced firsthand what life was like at Hillsborough under Chansiri’s control, Johnson has now slammed for the former Owls chairman for his lack of investment, refusing to sell players to bring in money and how he and his teammates considered taking a stand at junctures when they were not being paid.
“It’s really sad but, as players on the inside, we all knew something like this was coming,” Johnson told The Football League Paper. “There was no money coming in.
“I was there for four years and nothing changed. The only thing we got was a new set of goalposts.
“Even when the owner did have a chance to make money by selling players, he refused. He just let people see out their contracts, which didn’t make sense to anybody.
“The hardest bit for me was not getting paid. We’d have team meetings about it, saying, ‘Lads, listen, if we don’t get paid by the next week, we need to make a stand’.
“But on the flip side of that, either we stand against one man, or we basically let 25,000 people down that are coming to watch the game. In the end, we always thought, ‘Well, he’s not with us but the fans are, so let’s just try and ride through it’.”
Although Wednesday remain in administration, Arise Capital Partners LLC, last week, were installed as the new preferred bidder to try and complete a takeover at Hillsborough. David Storch, who is the face of the group, has vowed to try and put Wednesday back on their feet, but has acknowledged it will be a long-term project amid the amount of work that is required.
“I do think any investor needs to go into it with their eyes wide open,” Johnson added. “It can’t be about getting a return at this stage.
“For me, I’ve always said it needs a die-hard football fan that just wants to own a football club no matter what and has got so much money they can throw into the club without a care in the world and do whatever needs to be done.
“But that’s easy to say, isn’t it? It’s a lot harder to find.”