The challenge now facing Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri - Alan Biggs

Sometimes in football, regardless of ultimate success or failure, there are things not to waste, things not to let go.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

That is the imperative facing Sheffield Wednesday, irrespective of the outcome of their play-off campaign.

No-one can be certain of that. What you can guarantee is that the Owls, under Darren Moore, have begun to build on the right lines.

Read More
Sheffield Wednesday’s 2020/21 accounts explained in plain English: Half-a-millio...
Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri.Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri.
Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri.
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And that’s as much as any manager and club can do - because when it comes to a two-legged collision with Sunderland and a possible Wembley final to follow, the end result is beyond any confident prediction.

None to be offered here on this occasion; I was wrong about automatic promotion but right that Wednesday would be top six and take it all the way.

When it comes to things that can be controlled - budgets permitting - the Owls have relatively little to do this summer to keep a forward momentum.

Quite simply, Darren Moore has put heart back into the club, starting right at the centre of it in the dressing room. A change of manager risks ripping that heart right out and I doubt Dejphon Chansiri would even contemplate it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The owner’s challenge, after so much expense, is to maintain conditions that encourage this forward momentum.

Here’s a reply to me on Twitter that demonstrates a change in mood towards Moore. It came last Saturday from supporter Reece Davies after the resolute play-off clinching 4-1 win over Portsmouth.

“Since December,” he said, “we have established an identity and way of playing as a club again. No matter what happens in the play-offs, I feel belief and confidence that we have found our feet and are building something special again.”

Elsewhere, celebrity fan Martyn Ware tweeted: “Praise to DM and the coaches for giving our team play a real identity and purpose … a very, very good job whatever the outcome of the play-offs.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Confidence in the future is a conviction shared by the manager who inherited what he has described as a “broken club” and has had to ride a relegation in order to fix it.

There’s been no continuity at Hillsborough for years; five years to be precise. Not since the second of two promotion attempts under Carlos Carvalhal, who was prematurely sacked midway through the following season.

You can’t keep tearing it up and starting again. Moore has done enough to command belief in a better way ahead.

The outcome of two, hopefully three, games is a lottery. A winning ticket covers a far longer period than that.