Everyone should be talking about the Sheffield Wednesday situation. Since the end of the 2024/25 season, Dejphon Chansiri has now missed two pay days and most of his players and staff have gone without being paid since the start of April.
As well as this, Sheffield Wednesday have been placed under two transfer embargos. One for the missed-payments of players and another for the the taxes owed to HMRC. This means that they can’t pay money for signings and any incomings have to be free agents. The Sheffield Wednesday situation continues to get worse.
Chansiri is difficult to work with and excessively conceited but that’s no excuse to abuse a club that means so much to so many people.
We spoke to Stevie from The Wednesday Week, an award winning Sheffield Wednesday podcast, to try and get a grasp of what the fans are thinking about the situation as a whole and their feelings towards Chansiri.
The Sheffield Wednesday Situation, The Interview:
Q: First of all, what are your general feelings about the situation at Wednesday?
A: “From a footballing perspective it’s absolutely heartbreaking. As a fanbase, we thought we’d had our ‘darkest’ times under Chansiri five or six years ago with the original point deduction and subsequent relegation, however despite us getting back into the Championship, we fumbled things early in the 23/24 season with the appointment of Xisco.
“All of this is worth mentioning, because the appointment of Danny Rohl and his backroom team seemed to signal an upturn in fortunes for the club. Everything was going in the right direction and although on paper we struggled to stay up in 2024, supporters knew that we were comfortably better than just escaping relegation under Danny.
“Last Summer was the best we’d had in recent memory. Relative stability, better signings, eyes on recruitment. We smashed Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth on the first weekend of the season to go top of the league. Things were so promising in the early stages of the season (even if the results didn’t always go our way). All of this fell away over the duration of the season and it is difficult to lay blame at the door of anyone else but the Chairman.
“As a fanbase we are a combination of angry and heartbroken. We are loyal and we pay a lot of money to watch what in reality is a substandard product because it is not resourced properly by the man at the top.
“The feeling is he’s cut corners and taken shortcuts to try and get us back on an even keel, however this simply hasn’t worked – and he’s done it again and again, to the point where he has now spiralled so far he’s circling the drain and won’t be able to pull himself back.
“The fans deserve better. The staff deserve better. The players deserve better.
“It’s a mess and at this stage, it’s difficult to see a way out of it that doesn’t involve the worst case scenario of us being hit with the strictest sanctions that the EFL have to enforce.
“I think it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better as well…”
Q: How long do you think this will go on for until he realises he has to sell?
A: “This is the problem – he would sell tomorrow, but his asking price is simply extortionate. It doesn’t take much to figure out that a fair market value for the club is in the region of £40m. At various points, he’s valued the club as high as £300m! The ball-park figure he seems to be aiming for is £100m.
“Some people think this is stubbornness. I think it’s more a case of him having to recoup as much money as possible. Make no mistake – Chansiri isn’t sticking around because he has any affinity for the club or any of its stakeholders. This will go on until he realises that he’s not going to get the money he’s asking for (which I don’t think will happen), or the EFL/administrators step in.”
Q: How bad could it get before the end comes and Chansiri leaves?
A: “We could become a case study. After the situation at Reading and other clubs, you’d think that the EFL would review policy and implement a new approach. If they were to do that it becomes extremely uncertain.
“I would hope that the powers that be take a look at it and appreciate that the employees and supporters who are the life and soul of the club aren’t to blame here and that sanctioning Sheffield Wednesday doesn’t necessarily impact the owner, however I also appreciate that there are rules that govern club ownership that Chansiri has broken.
“Administration is likely. Liquidation is a possibility. The best we have to hope for this season as it stands is a possible point deduction and a relegation battle with a squad full of academy players.
“Our best players are on the verge of leaving. We can’t pay a fee for a player now until 2027. We essentially don’t have a manager, or a backroom staff. We are going to lose our saleable assets for a relative pittance. There are some dark times ahead.”
Q: Can you blame the players for potentially walking away after their 15 days notice?
A: “I don’t blame the players for anything at all. It’s hard to expect loyalty at the best of times because ultimately they are employees. Rumours are circulating this week that Liam Palmer and Barry Bannan have waived their due wages until everybody else in the club that is due payment is sorted, which is great but other players aren’t lifelong Wednesdayites or club figureheads.
“As much as we are fans of the club, the players are employees. If they can go and get paid elsewhere and choose to do so, I don’t blame them one bit.”
Q: The 2025/26 season could be one of the darkest in the clubs history. At this point, do you care what happens on the pitch?
A: “I care about what’s happening on the pitch, but it isn’t as important as securing stability for the club. I fear the worst in terms of players and squad development, however it may be a necessary evil if we are going to come out the other side of this. If we don’t secure a sale, administration is probable. If so, I’m hoping it can be something of a restart for the club. What I will say is that knowing the fanbase as I do, we’ll come together and make the most of what we have!”
Q: Do you see Chansiri as a gambling man? Risking it all to take Wednesday to the Premier League
A: “I just think he was incredibly naive and poorly advised. I don’t think he gambled as such, but he had no clue what he needed to be doing from a football business perspective. He overachieved in 2016, and doubled down the year after to try and get there again. I would say he’s less of a gambler and more a naive ‘know it all’.”
Q: If you were to meet with Chansiri right now, what would you say to him?
A: “Dejphon. I genuinely don’t think you intended for it to come to this, but it has. And it’s got here under your watch. For that reason, you need to let the club go. I know you want to claw back as much money as you possibly can to satisfy your own personal debt, but none of that is our fault. Let the club go for what it’s worth for those that still care about it, because it isn’t going to give you what you want from it. We still love it even if you don’t (if you ever did?).”
