Dejphon Chansiri-Darren Moore war of words over Sheffield Wednesday managerial change not a distraction, insists striker Michael Smith

In recent weeks Moore has been active as a Sky Sports pundit, and has been asked for his take on the circumstances which led to his surprise departure after leasing the Owls to promotion via the League One play-offs.

Not for the first time, Chansiri weighed in with a statement to dispute Moore's recollection of events, posting a 1,881-word statement on the club's official website on Thursday.

It boiled down to Chansiri contradicting Moore's claims that, as the chairman put it, "his leaving was not about money but a ‘vision’ that was ‘out of line’".

It is all becoming a bit petty and he-said-she-said – seemingly the last thing a football team needs when it is still searching for its first win of the season, a quest that continues at home to Ipswich Town on Saturday.

But striker Smith does not seem particularly bothered, to the extent that when he spoke to the media on Friday morning, he claimed he had not yet caught up on it. He is well used to blocking out outside noise having been linked with League One Derby County in the summer.

"For me personally (it's not a distraction), no," he said of Chansiri’s statement. "The boys are focused on the job in hand.

"I know something got released last night and I'm only just getting in this morning.

"I'm sure the boys will speak about it but it's not something that's going to distract us. At the end of the day we're footballers, we want to concentrate on football and our main focus is getting the three points on Saturday."

Earlier in the summer came inevitable talk that he would be linking up once more with his former Rotherham United manager Paul Warne.

"I had an honest conversation with the manager earlier on in the window and he wanted me here and saw me in his plans so that sort of shut down anything in my head that I would be moving on," said Smith.

"I was desperate to stay here after getting promoted and give the Championship another crack. Wednesday is where my focus was.

"With my previous manager being at the club and me doing so well under him before the link was always going to be there, not so much (dependent on) any substance to it, people are just going to autiomatically make the link.

"It's not too distracting and it's one of those things as a footballer, every window you could be gone, you could be staying. It's just one of those things, especially at my age, 31, you sort of get used to it."