Chansiri will not be outfoxed in Owls’ Premier League bid

A club, who not so long ago were in the Premier League, falling on such hard times that the unthinkable of dropping into League One became a depressing reality.

And a club who were then led out of the third tier by Milan Mandaric before being sold on to a buyer from Thailand on the proviso that the necessary investment to win a return back to the top flight be provided.

For Sheffield Wednesday in March, 2015, read Leicester City five summers ago, when a consortium led by Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha bought the Midlands club with just one mission in mind.

Premier League football was a dream that became reality just last May when Nigel Pearson ended the Foxes’ decade-long exile from the top flight.

Barring a miraculous end to the season, Wednesday’s own absence from the elite will reach 15 years in a couple of months’ time.

Owls fans, tired of seeing the likes of Steel City neighbours United and Hull City steal the spotlight by reaching the Premier League, will be hoping new owner Dejphon Chansiri can emulate his countryman, Srivaddhanaprabha, by leading his club back to the big time.

If the 46-year-old does that, however, it is where the similarities between the Thai countrymen will end with the new Hillsborough chief adamant that the Yorkshire club will be following a very different business model to the one that, initially, saw money thrown at managers such as Sven Goran Eriksson in the quest to bring top-flight football back to Leicester.

“With regards to Leicester, we know of him (Srivaddhanaprabha),” said Chansiri in response to an enquiry from The Yorkshire Post. “But I am not close to him.

“And we believe that our philosophy of how to run the football club will be a bit different from how they have been doing it.

“We want to do it in a smart and sustainable manner. There needs to be some investment but just throwing money at a club is not a guarantee of success.

“What we want to do is set up the team for success in earning promotion to the Premier League but then also staying there.”

Asked what the reaction had been back home to news of his takeover, Chansiri replied: “There has been some interest and pride in a Thai owning a football team in England because English football is so popular over there.

“Sheffield Wednesday doesn’t have the recognition yet in Thailand, unless we are talking about football fans who are in their 40s, who can remember when they were in the Premier League. But that is something we are trying to improve.”

Promotion would, of course, do wonders for raising the club’s profile across the globe.

A return to a level of football Hillsborough last staged in 2000 would, of course, be long overdue for a club the size of Wednesday.

Saying and doing, however, often prove to be very different things with significant investment invariably needed to help a club prevail in one of European football’s most competitive divisions.

During the financial year that saw Hull go up in 2013, for instance, the Yorkshire outfit budgeted to lose £16m as chairman Assem Allam backed manager Steve Bruce to the hilt in the transfer market.

Since the introduction of Financial Fair Play rules, such a deficit is no longer possible without incurring stinging penalties.

Nevertheless, Wednesday fans will be looking for their beloved club to push on from its current mid-table standing in the Championship.

With that in mind, a meeting is planned today with Stuart Gray to discuss the 15 or so players whose contracts are due to expire this summer.

No doubt, those talks will also include potential transfer targets for the summer along with any improvements to the infrastructure that the head coach would like to see made.

“One of the first priorities in the summer will be improvements to the actual pitch,” said Chansiri, who insists he is not the type of owner to change the team colours as Vincent Tan once did at Cardiff City. “There will also be other improvements to the infrastructure and stadium. There is also the Academy.

“We want more potential ways to strengthen our team through our own grassroots, while also being a point of pride for the community.”

Chansiri first saw Wednesday live against Blackpool on Boxing Day so the past couple of months have been something of a whirlwind.

He is still, for instance, getting used to the vagaries of the game. “Football is an industry which is relatively new to me,” said the businessman. “There are a lot of challenges.

“I am very excited about the challenges but, through the very essence of business, I feel like I can bring something to Sheffield Wednesday to help them improve.

“As chairman, the final decision for everything will rest with me. I will be taking into account the input from all the different sources within the club to make sure we come to the right decisions. But the decision will be mine.”