Pressure on Sheffield Wednesday owner eased

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

PRESSURE SUSTAINABLY BUILT on Dejpon Chansiri, the Thai owner of English Championship football club Sheffield Wednesday, is more or less diminishing now that German manager Danny Rohl has decidedly offered to stay with the Owls despite the fifty-fifty chances of their being relegated from the second tier of the English football system.

Rohl has just made it clear to the public, especially Sheffield Wednesday supporters, that he has already made up his mind to continue to work for the Owls even if they are relegated to League 1, the third tier of the English football system, for the upcoming 2024/2025 season which will begin as soon as later this month.

But the former coaching staffer at Bayern Munich and Leipzig who won the English Football League’s Championship Manager of the Month of April would not come up with his earnest offer to stay with the Owls next season without condition. The German has made it crystal clear that he is anxiously anticipating Dejpon to invest financially on one of the oldest English football clubs to build up and improve their limping squad as well as restore and renew facilities at Hillsborough stadium.

As many as 19 out of a total army of 34 players have not had their contracts extended by Sheffield Wednesday beyond the current summer whilst Rohl was desperately looking to shop for quality ones from rival Championship clubs to add to those injury-stricken, underperforming Owls players upon the end of the current season beginning next week.

The Thai owner is not only anticipated by Sheffield Wednesday fans including thousands of those who had earlier joined in mass protests against him outside and inside of the dilapidated 39,700-seat stadium but the Owls manager himself to ultimately agree upon such a make-or-break condition.

Dejpon who had been occasionally seen joining in friendly chitchats and handshaking with Owls fans off the pitch before and after home games was yet considered as a happy-go-lucky businessperson who was allegedly “not fit or proper” for Sheffield Wednesday and even bluntly suggested by some of the fervent fans to “just sell up and go.”

Sheffield Wednesday supporters voiced a mixed reaction to last Saturday’s incident at Hillsborough stadium where an unidentified, young fan abruptly accosted Dejpon whilst mingling with a crowd of spectators, shouting out his Thai name and surname alongside indistinct slurs. Without responding in words, the irate club owner literally shoved his detractor out of the way and moved on. The penultimate, sold-out home game of the season saw the Owls outplay the visiting West Bromwich Albion in a 3-0 win.

In 2015, Dejpon, a younger brother of Thirapong Chansiri, the CEO of Thai Union Group, the world’s largest canned tuna manufacturer, bought Sheffield Wednesday for 37.5 million pounds and had been said to have quietly followed in the footsteps of the late Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha,  previously the CEO of duty-free retail chain King Power Group who took over the ownership of Premier League football club Leicester City five years earlier.

Now that the Foxes have just returned in automatic fashion to the top tier of the English football system following their one-year relegation to the Championship, the Owls are literally struggling to stay on with just a few points above the drop zone in the second tier.

The Championship’s final game of the 2023/2024 season is scheduled for the upcoming Saturday with the Owls playing an away game against Sunderland.

Nonetheless, given whatever result of the final game – win or draw or loss, the Owls’ safety from relegation is decisively dependent on the season-ending performance of two other clubs, namely Plymouth Argyle and Birmingham, who are also striving to survive in the Championship.

A possible draw for the Pilgrims or the Blues, let alone a loss, could force either one of them to drop to the third tier from where the Owls had been promoted in play-off fashion last season and automatically help the Owls survive in the second tier even if they are defeated by the Black Cats.

Sheffield Wednesday will be safe from the drop zone with just a draw to pull off in the final game, regardless of any results for either Plymouth Argyle or Birmingham.

On the other hand, if the Owls grind to a loss whilst both the Pilgrims and the Blues score a win, the Thai-owned club will be definitely relegated.

To their faithful, fervent fans, the Owls’ extended stay in the Championship would be of no great measure of frustration and shame since the fellow city club, namely Sheffield United, have already been relegated from the top-flight Premier League to join them in the second tier next season.

Dejpon will undoubtedly feel relieved, unloading an enormous, nagging burden which he has shouldered if his team are finally safe on the upcoming Saturday so he could seriously take into account Rohl’s resolute calls for the betterment of his own club.

CAPTIONS:

Top:: Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejpon Chansiri and manager Danny Rohl. Photo: Yorkshire Post and shared by MSN.com

First insert: An image from the match between Sheffield Wednesday and West Bromwich Albion which the former won by 3-0. Photo:  Swfc.co.uk

Second insert: Manager Danny Rohl of Sheffield Wednesday. Photo: Greig Cowie/REX/Shutterstock/Chronicle Live and shared by Yahoo!Sport

Front Page: Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejpon Chansiri. Photo: BBC Sport

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