The final straw

[KivoOwl]

First thread in a long while, and I don't apologise for it being a long one. I stopped posting because I've got a very thin skin and get too easily hurt by criticism and abuse that came my way over the last couple of years - not posting has done me good but I am seriously worried for the club we all love so need to get this off my chest. If you think I'm being a smug attention-seeker, so be it. I don't think my opinion is worth more than anyone else's.

 

Not going to talk too much about the football as it's already been covered - in the summer of 2016 we all knew that we needed to sign 4 or 5 key players who would push us on to promotion - but in the 18 months since then all we've done is replace one set of back-up players with another set of back-up players - and at great expense. You need 2 good players for each position and we haven't, so an injury crisis has exposed our recruitment policy for the utter shambles it is. We're in a relegation battle, and we'll only stay up if the likes of Hutchinson, Hooper and Lee can retain their fitness.

 

But that's only scratching the surface of what is wrong at the club.

 

Since he took over as chairman, Dejphon Chansiri claims he has invested over £150m into the club, and I think his financial input has blinded many to the appalling decisions he has made. The first season seems to have been a case of 'if you throw enough money at something, you'll do alright'. Sadly, money alone isn't enough.

 

Alarm bells rang when he decided to hike ticket prices up to among the highest in the country. He claimed this was needed to lessen the impact of FFP worries, yet the extra £3m per year we are gaining from the changes (£150 extra for 20,000 season ticket holders - POTG revenue in freefall) has been a drop in the ocean compared to the overall transfer outlay. Still, he got more and more frustrated with questioning about it at fans forums - to the point where talking about ticket prices became a taboo subject. So now we just accept that the prices are what they are and you either pay them or you don't.

 

Next, he changed key components of the club's identity. The club badge was changed to one chose by the chairman, and then the striped shirts were ditched because he liked plain shirts, and then the squad numbers were changed on his say-so. But as long as we were doing alright on the pitch, it didn't matter. "How is our playing record affected by a change of badge? How is a full-back wearing number 9 detrimental to the cause? We've ditched stripes before so it's ok" Nobody dared ask "If these changes are so irrelevant, why make them in the first place". As long as we're winning, who cares about history and tradition?

 

Then his name was plastered on the North Stand, to replace the SWFC lettering. "It's obvious why he's done it - to alleviate FFP concerns" Does that really mean he had to put his own name on there? Did he have to put his own name on this year's anniversary season tickets alongside legends such as Crawshaw, Spiksley, Wilson, Waddle et al? How many Wednesdayites would think of doing that? I'll not talk about the scare stories we've all heard about how he conducts his business. Although I trust the different people that have told me worrying tales about Chansiri, I accept that without concrete evidence many will say it is at best rumour, and at worst some kind of agenda that I have, and I don't want to get into the sort of trouble that has befallen other Owlstalkers many years ago.

 

It is incredible, but the most worrying part of today, as a Wednesdayite, wasn't the utter humiliation we saw on the pitch.

 

Chansiri admitted on his first day that he knew little about football or football business, and his appointment of Adam Pearson and Glenn Roeder in advisory roles gave us optimism that he was willing to engage the services of people that could help. Pearson was gone with two weeks, Roeder soon after. They were never replaced, and we eventually began an association with Doyen Sports, who just happened to be the agent of the team manager, and Joe Palmer came in as Chief Operating Officer.

 

For the best part of 18 months we have needed someone to bridge the gap between chairman and manager, and someone to help improve our commercial arm. In the Wednesday family alone, we have Milan Mandaric, Lee Strafford and Howard Wilkinson among many who would jump at the chance to help the club. Brian Laws, Terry Burton, Chris Waddle, John Pearson, Alan Smith, Jon Newsome - all would give their right arm to give Chansiri help in areas where we need it. Then think about those without ties to Wednesday who could do just as adequate a job. The key attribute anyone needed to have was an understanding of the English game, and the relationship between club and supporter. Without that understanding (and Chansiri hasn't got it), you're up bobbar creek.

 

Instead, Chansiri has today appointed Katrien Meire as CEO - “I have said for some time that I would only appoint a CEO should the right person fit my specification to lead the structure of Sheffield Wednesday on a day to day basis."

Meire is one of the most despised figures at any Football League club, having been a key figure at Charlton Athletic during their catastrophic fall from grace. Quotes from Meire  -

 

• "I shouldn't say this but I don't care about the history of the club"
• ".................they do it with a football club and that's very weird because they feel a sense of ownership of a football club...."
• "fans don't see themselves as customers"
• "We have done no planning for a relegation"
• "Our ranking improved after each of the five managerial changes"

 

Personally, I think she'll put her foot in her mouth like she did at Charlton and end up being the new club scapegoat, just as Roeder (recruitment) and Palmer (kits) were. Chansiri will maintain his nice-guy reputation and escape the brunt of the criticism. Even I still think he's a good guy at heart, with good intentions, but being a nice guy didn't help Carlos Carvalhal, and it shouldn't mask the job Chansiri has done so far.

 

The list of baffling decisions and mistakes he has made has grown year on year, yet many still claim that he is learning on the job and that he'll learn from the experience. That might have been an acceptable response after six months, twelve months, even a couple of years. Claiming naivety after three years isn't good enough. I think he's been taken for a ride by many differing parties and hasn't learned from it one iota. Good businessman learn fast. Trawling the footballing world for a CEO and opting for Katrien Meire is the final straw for me - in the past I've been skeptical while holding hope he could change his ways - now I simply think he's unfit to run a football club, or any business, of this size. His next appointment will be our new manager - who believes he will make the right choice?

He has said himself that he has spent £150m on this football club - and what does he have to show for it? How can he look at his track record so far and think his tenure has been anything but an abject failure? He has had more than enough time, spent more than enough money, and made more than enough decisions to have made a positive impact on this club, but after all this time we are looking in far worse shape on the pitch than we were under Milan Mandaric and Stuart Gray, which is a damning indictment given our financial position back then.

 

It is time for him to go, and it won't be easy. He claims he had spent £150m, so any prospective buyer would have to pay at least that, which ain't gonna happen. And that's not the biggest problem, because I think Chansiri remains 100% committed to the club and will refuse to budge. I've no idea how we go about escaping the Chansiri era, but while we keep giving him a round of applause as he walks through the club shop, and while we keep our 'Thank You Chansiri' banners around the ground, we won't get anywhere.

[shezza09]

Great post, pretty much agree with everything stated. 

[CE-Owl]

I agree Kivo. I had this sense of doom around 15 months ago, then about 3 months ago and now, on New Year’s Day. 

 

Fellow fans can judge me for it if they want but in years gone by I did stand under the South demanding change. 

 

But I’m now at a point where I realise it’s not just Wednesday, so many clubs are suffering. I just think it’s time to emotionally distance myself.

[Bolsterstone Owl]

It's all going to end in tears. 

Could be happy tears though when we get auto promotion next season! 

[SallyCinnamon]

Superb post

[Birley Owl 1867]

His ownership of the club is just a vanity project for him. We are his toy.

 

I do have an open mind about this Belgian lass though. Who knows.

[modboy]

I don't mind DC, hrs out his money where his mouth is and for a short while gave us hope.

 

I don't mind the high prices, nor his name on our shirts as it's a bit of give and take.

 

BUT he's been misled by someone be that Carlos, or other external advisors who have fritted his money away and I do feel sorry a bit for him.

 

The problem now is that he's losing the trust of fans.

 

The players, especially today, are taking the p!ss out of not only him who pays their over inflated wages, but us the fans who have backed his vision with our hard earned cash. 

 

Without getting into a true fan debate, there is no way I'm renewing my ST next season if it continues. I didn't mind when we were skint as it was our duty, now it just feels like I'm slashing my money away on a bunch of charlatans.

 

This isn't chansiri fault imo, but as the owner of our club it's his choices, or lack of, that is ruining our club and his lack of getting a return on his investment. That's before todays CEO announcement is even digested.

[SallyCinnamon]

We aren't the only club it's happened to.

 

Forest, Blackburn, Charlton, Cardiff, Hull have all had similar issues under foreign ownership. It's not just a Wednesday problem, it's a problem with football. The craving and demand for success attracts such owners who simply don't have an understanding of football. They don't understand criticism, and they struggle to take it. 

 

I thought Chansiri might have been different, and I turned a blind eye to it these past 12 months because we were doing good on the pitch. It has all unraveled now. 

 

We sold our soul to the devil. We weren't the first and we sure as hell won't be the last.

[Shelley Owl]

Whilst I agree with some of your points, I really do, there is no doubt that Chansiri wants to get to the Premier League as much as we do, although perhaps for different reasons. The key thing is that, as you say, he needs the right advisers alongside him, and on this I completely agree. This is where he has gone wrong, but with his naive approach and lack of experience in football, he is clearly influenced too much by those who have their own agenda, and easily impressed by those who just ‘talk the talk’. Early on this approach brought positive results, with some excellent recruitment under Roeder’s advice, but dear god the advice since has been abysmal. To think that this is our anniversary year, was the third of our three year plan and is the season after finishing fourth in a season we should have gone up, itmakes me feel sick, it really does

[Ever the pessimist]

Sadly much of that is true.

 

I don’t, however, agree that DC will escape much of the criticism. Yes, the new CEO will perhaps be in the frontline for the flack, but people will be in no doubt she is merely his representative.

 

My prediction is he will want as much money back as possible as he well knows he won’t get anything like his money back in a sale. We will therefore see asset stripping followed by a stalemate with him putting little in and no prospective buyer.

 

 I recall challenging you, Kivo, for using Pastor Neimoller’s ‘first they came for...’ on a ticket price thread. Whilst I maintain the contexts are wildly different the general point about initial complicity leading to later vulnerability is now looking apt.

[coopswfc76]

15 minutes ago, KivoOwl said:

First thread in a long while, and I don't apologise for it being a long one. I stopped posting because I've got a very thin skin and get too easily hurt by criticism and abuse that came my way over the last couple of years - not posting has done me good but I am seriously worried for the club we all love so need to get this off my chest. If you think I'm being a smug attention-seeker, so be it. I don't think my opinion is worth more than anyone else's.

 

Not going to talk too much about the football as it's already been covered - in the summer of 2016 we all knew that we needed to sign 4 or 5 key players who would push us on to promotion - but in the 18 months since then all we've done is replace one set of back-up players with another set of back-up players - and at great expense. You need 2 good players for each position and we haven't, so an injury crisis has exposed our recruitment policy for the utter shambles it is. We're in a relegation battle, and we'll only stay up if the likes of Hutchinson, Hooper and Lee can retain their fitness.

 

But that's only scratching the surface of what is wrong at the club.

 

Since he took over as chairman, Dejphon Chansiri claims he has invested over £150m into the club, and I think his financial input has blinded many to the appalling decisions he has made. The first season seems to have been a case of 'if you throw enough money at something, you'll do alright'. Sadly, money alone isn't enough.

 

Alarm bells rang when he decided to hike ticket prices up to among the highest in the country. He claimed this was needed to lessen the impact of FFP worries, yet the extra £3m per year we are gaining from the changes (£150 extra for 20,000 season ticket holders - POTG revenue in freefall) has been a drop in the ocean compared to the overall transfer outlay. Still, he got more and more frustrated with questioning about it at fans forums - to the point where talking about ticket prices became a taboo subject. So now we just accept that the prices are what they are and you either pay them or you don't.

 

Next, he changed key components of the club's identity. The club badge was changed to one chose by the chairman, and then the striped shirts were ditched because he liked plain shirts, and then the squad numbers were changed on his say-so. But as long as we were doing alright on the pitch, it didn't matter. "How is our playing record affected by a change of badge? How is a full-back wearing number 9 detrimental to the cause? We've ditched stripes before so it's ok" Nobody dared ask "If these changes are so irrelevant, why make them in the first place". As long as we're winning, who cares about history and tradition?

 

Then his name was plastered on the North Stand, to replace the SWFC lettering. "It's obvious why he's done it - to alleviate FFP concerns" Does that really mean he had to put his own name on there? Did he have to put his own name on this year's anniversary season tickets alongside legends such as Crawshaw, Spiksley, Wilson, Waddle et al? How many Wednesdayites would think of doing that? I'll not talk about the scare stories we've all heard about how he conducts his business. Although I trust the different people that have told me worrying tales about Chansiri, I accept that without concrete evidence many will say it is at best rumour, and at worst some kind of agenda that I have, and I don't want to get into the sort of trouble that has befallen other Owlstalkers many years ago.

 

It is incredible, but the most worrying part of today, as a Wednesdayite, wasn't the utter humiliation we saw on the pitch.

 

Chansiri admitted on his first day that he knew little about football or football business, and his appointment of Adam Pearson and Glenn Roeder in advisory roles gave us optimism that he was willing to engage the services of people that could help. Pearson was gone with two weeks, Roeder soon after. They were never replaced, and we eventually began an association with Doyen Sports, who just happened to be the agent of the team manager, and Joe Palmer came in as Chief Operating Officer.

 

For the best part of 18 months we have needed someone to bridge the gap between chairman and manager, and someone to help improve our commercial arm. In the Wednesday family alone, we have Milan Mandaric, Lee Strafford and Howard Wilkinson among many who would jump at the chance to help the club. Brian Laws, Terry Burton, Chris Waddle, John Pearson, Alan Smith, Jon Newsome - all would give their right arm to give Chansiri help in areas where we need it. Then think about those without ties to Wednesday who could do just as adequate a job. The key attribute anyone needed to have was an understanding of the English game, and the relationship between club and supporter. Without that understanding (and Chansiri hasn't got it), you're up bobbar creek.

 

Instead, Chansiri has today appointed Katrien Meire as CEO - “I have said for some time that I would only appoint a CEO should the right person fit my specification to lead the structure of Sheffield Wednesday on a day to day basis."

Meire is one of the most despised figures at any Football League club, having been a key figure at Charlton Athletic during their catastrophic fall from grace. Quotes from Meire  -

 

• "I shouldn't say this but I don't care about the history of the club"
• ".................they do it with a football club and that's very weird because they feel a sense of ownership of a football club...."
• "fans don't see themselves as customers"
• "We have done no planning for a relegation"
• "Our ranking improved after each of the five managerial changes"

 

Personally, I think she'll put her foot in her mouth like she did at Charlton and end up being the new club scapegoat, just as Roeder (recruitment) and Palmer (kits) were. Chansiri will maintain his nice-guy reputation and escape the brunt of the criticism. Even I still think he's a good guy at heart, with good intentions, but being a nice guy didn't help Carlos Carvalhal, and it shouldn't mask the job Chansiri has done so far.

 

The list of baffling decisions and mistakes he has made has grown year on year, yet many still claim that he is learning on the job and that he'll learn from the experience. That might have been an acceptable response after six months, twelve months, even a couple of years. Claiming naivety after three years isn't good enough. I think he's been taken for a ride by many differing parties and hasn't learned from it one iota. Good businessman learn fast. Trawling the footballing world for a CEO and opting for Katrien Meire is the final straw for me - in the past I've been skeptical while holding hope he could change his ways - now I simply think he's unfit to run a football club, or any business, of this size. His next appointment will be our new manager - who believes he will make the right choice?

He has said himself that he has spent £150m on this football club - and what does he have to show for it? How can he look at his track record so far and think his tenure has been anything but an abject failure? He has had more than enough time, spent more than enough money, and made more than enough decisions to have made a positive impact on this club, but after all this time we are looking in far worse shape on the pitch than we were under Milan Mandaric and Stuart Gray, which is a damning indictment given our financial position back then.

 

It is time for him to go, and it won't be easy. He claims he had spent £150m, so any prospective buyer would have to pay at least that, which ain't gonna happen. And that's not the biggest problem, because I think Chansiri remains 100% committed to the club and will refuse to budge. I've no idea how we go about escaping the Chansiri era, but while we keep giving him a round of applause as he walks through the club shop, and while we keep our 'Thank You Chansiri' banners around the ground, we won't get anywhere.

 

Come on then genius what do you suggest we do? 

Also how does your record stand for running any business never mind a multi million pound one considering you don't think DC is fit to run SWFC?

[davey_wells]

Said things far better than I ever could.

 

This appointment of KM is astonishing in every sense of the word - a simple Google search on her name brings up an absolute barage of controversy.

 

It's either going to make or break this regime. The reality of our situation is now showing itself - we need to trim the squad, get some money back into the coffers and re-invest wisely.  DC doesn't have a clue how to do this - if KM can do it quickly, coldly and efficiently then we may just come out the other side OK.

 

Get it wrong and this club is on its way to the dark days.

[Birley Owl 1867]

You list all that though Kivo, yet those aren't even the worst thing he's done for us. 

 

You know what that was?

 

He gave us hope.

[Ever the pessimist]

5 minutes ago, coopswfc76 said:

 

Come on then genius what do you suggest we do? 

Also how does your record stand for running any business never mind a multi million pound one considering you don't think DC is fit to run SWFC?

 

People can have opinions on subjects they themselves have not been active successes in. I have never been a professional footballer but could see how woeful Jordan Rhodes was today.

[gurujuan]

2 minutes ago, Ever the pessimist said:

 

People can have opinions on subjects they themselves have not been active successes in. I have never been a professional footballer but could see how woeful Jordan Rhodes was today.

I recognised this a year ago

[TheEnchanter]

Good post. Scary times.

[FreshOwl]

Surely part of the buck lies with Mandaric? May be an unpopular opinion but if he knew Chansiri had no football knowledge etc did he really think the sale was in the best interests of the club? 

[@owlstalk]

11 minutes ago, coopswfc76 said:

Come on then genius what do you suggest we do? 

Also how does your record stand for running any business never mind a multi million pound one considering you don't think DC is fit to run SWFC?

 

Not sure it calls for that kind of response to be fair mate

[Guest Hillsborough Mole]

10 minutes ago, coopswfc76 said:

 

Come on then genius what do you suggest we do? 

Also how does your record stand for running any business never mind a multi million pound one considering you don't think DC is fit to run SWFC?

Why do you have to be so aggressive and condescending?

 

He's clearly at odds with you and your view. But I didn't see any aggression in his post towards those that are generally supportive of the chairman

[Guest Hillsborough Mole]

1 minute ago, FreshOwl said:

Surely part of the buck lies with Mandaric? May be an unpopular opinion but if he knew Chansiri had no football knowledge etc did he really think the sale was in the best interests of the club? 

Maybe it was Mandaric who suggested the advisory team of Pearson, Roeder and Hill?