Sheffield Wednesday Fans Forum - Overview

[@owlstalk]

Brilliant overview from @TrickyTrev

 

 

2 hours ago, TrickyTrev said:

I’ve just got home, I left at 11pm as working in the morning and when a fan started lecturing the chairman of how he’d been going for 64 years as opposed to Dejphon Chansiri’s 4, I took that as my prompt to leave.

 

Here’s my write up for what it’s worth, I’ve not read Owlstalk tonight so may have all been covered and apologies if there are some inaccuracies here but I’m going on a few notes I made and it was difficult to follow at times due to some fans shouting out questions without the microphone and Mr Chansiri’s limited English so some things were lost in translation.

 

He spoke at length about fans not trusting him, said he was confronted by a fan at Wigan, his family have asked why does he stay involved if fans don’t trust him and treat him this way.

 

He asked fans not to believe everything they read on social media. Has lost a lot of money at the club.

 

He often wonders why does he carry on losing money when gets insulted, often on social media.

 

Says if fans want to slate him on social media it’s better to come to the forum and speak face to face.

 

His family do not feel safe at the club, insults etc. Says his country has been insulted by some fans. If fans want him to leave, tell him and he’ll go.

 

He won’t accept the insults aimed at his family. If we want him to go he’ll go and we can find someone who’ll come in and do better.

 

Hillsborough is in his blood, it’s his second home.

 

Critical of fans behaviour at Wigan towards the team after just 1 game, the players need support.

 

He said he never does everything correct, He never does everything wrong.

 

Appeals for the fans to support the club, support the team.

 

A guy starts heckling Chansiri about prices, says United have better players, Chansiri doesn’t agree and jokes if you think United have better players than us you don’t know football. Round of applause from the audience.

 

We pay high prices for good players. The academy has been invested in since he’s got here. He’s spent a lot of money in the academy and he wants to use these players.

 

We have to be balanced with regards to high price and realistic. He looks at value. In the past we could pay low prices under Milan but he thought that was expensive as the players were poor. He believes the squad now is better than last 15 years. The ticket profit barely touched the players, even under Milan we lost 6/7m, this was with players who aren’t as good as the ones we have now.

 

He says he can do lower prices but the players won’t be as good like before.

 

The shirt, before he came shirts were £40, his first year £50, but we have Fernando and others unlike the players we had before. Why weren’t shirts thought of as expensive at £40 when before our players weren’t as good and he only increased them by £10 but we saw a greatly improved playing squad.

 

If fans want cheap tickets & shirts he can spend less.

 

He tries to do the best for the club, for the fans but if fans want cheaper tickets he can go back to the type of recruitment we had before he came here.

 

Wanted to do forum live today but wasn’t able to do so.

 

Spoke to Jos before Wigan. Jos said team were ready, confident. DC joked we couldn’t lose as we had a meeting today.

 

He was disappointed, hasn’t spoke to Jos yet but Jos will speak to the players today hard. Thinks we had the better side but they wanted it more, we made too many mistakes & they have momentum like United last season. We had a bad day but he believes we have a good team.

 

His team, advisors, he still uses the same one he used in the first season apart from the coach. It hasn’t changed. Roeder & the committee didn’t do anything re recruitment.

 

First year Carlos knew nothing about English football so advisors provided options. Second year 100% Carlos signing players.

 

Membership prices. He is trying his best for the club some fans want to spend less but he stressed fans are not customers, he has asked fans to support the club. We have a campaign for fans who can’t afford tickets to come to the club. In his first year less then 10 took him up on it, second year there were none.

 

He asks those who can afford to support the club, those who can’t to contact the club and use this campaign. Those who can’t afford can contact Alistair.

 

We have sold less membership as we had this time last year. Straight away you save £29 with the £10 ticket offer so it only costs £60.

 

He thinks the benefits you get from the membership are more than last year, more value.

 

Plenty of fans trying to shout out over membership, can’t hear what everyone’s saying as nobody has a microphone.

 

Compromise suggested a 2 tier membership. £50 with 2 £5 match discounts. The fans suggested this and Chansiri accepted this and said we would do this so fans could have cheaper membership. Then more fans started to ask for more discounted games and I’m not sure it’ll now go ahead after all. 

 

I think a few fans shot themselves in the foot with that one. We’d agreed a compromise and then other fans started asking for more.

 

He said when we tried to reduce prices in the past only 1k more came for example. Fans ask for lower prices saying 10k extra will come but it doesn’t bring great numbers through the door.

 

It hurts him when fans say he’s greedy, the money from fans helps a little but the majority comes from him.

 

Costs are going up every year, it’s doubling. The tickets still don’t even pay the back room staff. He can’t give premier league ticket prices, they have far far more income.

 

Constantly stressed when he says fans he doesn’t mean all the fans.

 

He gets no money from the club, he gets no profit, he could stay in Thailand and make a profit have a better life with his family but he wants to try to do his best for the club.

 

Possibility of a women’s team raised? His priority is for this club first, he’s happy to do it but first this is his priority. It’s something he expects to do in the future. Katrina takes over, says it’ll take time, it’s something we will look at in the future. It is on the agenda.

 

Communications officer:

BBC deal. Not a decision taken lightly, swfc exposure is currently at its highest in years, we wanted a 10% increase, bbc offered a 10% decrease. No agreement so we offered to keep the same deal as last year but bbc refused. We won’t role over for the bbc, if you ask for a 10% deduction on your licence fee see how far you get. He accepts it’s not a popular decision but it’s hard and only 1 club in the football league performs better than swfc digitally, we want to be top.

 

Chansiri: this isn’t about profit. One club got £8k in the championship from the bbc, they got relegated and got 1k from bbc, then after promotion again they got promoted £2k from the bbc. 62 clubs agreed, many had to go with the deal because they couldn’t go by themselves, he believes other clubs will follow as otherwise bbc will do this again and again.

 

He can’t please everyone 100%, he’s trying to improve the club. 

 

Plenty of people shouting out at this point, making the same points over and over, very difficult to follow.

 

He always said if we don’t go up we’ll have problems. He’s trying his best.

 

I won’t go into the FFP discussion as he asked not to be reported outside the meeting due to potential ramifications with the EFL.

 

A question over shirt sizes. Specialist sizes we can’t do enmase but for special requirements you can speak to Alistair to order in.

 

Someone suggests we “let Fernando go”, Chansiri shakes head. His decisions will be for the best of the club.

 

Doesn’t know if we are likely to sell anyone before Thursday. Whatever we do we’ll be trying to do our best for the club.

 

We can’t offer a free pass for Wednesday player, they think it’s a great idea but it’s governed by EFL, would need to be okd by them.

DC said if someone has problems listening to radio to contact the club and we will see what we do.

 

Local businesses won’t put the same money in that he is with D Taxis and Elev8.

 

Weekend season tickets. Looking to try to issue 1 at Half season tickets. 6 matches I think. May have misheard this one though.

 

He says if he wanted to make money, make a profit I could have sold the club and gone back to Thailand. I have taken no money out of the club.

 

Wants fans to trust him. Very passionate about that.

 

Asked about ST’s next season. Unable to make guarantees ahead of next year at this moment with regards to multiple year ST’s.

 

Plan is to do his best, with the squad, with what we have.

 

We need either more revenue with help from fans. Our main revenue is tickets. He needs support from fans.

 

Speaking of sponsorship it’s difficult to get international sponsorship, local sponsorship doesn’t pay enough. That’s why he’s had to put Chansiri on the seats, he didn’t want to but it was the only way he could get that income into the club.

 

He is trying to talk to international sponsors but it’s very difficult, they have a perception of football outside the Premier League.

 

Last season we made £9m in ticketing but we spent more. We lost £20m but spent A lot more. 

 

We lost around £1m when we first introduced 3 year season tickets. 

 

With regards to revenue from these the money comes in but the revenue has to be phased over the term of the ticket.

 

Says Jos was made fully aware of the situation at the club when he took the job with regards to injuries & potential embargo. Promotion record is outstanding, he cost more than Carlos. Jos wants to break his promotion record in England.

 

He cannot accept criticism of Carlos after he left, why not do it when he was here? Spoke to players about it.

 

He says fans need to support the players. When the players are struggling that’s when they really need the fans. They are human beings after-all.

 

That’s about it from me, as I say haven’t mentioned any of the FFP stuff as he asked fans not too due to possible ramifications with the EFL.

 

Tried my best but I know a lot was lost in translation with the questions and answers and it got a bit heated occasionally with fans shouting out do a bit difficult to follow at times.

 

Cheers.

[Morepork]

Much appreciated @TrickyTrev

[nevthelodgemoorowl]

Superb report I was there but had to leave early as the shouting out caused problems with hearing aid.

 

The crowd was pretty good  85% tolerant  and understanding 10% rude ignoring house rules and shouting out 5% Belligerent. No pleasing some.

 

Even worse on here though as there seem to be those determined to see DC through the door. He says we can look for someone better but how many years to find Milan, then how many years did it take Milan to find a successor. His first choice was remember an Azerbaijan crook. 

 

Had a few words with Att on the way out I would just hasten to add that pig headed mardy arses of fans have managed to dull the sparkle in the eye that he had for our club, and that is a shame. I Look forward to the day when his Blog reappears.

 

On that sad note I'm off to bed ! 

[Whitechapel Owl]

Cheers @TrickyTrev

[Eastern]

Good read.

 

feel happier from reading that, than some of the hysteria.

[Rogers]

I was enjoying reading the full thread before it got pulled...but thanks for the summary.   

 

So what now?

 

 

 

[Rogers]

14 minutes ago, Eastern said:

Good read.

 

feel happier from reading that, than some of the hysteria.

 

Going on my experience of working in Asia, there's a risk of things being lost in translation or come across differently (more blunt) than what was intended.  However, I wasn't there, so I'll be eager to listen to others on their opinions, 

[bobbobbins]

Thanks for that summary

[Holmowl]

Thanks @TrickyTrev.

 

Very different from the bile I was reading last night.

 

I’m 100% behind Chansiri. That’s not the same as believing he is doing everything right. He isn’t - nobody does.

 

It is strange. We “love” players who take millions out of the club, yet some of us despise a guy who puts mega millions into the club.

[Mr. Chow]

Why did the previous thread get pulled ? 

[RedDragonOwl]

How much are the back room staff on ?!?!

[Bluesteel]

The key bit is the bit that isn’t reported. 

[RedDragonOwl]

1 minute ago, Bluesteel said:

The key bit is the bit that isn’t reported. 

 

Strange how the Football league apparently says we can’t talk about it. Why would they not want us talking about it?

 

Why would they care if we’re talking about being under an embargo or not?

[Athelwulf]

His team, advisors, he still uses the same one he used in the first season apart from the coach. It hasn’t changed. Roeder & the committee didn’t do anything re recruitment.

 

First year Carlos knew nothing about English football so advisers provided options. Second year 100% Carlos signing players.

 

This is the salient part as far as I'm concerned.

 

If this be true, it's Carlito who's responsible for the signings which represent poor value.

[Bluesteel]

1 minute ago, RedDragonOwl said:

 

Strange how the Football league apparently says we can’t talk about it. Why would they not want us talking about it?

 

Why would they care if we’re talking about being under an embargo or not?

 

Not sure. I don’t understand it either, but it’s dissapointing that we’ve allowed ourselves to make what seems an unavoidable problem with it  

[stevie snerklebox]

2 hours ago, Rogers said:

I was enjoying reading the full thread before it got pulled...but thanks for the summary.   

 

So what now?

 

 

 

What now? We support the lads mate, through thick and thin, that’s what. #wawaw

[Owl999]

Cheers Trev 

[torryowl]

31 minutes ago, Athelwulf said:

His team, advisors, he still uses the same one he used in the first season apart from the coach. It hasn’t changed. Roeder & the committee didn’t do anything re recruitment.

 

First year Carlos knew nothing about English football so advisers provided options. Second year 100% Carlos signing players.

 

This is the salient part as far as I'm concerned.

 

If this be true, it's Carlito who's responsible for the signings which represent poor value.

well seen as it was said by chansiri that he signed Rhodes coz the fans wanted him then that doesn't add up that he was a carlos signing …...

[Yellowbelly]

Why can’t we have a shirt sponsor as well as Chansiri? A main sponsor on the front, Chansiri on back or sleeves - he puts in the same amount as now but we get an extra few million from some online bookies?

[vulva]

Does DC honestly think that if we lose 4-0 to Hull that the morons will stay off twitter, and look at the bigger picture?

 

He is clearly very well intentioned, but he hasn't done his due diligence around both the culture within football, or the financial strength you need to compete at the top level. 

 

Can't help but like the bloke, but football clearly isn't the business for him. He's far too nice a bloke for it. If I were him I'd put the club up for sale, take the very best offer possible, and get back to what I know. When it gets to the stage where family are warning him not to attend events like this, the line in the sand has been crossed. 

 

This situation is only going to get far worse, before it gets even slightly better, and it will end in tears.