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Dejphon Chansiri’s Sheffield Wednesday legacy rests on not throwing away best Premier League chance amid Danny Rohl’s links with Southampton
We’ve been here before - Danny Rohl’s ambitions versus Dejphon Chansiri’s spending capacity - and so we really can’t pre-judge the outcome. Except let’s hope that’s the only issue. As this was written, you could see Southampton’s strong interest in Sheffield Wednesday’s brilliant young manager pulling him in a completely different direction.
The highly logical link with the vacancy at Saints, where Rohl once coached, has raised the political stakes even higher this time. It’s not been hard to imagine him fancying it, even for a Premier League relegation battle initially, for all that he would be leaving a club he’s enabled to look up for one facing down. So there’s been anxiety over what Sheffield Wednesday could do to dissuade him should an official offer come?
The timing is tactically in Rohl’s favour either way and, like every Owls fan, I hope it helps swing him the support he craves and heads off a real danger. The manager’s public uncertainty over the extent of his backing in January echoed his combative mood towards the end of last season’s relegation escape. Owner Dejphon Chansiri, also cornered by public opinion, responded by tying Rohl to a new deal and providing funds, limited by comparison to other similar sized clubs, sufficient to make the Owls more buoyant in the Championship.
But that was never going to be enough to fully satisfy the German head coach and his playing of a similar card ahead of the forthcoming transfer window seemed another calculated manoeuvre. Maybe money is not entirely the issue. What concerns me more, from the outside, is Rohl apparently not knowing the budget, for better or worse, at this late stage.
There was the hope that last summer’s sort-out had levered a better way of working, more forward planning of targets geared to finances. When we spoke after last week’s home defeat to Blackburn, Rohl as good as accepted that Wednesday had a mid-table squad. I think there is truth in that - it’s over-achievement that has them only five points off the play-offs. But also that Chansiri, for all that he appears to be spent up, can be surprisingly resourceful when pressed.
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While criticism of his methods has long been justified, he has always financed the club to the limit of his powers and you can’t see that changing. However, we are at another fundamental crossroads in the dynamic between the chairman and the best of the eight managers he has employed. Chansiri’s fractious relationship with Owls fans depends on not throwing away the club’s best chance of finally reaching the Premier League.
He cannot help but know this. So, in all probability, does Rohl, clearly determined to continue an upward trajectory in his career come what may. My guess is they might meet on middle ground, even if middle is a somewhat dirty word to Rohl just now. Enough anyway to encourage hope of closing the gap to the top six. Longer term is the greater worry, assuming Rohl stays for now.
Perhaps the large compensation figure on Rohl’s head will have been Chansiri’s ace card. But it won’t stop supporters fearing their champion upping sticks before too long. Do I reckon that’s Rohl’s primary wish? No, I don’t. But I think if the Saints scare has been headed off, January will certainly shape what lies beyond.
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