Dejphon Chansiri has received rare praise at Sheffield Wednesday this summer.
Having acquired a 100% stake in Sheffield Wednesday over nine years ago, the chairman’s time at the club hasn’t gone quite as planned.
The Owls endured a relegation to League One and have struggled massively with financial problems, while it was only last season that supporters were protesting against his ownership.
His appointment of Xisco Munoz last summer was a complete disaster and almost cost them their place in the Championship, before he made the sensible decision to replace him with Danny Rohl.
While Chansiri was applauded for bringing the German in in the first place, supporters had little faith that the Thai businessman would be able to make promises to Rohl that would keep him at the club.
However, Rohl went onto sign a new contract in May and has since been given everything he asked for – leading to high praise for the often-criticised Chansiri.
Chansiri didn’t just keep Rohl at the club either, as he has now been told that it was that key decision that created a ‘domino effect’ that led to a number of players signing new deals.
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Sheffield Wednesday players were eager to follow in Rohl’s footsteps
Having put pen to paper on a contract extension a week later, Palmer has now explained the impact Chansiri’s decision had.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, he said: “Him signing first in the summer was the domino effect for me and Baz (Barry Bannan) and quite a few others who were keen to get pen to paper and get down to work,” said Palmer, who along with talismanic captain Bannan, Di’Shon Bernard and Josh Windass agreed a new contract too.
“We’re definitely better equipped than this time last year. We’ve seen what a bad start can do and we want to flip that on its head and start really strongly.”
What would the Owls’ squad look like without him?
Windass has previously admitted that Rohl is the best coach he has ever worked with, and that was before they even avoided relegation.
Everyone at the club has spoken very highly of the 35-year-old and it is glaringly obvious that some players could well have left if it wasn’t for him.
Windass loves the club but had plenty of interest in his signature and could well have been battling promotion with West Brom. If Rohl had left then it seems likely that he would have too.
Similarly, Bernard won’t have been short on offers after his impressive debut season at Hillsborough.
Rohl has had a huge impact on the squad both mentally and physically and fans have him to thank for a lot, while Chansiri also deserves some credit for bringing him and actually managing to keep him.
The bigger challenge now is actually keeping him for a full season, because if Wednesday start to exceed expectations then there will be plenty of bigger clubs circling.