Sheffield Wednesday: Dejphon Chansiri will surely still have major Marco Silva, Tony Pulis regret | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri opted to appoint Tony Pulis ahead of Marco Silva in November 2020.

It is fair to say that the 2020-21 season was one to forget for Sheffield Wednesday as they were relegated to League One.

Having been third in the table at Christmas, Wednesday finished in a disappointing 16th place the previous season after a nightmare second half of the campaign, meaning that positivity was already in short supply heading into the summer.

However, the mood around Hillsborough darkened even further after the Owls were hit with a 12-point deduction for breaking spending rules, giving them a mountain to climb before a ball had even been kicked.

Wednesday's punishment was reduced down to six points in November following an appeal, putting them within touching distance of safety, and as he looked to bolster the club's survival hopes, owner Dejphon Chansiri decided to part company with manager Garry Monk.

Many believed that Monk's dismissal was long overdue, but the decision to appoint Tony Pulis as his replacement was not particularly well-received, and his ill-fated tenure contributed significantly to the Owls' eventual relegation.

Dejphon Chansiri got it massively wrong with Tony Pulis call

Pulis had managed the likes of Stoke City, Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough during his career, and crucially, he had never been relegated, so most Wednesday supporters reluctantly accepted that he was a sensible, if uninspiring, choice to help keep the club in the division, despite having misgivings about his direct style of play.

The Welshman's tenure got off to the worst possible start with a 1-0 defeat at Preston North End, but three consecutive draws against Swansea City, Stoke City and Reading followed, suggesting that he was at least starting to steady the ship.

However, far from being the safe pair of hands that many expected, Pulis then oversaw four consecutive defeats against Norwich City, Huddersfield Town, Barnsley and Nottingham Forest that plunged the Owls further into relegation danger, and while supporters were unable to be in the stadium to make their voices heard, there were plenty of calls for the 67-year-old to be sacked on social media.

Pulis finally picked up his first win as Wednesday manager at the ninth attempt with a 1-0 win over Coventry City before following it up with a decent point in a 1-1 draw against Blackburn Rovers on Boxing Day, but the game at Ewood Park would prove to be his last as Chansiri then dismissed him after just 45 days in charge, making him the shortest-serving manager in the club's history.

However, the drama did not end with Pulis' sacking as, a few days later, Chansiri held an extraordinary press conference that lasted almost three hours, during which he laid into his former manager, describing his decision to appoint him as "totally wrong" and accusing him of trying to "damage" the club.

Wednesday spent two months under the caretaker guidance of Neil Thompson following Pulis' exit before the arrival of Darren Moore in early March, but he could not prevent the club's demise, and they were relegated on the final day following a 3-3 draw at Derby County.

Marco Silva miss is one of Dejphon Chansiri's biggest Sheffield Wednesday mistakes

Given that there was only a five-day turnaround between Monk's sacking and Pulis' arrival, many had assumed that he was the only candidate considered by Chansiri, but it was later revealed that there was another name in the frame.

According to The Sun print edition (15th November 2020, page 65), Wednesday weighed up an ambitious move for Marco Silva before instead deciding to appoint Pulis, and that call will surely still haunt Chansiri to this day.

Silva had spells in charge of Estoril, Sporting Lisbon and Olympiacos before taking his first steps into English football management with Hull City in January 2017, and despite being unable to keep the Tigers in the Premier League, he earned plenty of plaudits for his work at the MKM Stadium.

After resigning as Hull manager, Silva then took over at Watford in May 2017, and following his strong start to life at Vicarage Road, he was the subject of an approach from Everton in November, which was firmly rejected.

However, Silva's time with the Hornets quickly turned sour after that as his side were dragged into a relegation battle, with many supporters accusing him of losing focus following the interest from the Toffees, and he was sacked in January 2018.

Silva eventually landed the Everton job in the summer of 2018, and he led the Merseyside outfit to a respectable eighth-placed finish in his first year in charge, but after a disastrous start to his second season, he was dismissed in December 2019 after a 5-2 defeat to local rivals Liverpool left the club sitting in the relegation zone.

It is fair to say that Silva's stock was incredibly low after his exit from Goodison Park, so he would likely have at least considered an offer from Wednesday, despite their perilous predicament at the bottom of the Championship.

Given his poor spells at Watford and Everton, Silva's arrival at Hillsborough may not have been universally welcomed by Owls supporters, and many would have viewed him as a risky choice while in a survival fight, but he certainly proved the doubters wrong after returning to management with Fulham in July 2021.

Silva led the Cottagers to the Championship title in his first season after a dominant campaign that saw them accumulate 90 points, while they also scored a remarkable 106 goals on their way to promotion, and he has gone on to establish the club back in the Premier League, which is something that proved elusive for many of his predecessors.

After 10th and 13th-placed finishes in the last two seasons, Fulham are continuing to go from strength to strength under Silva, and having reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, they are firmly on course to secure a top-half finish this campaign.

Of course, there is no guarantee that Silva would have kept Wednesday in the Championship, but given his recent success, he would surely have been an excellent long-term appointment, and overlooking him will go down as one of Chansiri's worst mistakes.