Ex-Sheffield Wednesday player blasts Dejphon Chansiri over payment saga | OneFootball

The payment situation for the players remains very uncertain.

Former Sheffield Wednesday player Jon Newsome launched a fierce rant about Dejphon Chansiri and the current state of the club at a supporters' trust meeting on Wednesday.

The Thai businessman's failure to pay the club's players, coaches and staff on time has landed the Owls in hot water. An EFL embargo and the threat of a three-window transfer ban later, protests against Chansiri have started to ramp up.

The Sheffield Wednesday Supporters' Trust held a meeting in midweek to discuss the current state of affairs at Hillsborough. In attendance were some former players, including boyhood Wednesday fan Newsome. The former defender, who had two spells with the club, went off on a ranting speech, criticising Chansiri for the trouble that he has put the Owls in.

Former Sheffield Wednesday player blasts Dejphon Chansiri

He said, via The Star: "This football club goes back a long way, a lot longer than since any of us have been around. And we’ve got a tyrant, a narcissist in charge. He’s running the club into the ground.

"As we found out when Covid hit and we went into lockdown, football is nothing without supporters. Those empty stadiums? Football is nothing without supporters. It’s not just Chansiri, but as soon as these guys who are coming in and buying football clubs realise that the heart, blood and lifeline is you guys - the better.

"My concern is what happens next. The biggest thing for me is that there is such a lack of information coming out of the football club. They’ve been late paying the ages time and time again. This one feels different for me, it’s two weeks since the wages were due.

"I got confirmation from one of the first team lads last night that he’d definitely not been paid. He’s got two weeks to pay people because of the FIFA regulations... Otherwise those players can terminate their contracts and walk out of the door."

Since retiring, Newsome has done some work in the media as well as in agency. He revealed at the Trust's meeting that he had previous interactions with Chansiri when trying to get players to join Wednesday, which he described as an overly difficult process to go through.

"I’ve tried to deal with him. I work as an agent as well as doing some football media stuff. I’ve tried to deal with the football club a couple of years ago and it’s banging your head against a brick wall, the hurdles you have to overcome. It was the same trying to get a player into the club, the clauses, the addendums in them.

"From my point of view they are made by non-football people. He comes up with an idea and he wants to put it in, but he doesn’t think it through."

Similar points around frustrating talks with Chansiri were hinted at by John Flanagan, the leader of the American consortium who have had two bids to by the club at what he thought was fair market value was rejected by the chairman.

Sheffield Wednesday are in a seriously troubled state

Newsome really put it in black and white how serious the situation is at Hillsborough. While non-playing staff are expected to finally be paid their May wages today (Friday, 13th June), when the players will get the money they are owed is less sure.

It's the second time they haven't got their salaries on time in the last three paydays, and it's a situation that has caused them to grow increasingly annoyed with the poor communication from the club, as per The Star. The Professional Footballers' Association released a statement on Thursday calling the situation "unacceptable."

As the ex-defender pointed out, without supporters, football diminishes. Almost equally, though, without the players - more specifically the right ones - football will become less enjoyable for said supporters, especially if they begin to slide down the pyramid; an outcome that feels as if it's growing in probability by the day.