Troy Deeney slams Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri amid "desperate" wages crisis | OneFootball

Troy Deeney has weighed in on the current situation as Sheffield Wednesday as concerns grow for the future of the club.

Former Watford striker and pundit Troy Deeney has hit out at Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri for his running of the club and has called for the EFL to intervene as the crisis at Hillsborough deepens.

Wednesday finished 12th in the Championship last season, but while it was a campaign of progress on the pitch, it has been a nightmare summer for the club amid a host of off-field issues.

After failing to pay the wages of players and staff on time for May and June, Wednesday are currently under a transfer embargo, while they have also been hit with a three-window ban on paying transfer fees, and both the club and Chansiri have been charged by the EFL.

The Owls are also under two other separate transfer embargoes for late payments to HMRC and the non-payment of transfer fees to other clubs, with Southampton and Norwich City believed to be waiting on money owed for the transfers of Shea Charles and Akin Famewo respectively.

Following two consecutive months of delays in the payment of wages, Wednesday players are now entitled to give notice of their intent to terminate their contracts, and six members of the club's first-team squad have reportedly taken up that option, with last season's top scorer Josh Windass said to be one of those.

If that was not bad enough for the Owls, players are currently having to work away from the club as upgrades to the Middlewood Road training ground have not yet been completed, while they have no pre-season friendlies in place, and manager Danny Rohl is in negotiations over a severance package that would see his tenure come to an end.

Troy Deeney makes EFL plea as Sheffield Wednesday, Dejphon Chansiri crisis continues

When discussing the situation on talkSPORT with co-hosts Sam Matterface and Alex Crook, Deeney admitted that, if he was a Wednesday player, he would be looking for a way out of the club, and the 37-year-old said that he has been alarmed by the constant financial issues at Hillsborough over the past decade under Chansiri's ownership.

When asked what he would do if he was in the shoes of the Owls squad, Deeney said: "I'd be speaking to my agent about how we get out of here, that would be the honest truth.

"I think when you're in a position of not being paid, it's poor.

"If you were in a position of not being paid once or twice and there's a big of an issue, but you're not quite sure what's going on or there's a takeover, you sit there and see how it plays out.

"But I feel like Sheffield Wednesday, for close to a decade now, has been spoken about negatively from a financial point of view.

"They are one of the biggest clubs in England, let's be totally honest, they are a massive club, with a massive history and a massive stadium.

"But for 10 years now, I feel like we've never spoken about Sheffield Wednesday in a positive light."

Later in the debate, Deeney questioned how Wednesday have been allowed to get into this position, and he called on the EFL to intervene, as well as urging the governing body to introduce more stringent tests for approving new owners in the first place.

"The players will always get their money, that's what the PFA is set up for," Deeney said.

"Maheta (Molango, PFA chief executive) does a wonderful job making sure we're looked after from our rights point of view.

"For me, though, this raises a much bigger question about the fit and proper test that we keep putting in place.

"The EFL have got to do some stronger legislation.

"It just feels to me that when these owners have had enough of pumping their money in, they don't cut their losses and move it on to someone else, they absolutely strip it and take the soul from it.

"The only people left struggling are the paying customers.

"It seems that the EFL can see it coming, but can they get involved a bit earlier and fix it?

"Now you're putting Sheffield Wednesday in a much worse position by banning them from doing anything for the next three transfer windows.

"That doesn't help the product of the EFL, and it makes their financial crisis get worse.

"We had Reading, and now we're getting these desperate crises all the time.

"Surely there's got to be an intervention before that."

As the off-field crisis at Hillsborough continues, there is no sign of an immediate resolution in sight, and with Wednesday currently under three separate transfer embargoes, it is likely there could be further punishment to follow in the form of a points deduction.

It has become clear that Chansiri is no longer able to meet his financial obligations to the club, but with his high valuation proving to be a stumbling block to any potential sale, many Owls supporters have echoed Deeney's calls for the EFL to take action.

However, the EFL do not have the power to simply take a club away from an unfit owner, and while a new Independent Football Regulator is on the way, it is unlikely to be introduced in time to help Wednesday in their current predicament.