Martin Dowse

Couldn’t he have just sold his house?

End of September was his final chance to sell. With the ground/loan situation and offers still on the table everyone hoped he’d bite the bullet by then. We’ve hung onto this all Summer. And here we are, 4 days into October with nothing changing and fans now forced to take the next step. One man alone is responsible for the protests stepping up. Protests will escalate from here and he’ll be forcibly removed in due course by the powers that be and I hope he gets a deal worth nothing in the end. Today was the worst I’ve ever seen Hillsborough. Like an empty shell. Food/drink outlets shut. No one there other than season ticket holders and all the stands bare by the 60th minute. But none of the fans I speak to in the ground are broken. Still unified, still cracking jokes it’s the Sheffield way, but more importantly still willing to fight this. They’ll only be one winner in this fight. And it won’t be a Thai “businessman”.

He’s defensively minded. Throws himself at everything, tries to win anything that’s loose in the box and makes us look more solid. We’ve needed that type of player at times this season and that’s not a dig at any other players. Anyone who’s pulled on a shirt this season is a credit.

We were hoping you might be able to have a word to see if any of your players fancy coming on loan. Sunderland would have to pay all their wages and there would be no loan fee. Come on mate. Have a word will ya.

Leeds game plan is clear here. Get through the first 20 minutes. Quiet the home fans.

The kids will be alright. It’s an experienced Leeds side, they will have been prepped and they will obviously recognise that. Even a hammering they know what the situation is. I’m glad they came through the Bolton game well.

He’s willing to sell, just only for a specific value. He’s allegedly accepted an (bogus) offer for that amount this summer. You have to ask why is he only willing to sell for that price or above but not below. We can only speculate on what agreements are in place with other parties or what the personal ramifications are of him selling below that amount and speculation doesn’t get us anywhere. We need to fully focus on getting him out in a unified way by backing the protests, backing the boycotts until he’s forced to sell. He’s lowering the running costs, we need to lower the revenue he receives to match…as difficult as it is.

Yes. The top of major European leagues wouldn’t be what it is today. Instead of predominantly English clubs Liverpool/Chelsea/City/Madrid winning the European honours each year. Titles would be more equally spread amongst Europeans clubs. Ajax, Juventus, Lazio, Man U, Inter, AC, Porto, Munich, dortmund, Marseille. The negative of creating an English lead Champions League has meant the gap to the top 6 and the rest. And then the championship parachute payment and the rest has grown significantly. I’m pretty sure everyone would rather see Wednesday (and similar clubs) compete in the top 10-15 teams, in the country, mixing it up as opposed to the same old and then the best English teams winning the champions league through more power. Starve Chansiri. Starve his dream of turning Wednesday like what City’s owners did. Give him nothing more. Make it clear his revenue streams are not welcome. At best his revenue would be on a par with mid table league 2 teams. And as soon as he’s gone on a par with top end championship teams. And all it takes is for him to sign on the dotted line. We’ve had enough.

I appreciate some people feel the best thing to do is to support the team and talk about “timing” and other such things. Things have changed in that regard when people aren’t getting paid. If I were a player, or an employee of the club I would welcome all protests. It’s sometimes difficult to protest against your employer usually for a variety of reasons and I would imagine they hope the fans carry the flag for them.

Positives? One, he is still going, his position becomes further untenable by the day and soon enough he’ll run out of players to sell. Two, the value he’ll personally get for the club is going through the floor. Three. Although next season is a write off. Time is on our side. We have 11 months or so before we need to prepare for the following season and you’d hope he won’t be here by then. If he’d pulled this stunt in January he may have got us relegated last season and be selling any other assets in the summer of league one. Four. As soon as the regulator gets up and running he’ll be the first and possibly only target in their cross hairs.

This is the way I see it. There are bids. And he MUST sell. It will take time for any takeover to go through. Months. And in the mean time, due to NDAs, in theory, we shouldn’t hear much, if anything. The silence means it’s impossible to know if anything is happening or not. Even ITKers don’t know the full picture due to things changing and only some things being leaked. I’ve stopped looking for nuggets of information for now. Most people would hope that a cash advance would come from a potential buyer, to ensure the asset they are buying remains largely unchanged during the process. Chansiri’s actions and reported further sales coupled with “some” players being paid has now confirmed this is not the case. It would obviously be preferable that a takeover is concluded with enough players and enough time to still stand a chance of staying in the Championship. This would be the best thing for the buyer, for the seller and for the fans. It would however mean Chansiri leaving with a tiny single iota of credit…”at least when he was backed into a corner he handled the takeover situation well enough”. That wouldn’t be fitting of the man. He deserves zero credit. He deserves to devalue his “asset” and he deserves to receive as little as possible in the sale. This is also exactly how I would expect a man with his level of business skill to end things. But one way or another he will be gone…eventually. His time is up and he deserves to go down in a fireball. With another relegation on his CV to match the previous one. Two relegations where he is solely responsible! It just means that although that’s a fitting end to him. It’s the toughest for the employees of the club and for the fans and one that no fans or employees of any club deserve. But with the NDAs all we can do is wait for official news through official channels. Frustrating, but the proper way of doing things…for a change. Things will therefore get worse before they will get better. But they will get better.

Steve was my landlord for a few years in the 2000s. Lovely bloke who would always go out of his way. I particularly loved our chats about the Wednesday whenever our paths crossed. Rest in peace, Steve.

And William Hill said…

Thank you for coming on here and posting this OP. I’ve been guilty in the past of getting too wrapped up in off the field matters related to football, which has completely ruined my time as a Wednesday supporter and ruined my enjoyment of the wider game. After last nights news broke, those thoughts washed over me again. Cba to go anymore, not bothered about watching the FA cup final today etc. After reading your post it’s reaffirmed to me that I won’t let such issues spoil my enjoyment of the game, as a supporter. I normally hate “it’s only a game” type sentiments. But yours was so cleverly disguised and truthful to what being a supporter is about for me. Haha