Thread by @ploehmann

#swfc I really, earnestly hoped this was the time I'd read a Chansiri interview and it'd be different. Alas no. Petulance and an unwillingness to learn. And still without much idea what a Wednesdayite is, how we think [thread]

https://twitter.com/YesWeCrann/status/1467389637937278976?s=20

examinerlive.co.uk/sport/football… 1/26

The petulance on show: “'When something good happens it’s because I have supposedly taken a step back. When it’s not good, then it’s my fault'” and "The chairman offered an answer that suggested he felt he was going to be hit with negativity not matter what he did". 2/26

How is trust created? By people being trustworthy. When are people trustworthy? When we're vulnerable, like when we own up, in earnest, to having made a mistake.

(re this brilliant 9 minute talk on the subject: ted.com/talks/onora_o_…) 3/26

Chansiri is doing the opposite here, as he has done so many times before: Digging his heels in deeper, when his decisions are questioned, unwilling to change his mind and decisions. It's basically: "I am right and you need to accept it". 4/26

That's not how you get trust + buy-in. 5/26

All his statements are laced with an irritation that people don't just take what he says at face value. That we don't just automatically trust him. He fails to understand that trust is EARNED by being TRUSTWORTHY (re the Ted Talk). You don't earn trust by saying "I am right" 6/26

There's really no scope any more for sentiment like "he's learning how to run a football club and grew up in a different culture". He's owned Wednesday for 6½ years now, spending £100k A DAY (

https://twitter.com/ploehmann/status/1278061148533936130?s=20

) doing so with little indication he's learning on the job. 7/26

Let's comb through Chansiri's statements more thoroughly then.

1) "We wanted to do it for the loyal fans". Can he find any evidence of fans, on the Engagement Panel or elsewhere, who backed the idea of a early bird period just before Christmas announced with short notice? 8/26

2) "At that time, the pricing would depend on the position of the team. If we have the potential to go up, then the prices would be higher. Of course, we wouldn't go with Championship prices." There's no "would", Chansiri: You/the club could decide not to hike prices! 9/26

3) "We understand December is not a good month but I wanted to cut the prices for the loyal fans. We wanted to do it for the loyal fans." Respectfully, no, you don't understand and you never have. Sheffield's wages are 14% below national average:bbc.com/news/business-… 10/26

The unseemly line of thinking here is the restatement of an intimate link between how much a fan of the club spends and how loyal they are. As if our loyalty as fans depends on how much we spend on our club! 11/26

South Yorkshire has several times the national average of people, who have to go hungry (sheffield.ac.uk/news/new-map-s…) and 1 in every 3 children in Sheffield live in a low income family (thestar.co.uk/news/politics/…). 12/26

4) "I understand that (the early bird offer) cannot fulfil everyone. I know that I cannot make everyone happy but I believe the majority can get that benefit from our records." 13/26

For the individual fan it's NOT about whether THEY can afford it, but that they're incensed those who CAN'T afford it, have to pay more. It simply does not seem to register with the club's owner for the last 6½ years. We're a community, not customers looking for price cuts! 14/26

5) "You need to understand that in League One our operation costs are still the same as in the Championship. They are not lower." That's clearly true and if the club were actually transparent and up front about its financial operation that would be plain for us all to see. 15/26

Even just doing the numbers "on the back of an envelope" (well, in a spreadsheet of course!), we get an estimated £17m of expenses this season compared to £31m in last season. Costs are nearly half what they were last season.

How come? Amortisation and wages: 16/26

The "hangover" from the spendathon days is easing (amortisation is the transfer fees paid spread over the length of a player's contract) and players costing nearly £20m worth of wages a year (!) left the club this summer: 17/26

It's a false and moot point to call the prices we were asking for season tickets in the Championship "Championship prices", as Chansiri does, as opposed to the prices we're now asking in the early bird phase being "League One prices". 18/26

The *current* prices, in League One, would be about average *in the Championship* The prices we asked before dropping prices ahead of this season were the second-highest of the Championship:

https://twitter.com/ploehmann/status/1404945296455503878?s=20

19/26

And it's a moot point to link the money paid for season tickets so closely to the costs of the football club as Chansiri continues to do. 20/26

In 2018-19 it took the income from two season tickets bought in the South Stand - the most expensive - to pay for the wages of an *average* first team player. Not for a month, not for a week. But for one (1) day. 21/26

A ot of fans do NOT want the club to chase promotion by putting the club under material risk of (another) points deduction or worse (

https://twitter.com/ploehmann/status/1392012377701371907

) and most don't think the club is run sustainably or moving in a positive direction (

https://twitter.com/SWFCTrust/status/1271397081446600712?s=20

) 22/26

Chansiri needs to stop the petulance and start earning our trust by actually being open. Not just saying "I got this, trust me".

Actually consulting fans. 23/26

Not just using the Fan Engagement Panel as a box-ticking exercise without real consequence on the decisions the club makes.

And being transparent about the finances and cash flow of our football club. 24/26

Start by presenting budgets and cash flow projections for the next 12 months.

We're big girls and boys. We can handle being told the club is struggling for cash flow. We get times are challenging.

We get the club is up against it and we want to help our club if we can. 25/26

But we need the legal owner of our club to honour his end of the bargain, namely be up front about where the club is at and what he's thinking about doing about it in concrete terms.

Not being so has already cost the club relegation to League One. 26/26

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