Who made the decision to appoint Carlos Carvahal at Sheffield Wednesday - it wasn’t Dejphon Chansiri | OneFootball

A bizarre story from former Sheffield Wednesday manager Carlos Carvahal may shine some light on the decision-making processes under Dejphon Chansiri.

A bizarre tale recounted by the former Sheffield Wednesday manager Carlos Carvaahal regarding his appointment at Hillsborough may shine some light on the decision-making processes at Hillsborough under Dejphon Chansiri.

At least now, Sheffield Wednesday fans may reflect as the sale of their club looms, it's over. The club having been put into administration on the 24th October marked the end of Dejphon Chansiri's day-to-day running of Wednesday, and although performances on the pitch haven't improved since then, the change in the running of Wednesday has felt like a cloud lifting from over their heads.

It's pretty much universally acknowledged that Chansiri's decade of ownership was a disaster for Sheffield Wednesday, and some light could have been shone on why this was by a comment made by former Wednesday manager Carlos Carvahal in 2020.

Carvahal was the first managerial appointment of the Chansiri years, and he also turned out to be the longest-serving, staying in the position from June 2015 until December 2017. But if his story was correct, it could speak volumes for the reason why Sheffield Wednesday ended up in the state in which they did.

Carlos Carvahal claimed that his Sheffield Wednesday was influenced by Dejphon Chansiri's young son

In a report first published in April 2020, the Sheffield Star quoted Carvahal talking about the circumstances under which his appointment into the managerial hot seat at Hillsborough was decided.

They reported that Carvahal said: "I did the interview, I was chosen and, months later, I came to know that who had the last word on my hiring was… the son of the chairman, who would’ve been 10 or 11 years old!

“He had seen some things on the internet, some press releases in Turkey. The purest reality. The decision of a 10-year-old kid opened the door for my life’s challenge! And at that moment, I felt that I was starting my career seriously.”

Carvahal's claims could shed light on how Sheffield Wednesday came to end up in the state they did

There is good reason to take Carlos Carvahal's anecdote with a pinch of salt. His story is light on detail, and doesn't mention how Chansriri's young son could have got involved in the managerial selection process at the club.

How a 10 or 11-year-old could have had any knowledge whatsoever about Portuguese or Turkish football - Carvahal had previously spent his entire managerial career in those two countries - when there's nothing to indicate that the family even lived there also remains unknown.

But it is equally plausible that this story does have an element of truth behind it; that the child could have met Carvahal at some point throughout the recruitment process and taken a shine to him, or that there is some other bizarre reason for this having actually happened.

Regardless, it remains the truth that Carlos Carvahal was the most successful manager of Dejphon Chansiri's decade of running the club. Under his management - and with Chansiri having spent very heavily indeed on new players - Sheffield Wednesday finished 6th and 4th in the Championship, missing out on a shot at a place in the Premier League at the end of the 2016-17 season after losing their play-off semi-final to Huddersfield Town on penalties.

Carvahal left the club by mutual consent on Christmas Eve 2017, with Wednesday in 15th place in the Championship. Replaced by Jos Luhukay, they finished the 2017-18 season in 15th place and they haven't got as close to a return to the top flight as they did under Carvahal since.

Given Carvahal's record and the fact that there's no evidence that Dejphon Chansiri involved his young son in any of the subsequent managerial appointments over the last ten years, there's a compelling case for saying that his 10-year-old son was a better judge of character for the Sheffield Wednesday manager's job than his father was.

And as Wednesday fans pick through the wreckage of Chansiri's years of running their club, they may also reflect on the possibility that a 10-year-old may have taken better care of them, and wouldn't have left them in the state that his father certainly did.