Ex-Sheffield Wednesday manager rips into Dejphon Chansiri - his sacking "left a bitter taste" | OneFootball

Stuart Gray has not held back on Chansiri in a released excerpt of the Carlos Had A Dream book

Sheffield Wednesday are still not over the Dejphon Chansiri era just yet, with the Thai businessman still lingering as the club look to come out of administration through David Storch's takeover attempt.

It's been six months since the Owls were put into admin by Chansiri, and whilst other clubs have been in that situation for longer over the years and come out of the other side and risen up the leagues, there's somewhat of a necessity to get Wednesday back onto the straight and narrow sooner rather than later.

They were decimated on and off the pitch this season, and unless they win against West Brom on the final day of the season, they will finish on negative points in the Championship.

Having ran out of money to finance the club, and having been sanctioned for failing to pay players on time multiple times, Chansiri finally gave up in October 2025, bringing over 10 years of time spent as Wednesday's owner to an end.

It feels a long time ago since he purchased the club for £30 million in January 2015 from the late Milan Mandaric, and one of Chansiri's first big Sheffield Wednesday decisions was to part ways with manager Stuart Gray later that summer.

Stuart Gray slams Dejphon Chansiri over 2015 Sheffield Wednesday exit

Gray - who was previously the assistant to Dave Jones at Hillsborough - had been in charge since December 2013 when Chansiri arrived, and had guided the club through financial instability, saved them from potential relegation and consolidated them in the Championship.

However, a 13th-placed finish in 2014-15 wasn't enough for Gray to keep his job, despite it being an improvement on 16th in the previous campaign, and the veteran coach has revealed 11 years later that he knew it was coming, and he has tore into Chansiri for the way he did it.

“I knew straight away,' Gray said in the Carlos Had A Dream book, as relayed by The Star.

“I’m in America, the season’s over, and Paul (Aldridge)’s ringing me. Then he tells me the bad news – that Chansiri had decided to chop my legs off.”

“I would always do it myself. I wouldn’t get someone else to do my dirty work.

“I was angry. If you’re going to sack me in the close season, have the b*ll*cks to do it at the end of the season, face-to-face. Don’t let me go away planning pre-season, planning recruitment, planning everything... only to ring me when I’m on the other side of the world.

“There were some wonderful people at Wednesday - staff, players, everyone. That was taken away from me. There is a right way and a wrong way to sack someone, and that was the wrong way. It left a bitter taste in my mouth."

And Gray believes that the biggest reason as to why he lost his job was because he did not utilise the Chansiri recruits of the 2015 January transfer window enough.

Five new faces had arrived - three loanees in the form of Lewis Baker, Lloyd Isgrove and Will Keane, and the permanent additions of Filipe Melo and Sergiu Buș were unknown quantities, but the five individuals only racked up a total of 20 appearances between them, and that seemed to irk Chansiri.

“I felt I was getting the best out of the group I had. We weren’t far away from the play-offs after we won at Nottingham Forest and I really thought we were ready to kick on," Gray admitted.

"There were lads out of contract who didn’t know what was happening, and I didn’t get the support the new manager came in to enjoy. If I’d had that backing and it still hadn’t worked, I’d have held my hands up.

“Chansiri started getting upset because players were coming in and he thought I was being disrespectful to him by not playing them.

“If they were better than what I already had, they’d have been in the team. I’m not stupid. I had to be honest with him.

“I said: ‘Chairman, the reason they’re not playing is because they’re not as good as the players you’ve inherited. I work with them every day – I know what they can do. I respect that you’ve brought these players in, but they’re not better. If you want to bring players in, make sure they’re better than the ones already in the building.’”

Carlos Carvalhal appointment benefited Sheffield Wednesday, but Dejphon Chansiri's conduct is no surprise

Gray evidently was not happy at the timing and the nature of his sacking, and although Carlos Carvalhal - his eventual successor - would lead Wednesday to the play-off final in his first season, as well as fourth in the table in 20216-17, there's been plenty of bad decisions over the years that negate the small positives from Chansiri's tenure.

It wasn't thought of much at the time, but the lavish spending of the early years soon caught up with Chansiri in the end. Buys of players like Jordan Rhodes, Adam Reach, Almen Abdi, Fernando Forestieri - some were more successful than others, but it was the early years of the maligned owner's era that contributed to the demise in the end.

When it was all said and done, freshening things up from Gray to Carvalhal was never the problem, but it was seemingly the way Wednesday's owner decided to go about it that caused a stir from the former Wednesday boss - many will echo Gray's sentiments you would imagine when it comes to analysing some of the things that Chansiri did.