Sheffield Wednesday: Dejphon Chansiri's Reading FC comparison should set alarm bells ringing | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri made a worrying comparison with crisis-hit Reading when discussing the club's financial situation.

It is fair to say it has been an unsettling week for Sheffield Wednesday, with off-field events once again dominating the headlines at Hillsborough.

Many Wednesday supporters have held long-standing reservations about owner Dejphon Chansiri, and those concerns came to the surface again last Monday night after the bombshell revelation that he had failed to pay the players' March wages on time due to cashflow issues, with some non-playing staff also believed to have been affected.

It is far from the first time that this problem has occurred during Chansiri's tenure, but in an interview with The Star on Friday night, the Owls chief revealed that if he was unable to pay the wages by Monday (7th April), the club were facing a three-window transfer ban as they would have reached the maximum 30-day tally permitted for late payment of player salaries or HMRC debt in a single year.

That meant that supporters faced a nervous wait to see if Chansiri would resolve the problem by the deadline, and to add insult to injury, Wednesday's play-off hopes were dealt a potentially fatal blow as they suffered a 1-0 defeat to Hull City on Saturday, with Charlie Hughes' 94th-minute winner sealing all three points for the Tigers and leaving Danny Rohl's men eight points from the top six.

There was finally some positive news for the Owls on Monday as it was confirmed that Chansiri had paid the wages in time to avoid the severe punishment of a lengthy transfer ban, for now at least, but that is highly unlikely to calm the increasing discontent building among the Hillsborough faithful.

Dejphon Chansiri makes bizarre Sheffield Wednesday, Reading comparison

With the salaries now paid in full, Wednesday will be able to spend transfer fees in the summer window, providing that there are no further late payments before the end of June, but over the weekend, there was significant uncertainty over whether Chansiri would be able to meet Monday's deadline.

In an unsuccessful attempt to reassure Owls supporters, Chansiri admitted that while "it would be better" for the club to be able to spend money on transfers, he insisted that an embargo would not be a disaster, pointing to the example of Reading, who have managed to maintain their promotion push in League One despite ongoing off-field issues and restrictions on their transfer business.

"You can see even Reading for example, they have had a problem with embargoes but they could get promoted. Sometimes I do not understand the mindset that outside of buying players it is not good. Actually; buy, loan or free, it doesn't matter. It matters that a player fits to your squad or not. It doesn't mean free or loan is always cheaper than to buy, sometimes they are more expensive," Chansiri told The Star.

"Of course, some players we maybe need to sell, but whatever happens must happen. Even if we get an embargo, it does not mean we cannot bring in players. You may say we could only bring lesser players but it depends on the way we recruit. Of course it would not be good as if you're not under embargo, but it's not going to be the last day of your life.

"When we recruited in the summer, my coach said he wanted five or six players, then 11 and I supported that. He said we could be in the play-offs. This means our players are good enough, right? This is not me saying it, the coach said this. The fans say I do not invest in January, it is not true. At the end, it is the decision of the coach."

Thankfully for Wednesday, they will not face similar restrictions to Reading now the wages have been paid, but the fact that Chansiri even attempted to claim that the Berkshire outfit are a possible blueprint for success is incredibly alarming.

It has been a nightmare time for the Royals under the ownership of Dai Yongge, and during his reign, they have suffered relegation to League One, had a total of 18 points deducted and been under frequent transfer embargoes among a host of other off-field issues.

The long-suffering Reading fan base have seen multiple takeover bids fail over the past few years, and after Yongge was disqualified under the EFL’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test, he has been given a deadline of 22nd April to sell, otherwise the club could be punished, with suspension from the league one of the potential options on the table.

Despite only being able to make three signings during the course of the season and losing highly-rated manager Ruben Selles to Hull in December, the Royals have somehow managed to remain competitive in League One, and they currently sit just one point from the play-off places with six games remaining.

It is truly remarkable that Reading have been able to sustain their promotion push in such challenging circumstances, but it is rare to see a crisis-hit club in their situation achieve this level of success, and they have been helped hugely by their excellent academy system, which has continued to produce players who have been good enough to step up and fill the gaps in the squad.

It is unclear whether Chansiri was simply making the point that transfer restrictions do not need to be fatal for a club or whether he was hinting at further problems down the line for Wednesday, but either way, the fact that he chose to namecheck the Royals, who are potentially weeks away from being kicked out of the EFL, was a baffling decision, and it will only increase the anger among the fan base.

All football fans have been united in their condemnation of Yongge's destruction of Reading, but Owls supporters have watched events at the Select Car Leasing Stadium unfold with particular unease, feeling that their club could potentially head in the same direction one day under Chansiri's ownership, and his latest comments will have done little to allay those fears.