Just 47 days before the start of the Championship season, Sheff Wed manager Darren Moore left the club amicably. Moore
led the Owls back to the second division with a play-off victory over Barnsley. Chairman Dejphon Chansiri claims that
Moore’s departure was due to contract demands.
According to Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri, manager Darren Moore quit the team after demanding a
new contract that was four times as large as his previous one.
Following his unexpected departure from the Owls earlier this month, Moore had led the team to League One promotion
through the playoffs.
Speculation, which Chansiri has called “damaging”, suggested the pair had fallen out over the transfer budget for the
forthcoming Championship campaign, but the Thai businessman has now broken his silence, having agreed to initially keep
quiet on Moore’s behalf.
Moore is understood not to want to engage in a back-and-forth public debate over his exit out of respect for the Hillsborough
club and his position remains the same in the wake of Chansiri’s comments on Thursday.
Chansiri made the following comment on the club’s official website: “After the season ended, we had earned promotion, and
as far as I was concerned, there was no problem. On Thursday, June 1, we finished up the retained list and got started
talking about bringing in new players and identifying goals for the Championship. I asked Darren to summarize and present.
“In order to prepare the final information and start coordinating the procedure, we made plans to speak the following week.
After Darren left for his vacation, we continued our conversation.
We continued to discuss player recruitment when Darren brought up the coaching staff’s contracts, which were set to expire
at the end of June. I was willing to chat, so I asked Darren to offer me his suggestions for them.
“He then mentioned his own contract which I said was automatically active following our promotion. But I said I was happy
to discuss a new contract and asked Darren to send me the details and his proposals so I can study them.
“After a few days, he sent me his proposals for his contract and I asked Darren to rethink and said, ‘Are you sure?’. I asked
him if this proposal was instigated by his agent and Darren told me it was a guideline.
I asked Darren if he wanted an answer ‘yes or no’ or can we talk again? Darren said it was a guideline and he would think
about the details again.
“We arranged to meet face to face in my office on Wednesday, 14 June. We talked some more about players and Darren
asked about the contracts of his coaching staff. I said we needed Darren to resolve his own situation first because whilever
this was an issue, we could not talk further about his staff.
“I said we need a conclusion before Thursday as we could not take too long when we needed to begin the recruitment
process. Even if we could not agree, this is the football business, but we would still maintain friendly relations with each
other, but we need to resolve this situation.
“I told Darren I was happy for him to stay, he achieved promotion and deserved a chance in the Championship. I said I was
happy to increase his salary and add more bonuses into the contract, with the highest bonus if we reached the Premier
League.
“But the proposal Darren presented was significantly in excess of his contract and I said I cannot offer a minimum of four
times your current salary on a three-year contract, I have to be realistic and protect the club.
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