Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri has claimed manager Darren Moore left the club after asking for a new contract four times bigger than his existing one.
Moore surprisingly departed the Owls earlier this month having guided the club to League One promotion via the play-offs.
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.
In a statement on the club’s official website, Chansiri said: “After the end of the season, we had achieved promotion and as far as I was concerned, there was no issue. We completed the retained list on Thursday, 1 June and began discussing the recruitment of new players, the targets identified for the Championship, and I asked Darren to summarise and present.
“We arranged to talk the following week in order to prepare the final information and begin coordinating the process.
“Darren went on holiday and we spoke again during his holiday. We talked more about the recruitment of players, then Darren mentioned the contracts of his coaching team, which expired at the end of June. I asked Darren to send me his proposals for them because I was happy to talk.
“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.
“I advised Darren to rethink very carefully, do you really think this is a good idea? I offered my full support during all his time at our club and I wanted us to continue and succeed together.
“We met again on Thursday 15 June and Darren told me that he could not accept. I said, ‘OK, that is your decision and I don’t think it will be difficult for you to get another job’. I said I would help Darren by announcing his departure via mutual consent because that will help for the future.”
The Owls have yet to appoint Moore’s replacement, with Dean Smith among those linked with the vacancy.
