Danny Rohl is hoping his Owls squad can focus on getting a first home win at Hillsborough since New Year’s Day when we take on Hull tomorrow … amidst this week’s statement confirming the club has had problems paying the players for March.
Wednesday said the situation was due to monies owed to chairman Dejphon Chansiri’s businesses, affecting immediate cashflow, and that he is working to resolve the matter.
When asked at Thursday morning’s pre-match press conference if the non-payment had been sorted out, Rohl said: “As far as I know, no. It’s not the perfect situation. The club made a statement on Monday and I’m convinced we’ll solve the problem as soon as possible.
“Hopefully we can then carry on and focus on the sport side. That’s the main thing for me, I want to focus on the pitch and not other topics around us.
“I trust the club to try and solve this and I can hopefully bring my players in focus for Saturday. We still have seven games to go, we have goals to achieve and this is a very big part for me.”
Rohl said he had not been given a timescale for the situation to be rectified, adding: “I hope it is soon but that could mean today, it could be tomorrow, it could be next week. Hopefully it’s as soon as possible.
“It’s not perfect but we can only influence what we can influence and that’s on the pitch with a good performance on Saturday.
“I can’t lie and say it’s easy, but I’m trying. Everybody knows about this topic and will think about it, but I’m trying to make us focused on the next three points, this is massive.
“It’s around three months ago when we had our last home win and it would be fantastic to give our massive fans three points on Saturday.
“Our supporters have had a lot of ups and downs and they hope for the good old times. We’re working on this, step by step, and this can be a good motivation for everybody on Saturday to do everything for our fans to give them the next three points.
“They deserve to see a good game, if we do this then I think they’ll appreciate this in the stadium.”
We sit in 12th place in the Championship, five points adrift of the play-offs with seven games to play, while Hull are fourth from bottom and only a point off the relegation places.
Rohl also spoke of good news on the injury front with both Stuart Armstrong and Yan Valery fit to return to the squad, leaving the only absentees being Di’Shon Bernard and Max Lowe who are both already sidelined for the season.
The manager confirmed that Shea Charles will be back in the starting line-up after coming on as a sub at Cardiff last weekend and his brother, Pierce, is likely to keep his place in goal for a Championship debut at S6.
Rohl said: “It is fantastic to have so many of the squad together and I have to make a decision on two positions still open, with eight players fighting for those places.”