Garry Monk has made plenty of bad decisions at Sheffield Wednesday over the past few months.
Indeed, the manager seems to be getting it wrong on a weekly basis these days after leading the Owls to just two league wins in their last 14 games, but perhaps his most harmful decision has come off the pitch.
The former Birmingham City boss has taken the bold step to freeze both Sam Hutchinson and Keiren Westwood out of the team, and that is worrying in more ways than one.
Fans have called for Westwood to return between the sticks, and the stats show that Hutchinson is the Owls’ best defender.
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However, this whole situation could soon be made so much worse.
Hutchinson’s contract is up this summer, and if he isn’t offered a new one he will be free to leave the club at the end of the season.
There’s no coming back from that once the 30-year-old signs for a new team, and Wednesday mustn’t allow that to happen.
As much as we believe that managers should have the final say over their squad, Dejphon Chansiri has to step in and make sure the right decision is made here.
Monk and Hutchinson may not be on the same page at the moment, but once he leaves the option of burying the hatchet and getting things back on track is off the table. Away from that, there’s every chance that the current manager will be gone sooner rather than later if this poor run of form continues.
While we don’t know what’s gone on behind the scenes, we’ve seen players come back from seemingly unsalvageable situations before, just look at Carlos Tevez at Man City in the 2011/12 season when he refused to travel back from Argentina and was fined over £1m as a result.
Letting Hutchinson go for free would be nothing short of a disaster, he’s a handy player at this level, and with Monk’s long-term future far from secure, his falling out with the current manager shouldn’t jeopardise his place at the club.
Chansiri should go over Monk’s head with this one and try to build some bridges by offering Hutchinson a chance to stay with the club beyond the end of the season.
In other news, Sheffield Wednesday could be about to take a big risk.