For Palmer, the past few months have been a personal and professional challenge.

The Scotland defender, who has only known Wednesday as a permanent club, with close to 500 appearances, watched on "powerless" as good friends exercised their right to leave, exasperated by unpaid wages and the direction of travel.

But as the squad's Professional Footballers' Association representative, the 34-year-old has been left to deal with awkward questions from worried players for which he has rarely had the answer.

Palmer and club captain Barry Bannan managed to arrange a Zoom conversation with Chansiri in the summer, hoping for some clarity but receiving none.

"The owner maintained that he was doing his best, but we were asking questions that ultimately he didn't have the answers for," said Palmer.

"But we felt that we had to ask them on behalf of the players.

"It would have been lovely to hear 'you are going to get paid on this time and the money was going to come', but he didn't have the answers. But I would rather have had that answer than not asked him at all."

The match with Middlesbrough proved...