Niall Quinn leaves sky sports

Couldn't stand him commentating on our games. Always seemed like he hated us. Loved Man City though.

Hope he's not buying us. He wasn't the greatest chairman we've ever had!! Short just took the reins he left behind

 

Not to mention his disastrously short lived spell as Manager or the ridiculous spending we undertook with him as Chairman.

Great player, great bloke. Awful behind the scenes and thought he was a dogshit pundit to be honest.

 

Somehow I just can't remember any criticism when he introduced Mr Short to The Drumaville Consortium.

At the time there was much rejoicing in the Stands.
We had a Billionaire in the place of a group of well meaning Irish Gentlemen who had fallen foul of the Financial Crash.
The future, we thought, looked bright.

Of course hindsight is the best sort of vision to have.

Since the failed takeovers I've noticed that Fulwell 73 really do seem to be going great guns.
A few night ago I watched 'I AM BOLT'. When the credits rolled I saw that this was one of theirs.
Perhaps they are looking for a 'front man' for a follow up offer.

 

They had a front man last time in Tony Adams. That didn't do them any favours.

That's a pretty tenuous link you're making there mate.

It would be a rather romantic idea to have rags to riches Mackem buying out the club of their childhood but I very much doubt they'd have the financial clout to make us a consistent top half PL club.

 

F73 are dogshit.

They churn out a **** load of low end, low budget **** and act like James Cordon is the godfather of entertainment. It's all a little nauseating.

 

Tenuous. That's rather overstating it.

No basis whatever, a mere flight of fancy.
However, you never know.
The company, Fulwell 73, really does look like it's developing into one of the 'Big Guns' in the entertainment industry.
It would be no shock if one of the Mega Companies thought that they would make a useful acquisition.

This is beyond speculation and not as sound as a flight of fancy, merely taking your 'romantic idea' one step further on the road to Fantasy Land.

Since there looks to be no point in building up my fantasies on The Team this Season, I may as well pour my imagination onto the ownership.
And as an older supporter, I'm well used to seeing my hopes and far flung fantasies collapse around me.

 

As someone else who prefers a bit of speculation, this "tenuous" link might have legs, the fact that Adams and Quinn were close friends in their Arsenal days, supports the theory, and I would not mind having Quinn back one little bit, in fact he and Keane rekindled my interest in football which had all but vanished, it is still severely tried, from bloated egos and blatant greed amongst mercenaries and their agents,speaking of which I was going to write about Lens and the circumstances surrounding the undisclosed fee (in whose interests I wonder), but I prefer to drift off into speculation, its better for your health.

 

But you can;t be sentimental in football - only sentiment would make SAFC fans want him here surely? Financially he was bad for the club - no better than Short is now - his business interests since leaving have not exactly been top notch. There is nothing other than loving him as a player for us that makes me want him back - from a football and Sunderland perspective - I hope he stays as far away as possible

 

Yes I can, its what its all about surely, as with Canny Auld Sunderland Town or City, the present reality is poor to say the least, but love and sentiment holds it together, just. I admit that my attitude to Niall Quinn is not based solely on his record here, but more on his aspiration for our club which he obviously bought into, he genuinely tried to take the club forward, imo, but was just plain unlucky, this can happen in business, even to the best intentioned, and I include Ellis Short here in this also.

 

Sentiment is fine mate.

But there's no room for it in business.

Quinn had his time here but everything has moved on.

I can't imagine Quinn himself would consider it a good move coming back either.

 

To owners Football can be a Business.

For Players it's how they earn their living so they can consider their employers as a business.

The Media can consider that they are dealing with businesses.

But for Fans, surely it's ONLY about sentiment.
If you looked at football supporting rationally, then we would all be supporting the current Champions.
So, why aren't we?
Why do Fans go to watch the likes of Shields, Gateshead and Hartlepool?

Call it loyalty, call it Sentiment, BUT DON'T CALL IT BUSINESS

 

Apparently took the huff after Sky officials stated that he is not better than Adam and the Ants..

 

Ha, me and Joe were all over it like a rash, we actually looked into what we were getting instead of just seeing a billionaire and thinking everything was going to be great. I wrote a massive article on bbc606 message board into his business dealings and how he was a fish out of water. I was told everything I'd written was stretching the truth and to shut up. So even if a person takes the time to research something, it isn't necessarily going to be taking seriously if people are already decided. Funny thing is, it was all there in black and white online for anybody to read. I just collected the facts and brought them together, you'd think I had made them up from scratch the way they went on. So in other words. Short taking over was great and nobody was allowed to say any different.

 

I believe he said himself he was talked into a business he had scant knowledge of, and its not like their was a queue of knowledgeable benefactors ready to take over the debt, so I should imagine choice was limited. At the time It looked like a winner, after all it could have been the Venkys or worse. If Short had been a quick learner (no pun intended) as his wealth suggests, then we would not be where we are to-day. Even so I still think he has been unlucky, most, if not all his choices of manager looked sound initially, but for one reason or another quickly fell away, not all Shorts fault imo, but the club just keeps going backwards, lets hope we are about to see a change in fortune soon, as we certainly need it, and so probably does Ellis Short.

 

I still think Ellis Short has done a decent job overall. He's give us the signings and quality of footballers that I never thought I'd see at Sunderland. I was used to seeing the likes of Shaun Cunnington and Reuben Agboola. We were always an average championship side when I was growing up and Ellis Short changed that by giving us 10 straight years in the Premier league.

When he first came in, I remember him throwing a lot of money at our signings and got very little back. We used to be a regular top half team when it came to net spend. We simply couldn't sustain that. I think he definitely had a long term plan to build this club up, his spending and foreign deals (invest in Africa etc) are testament to that.

I believe he's went wrong by not having football people around him and surrounding himself with solicitors and what not. Martin Bain is the first person in the boardroom that I'm happy and confident with. I think that Short, Bain and us as supporters were massively let down by David Moyes. To me, that man is the biggest reason why we are where we are today. He completely dismantled a good squad that had been left to him. His team decisions were absolutely shocking, his transfers ludicrous and his tactics a complete mystery. Don't forget Moyes also got more backing in one transfer window than any other manager under Ellis Short.

 

All very fair points mate.

 

It didn't look a winner though, that's my point.

 

I agree with bold but if the consortium included the Fulwell 73 group who are currently involved in a new live music show on BBC along the lines of the old TOTP - I believe an initial run of about 6 shows is planned - maybe this is why they were not ready to commit to Sunderland pre season. Its a long shot, but in my view we need positive hope which I think this would be.
For now 3 pts on Friday