Ouch..... Sky Sports News presenter and massive Sunderland fan Tom White joined us on the Roker Rapport podcast yesterday afternoon to discuss the 4-0 Checkatrade Trophy win over Newcastle United, as well as his media career. During the discussion, White mentioned how he often gets stories but for one reason or another is not allowed to disclose them. He then gave us an example and revealed that Sunderland had signed Virgil van Dijk from Celtic in 2015 but lost out on him due to Ellis Short having second thoughts about the deal: I’ll give you one example that I can say now and I don’t necessarily blame anyone for this but we all know that we wanted Virgil van Dijk, everyone knows that. Did you know that he had signed? He had signed, for us. It was Lee Congerton who had done the deal, he had signed, he was ready to be presented but the money hadn’t been transferred to Celtic. Congerton got the call from Ellis Short to say ‘I changed my mind, I’m not going to release that money’. So having signed the deal, he was sent back to Celtic where he then went to sign for Southampton, then went for £75m and there is a strong argument that he’s the best centre back in the world. Van Dijk went on to have a very successful spell with Southampton after his £13m transfer to St Mary’s in 2015 before becoming the world’s most expensive defender thanks to his £75m move to Liverpool.
Look on the bright side, had we signed him he'd neither still be here nor would any transfer fee have been invested into the team. We were in deep **** at the time and it'd have just gone into balancing the books which Short ended up doing anyway.
I'd rather not be privy to these horror stories about how my marvellous club has been run in the past. I hope and pray things like this will not occur in the future.
Let’s be honest, if he signs for us he doesn’t go on to become one of the worlds best, he probably plays for Feyenoord reserves now.
Look at how much practice he’d have got if he’d signed for us though. ! Mind you , recent goalkeepers chuck that argument out of the window
Blackburn have missed out bad aswell in the past.Lewandowskis had agreed to sign for them. His flight to the UK was cancelled because of the Ash cloud so he had to reschedule for the next day. While he was back at his Hotel Dortmund contacted him and persuaded him to sign for them instead. Keano says in his autobiography that he had agreed to sign for them aswell. When it came to sign his contract the secretary hadnt printed one out for him so he agreed to sign it the next morn instead before his first day of training with them. Fergie rang him that night and the rests history.
Lewandowski is a mad one. Would likely have not stepped up either, he was **** for years, was playing right midfield in German Second division for B team and then just exploded. With us and Ibra it was a bit earlier than Flo I think and Reid thought £4million was a gamble for a young lad. I don’t think we tried to sign him we just held an interest.
From about 59.20 on this Bob Murray talks about signings. Describes the Ibrahimovic link as "fictitious"
Throw in Maradona and these owners have messed things up. Can you imagine the opposite and Man c going in for Danny graham hehe. At least Bob built the SOL and will he come back and become 50-50 owner with Stewart and get the south stand extended like he intended we want a stadium bigger than the mags. Well I meant in the future when/if we are back in the premier league because we owe a lot of teams big time when we do get to the top.
It wasn't our owners that prevented us signing Maradona. The right-wing military dictatorship that ruled Argentina at the time wouldn't let him leave.
Just shows how important it is to have an owner actually interested in the game. Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk
Why the **** would we want to squander the clubs money extending a stadium that isn’t full and further reducing atmosphere? I couldn’t give a **** if their ground is bigger, I drink in a bar opposite it regular, it’s a ****ing ****hole. Looks like a caravan that’s been stood and neglected for 8 year in someone’s garden.
Did you see the pictures of the bogs inside the ground? Ceiling collapsed with water dripping on them while they piss. That club barely has an asset to their name. Going to cost that club the best part of a billion to get it competing with the best at all levels. I wouldn't pay a 100m for them. They're ****ed long term imo Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk
Even my pals who are from that side admit it mate, it’s been neglected and let to rot. The stadium and the club. It looks like a scruffy, desolate place from the outside, no lights or owt, just sits there covered in grime in darkness, bordering on eerie. I mean, an industrial jet wash, which I know we do regular, is about a grand. To a Premier League football club. Who’s stadium stands bang in the city centre. It’s true what they say, Ashley literally doesn’t give a ****.
