Upcoming board meeting ...

By his own admission he is a lifelong oxford fan.
It is documented his net worth was 8m before he came to safc. He took out a loan and leveraged the parachute money to buy ( own ) a club he has no connection with??? So he did it because he watched STID and 'fell in love with us'? An urgent need to make us great again regardless of the cost or sacrifice in time etc?
Making a quick quid never entered his head eh?
Oh best stop here. I need to check if the tooth fairy has been and make sure Santa can get down chimney

 

He's always said he needed outside investment.

How many owners are connected with their clubs, I don't see the relevance.

 

Good,thoughtful post as always mate.
The biggest disaster for us has been the obvious one,failing to get promoted last year. Going into the Championship,with the increased revenue and prospects would have enabled SD and CM to get where they wanted to be. Everything they did last year was counting on it....and we should have done it.....no excuses. It was on the pitch it failed,not off it.However,that failure has left them in a place both on and off the pitch they weren't expecting and weren't geared up to deal with.....and they've struggled to cope.....I'm sure that's why CM has gone. SD has to use the FPP money very wisely now,or arrange an outright sale. He has no room for mistakes now.

 

In the words of Blackadder (or Captain Darling) I must say I don't really believe he bought us because he fell in love with us after watching Sunderland 'til I die on Netflix.

'Really Darling how DARE you! What possible reason could this pen pusher have for thinking that?'

Well, three reasons actually, number 1... he's in it.

 

I don't think he loves Sunderland at all, and I know he didn't decide to buy us after watching Netflix since it wasn't released when he rocked up. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that I don't believe making money/ a quick buck from flipping the club, was his sole reason for buying us as many seem to suggest. Again, he got into non league football where there's no money to be made. If money was his sole objective why buy Eastleigh?

Of course he'd want to make money, of course when weighing up the chance to buy SAFC he'll have thought about the potential financial upside if he can get us even just one league up. It's pretty obvious, however, that he also enjoys being a football club owner, he likes having "his" club to go and watch on a Saturday, he'll have been excited by the footballing challenge at SAFC as well as the possibility of, god forbid, making a profit.

I think some have a tendency to think everyone is either mint, or an arsehole. I think Donald is neither. He came here genuinely wanting to run a club bigger than he ever thought he'd be able to afford, he hoped to make money when he went, but he didn't have the sole intention of flipping it and isn't a "chancer". He's just a really **** owner who can't get a major decision right, who has probably overestimated his ability on a footballing side or massively underestimated the challenge here. I don't think holding that opinion is in any way comparable with believing in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy ffs

 

Let's face facts mate, Donald wasn't elbowing his way past a big queue of significantly better prospective owners.

If anything Short 'wiping out the debt' temporarily sideswiped Donald.

Anyone coming into football to 'make a quick quid' or 'flip a club' is crazy ...

... in reality, how many times has it been done?

And how many local people actually own clubs?

 

It would have flipped quite quickly had we got promoted (or at least it would have been "flippable") but then if my Aunty had balls and all that!!

The fact that we're languishing makes the club inherently unpopular (as far as we're aware) to buyers. Add the negativity surrounding almost every aspect of the club at the moment and the fact that (apparently - only going from what I've read on here and other forums) Donald likes moving metaphorical goalposts - who would buy us?

 

would they be happy if Oxford finish above us though ? conspirasies etc

 

We may all feel negative but very little has changed since FPP first became interested.

In fact since then they've registered a company at the SOL, elbowed Methven out and invested millions.

They'll be 'present' at the next board meeting.

It would need very little to make us a comfortable Championship club with a large stadium and easily one of the best supports.

We're a long way from being a lost cause.

 

Never give up on your dreams mate. Kelly might be in your local next week!

 

No.
It was rumoured/invented.

As I imagine you know.

 

Oh I agree mate - absolutely. But I'm thinking as a "I am a nobody but I have a lot of money" perspective - to the naked eye we look like a lost cause.

I'm full of hope and a massive optimist as I always have been. Just hate the way things look on the field at present

 

Billionaire businessmen won’t see it like that.

We are looking at it from a very emotive position. We are part of it. We are born into it.

They see a club, with great assets, with expenditure under control, with the potential to have a guaranteed income boost of over £200 million a season in the future, plus sponsorship and kit deals.

They aren’t looking at us struggling in League One and thinking ‘no’, they are thinking ‘even less expenditure, even richer pickings’.

They gotten themselves into position, they are smart enough to move when they see the best time and terms for themselves.

 

Exactly for these level of guys to even be interested in us shows that there is something worthwhile to them.

 

Exactly ....

 

To add...

Even if we had had a turnaround under PP and gone up, they’d have spent more, sure, but on a more valuable asset closer to the cherry tree.

They know what they are doing. They’ve sized up the owners and they know exactly what the limits and capacity of them is.

It can be smooth, or a power move, they can go either way. What’s beyond challenge is they have all of the control.

 

I feel much more at ease since that @Bob Cheval posted like cleared things up and greatly appreciated.

Do you post on RTG?

I've noticed the mods over there delete threads rather quickly that has information regarding the club posted in it. Unsure if due to NDA's and it being a very popular forum with high traffic but this one is much better for getting actual Sunderland news.

Less people fighting as well.

 

The mods on here are mint too?

 

Aye apart from that Marcus he's a bit a needy ****er

 

Do we know that bit mate? Hopefully correct mind