did bernt hass cost £11m ! i never knew that and what about the German international he never played, we should have got Wenger in 1996 after we went up, but there's another story,
If it all comes down to six million pounds it all comes down to the mistake that was Tore Andre Flo. I completely get what he's saying. Money on the squad is better than empty seats... in hindsight. But the extension was a permanent asset, so I do get the investment. It was hopeful. If he'd wanted 6 mil he should have used the Flo money better. 10m for him and Stewart wasn't a good investment at the time. That said, I was ****ing 13 at the time and I might not have a great handle on it. I think he's conveniently pointing fingers when plenty of blame falls on him.
For me, the Reid era can be split into 2 bits - the successful bit with Booby Saxton, and the other bit with Adrian Heath
Would this coincide with Quinns back finally packing in, my memory is a bit fuzzy on the timing.. Quinn was never adequately replaced and Reid could not adjust his tactics. TBF to Reid he did give us some of the best times in years and I'm thankful for that, unfortunately unlike Shankley, Clough and Ferguson he could not keep rebuilding teams and establish a dynasty. Ah well what might have been.
Needed both but if you can’t afford the players don’t do the extension as it’s pointless. A top signing and more success fills the ground, failure doesn’t.
I think most of your questions have been answered by others above. I too loved the first few years of his reign, and the famous song we all sang, but as I said a few days ago his crown began to slip with the costly favouritism shown to Dichio. After which his increasingly poor record in the transfer market and falling out with key players at the wrong times led to his downfall, not the extension to the Stadium, that he is hiding behind in the article you promote, thats my opinion anyway. OaU
He didn’t cost anything like that, was reported as around 1m at the time. Transfermrkt has him as costing 11m but are definitely wrong!
Something about the maths doesn't sound right, 6 mil for 6000 seats is a grand a seat, I wouldn't mind sitting on one of them because our seats probably cost about a fiver each. I know there's labour costs etc but not that much surely. Supposedly it's a straightforward stadium to expand into when needed. Anyway I agree with Reid, the team needed money spending much more than seating needed expanding.
he was given the resources to replace Quinn. He just failed to do so. Lasland and Flo. Also M’Boma on loan
It wasn't just the seats mate.. The whole ground construction behind it to make the space for the 6 thousand seats is what cost the money.
There's nothing wrong with us having a 60k stadium. It will bring more revenue in which should reward a more successful team, and any way to increase revenue is a good thing, but on this occasion reidy was right. If we'd extended the stadium and still invested in the squad that would have made the extension worthwhile.
Our average for the Premier league was about 40k, I think. 49k is to big for us so anything else is just a waste of money and space. It would kill the atmosphere and it would be ridiculous only ever playing in a half full stadium. At our best under Reid the capacity was 42k and we were selling out every game and probably could have got another 2-3 thousand. If we were a champions league team we might fill the stadium at current capacity for most games and not just the big one off games.
Dichio only started 22 games in all of his time here. I think it's a stretch, at best, to use the word favouritism with Danny Dichio. We'll agree to disagree if you want now mate before it goes around in circles
Didn't we try to sign Crouch but he turned us down? I have vague recollections of him talking to the Club about a transfer.
Sunderland have withdrawn their bid to sign Peter Crouch after the club claimed the Portsmouth striker had told them he was unwilling to relocate to the north of England. "Naturally this is hugely disappointing for us as Peter was one of our primary targets," said the Sunderland manager Steve Bruce. "I know he was impressed with the set-up here when he came for talks but it's simply a matter of geographical location and that's not something we can affect. "What's pleasing, however, is that it shows the intent of the club going forward that we are trying to bring in players of his calibre and we will continue to pursue other targets." Sunderland had settled on a fee with Portsmouth, thought to be £12m, and claim Crouch had agreed to "favourable personal terms". But the Wearsiders say the 28-year-old later informed them he intended to remain in the south, news that is thought to have alerted Fulham and Tottenham.
