Even though our best players were sold from under his feet......you forgot that bit RP
Like our next ex manager and any future managers, they go in with their eyes wide open, it's not like it's a secret that suddenly comes out down the line and in Holden's case he has seen it action over a 4 year period, everything to do with our transfer policy buying and selling wise.
So nobody was sold from 'under his feet' he was well aware of uncle Steve's pillars and more importantly yes individually they were our best players, but collectively we were still not a consistent team even when most or all played together and with the exception of Brownhill were all sold during the closed season, so their sales still would not explain our annual January to May meltdown.
The problem is the transfers in policy, it is at best 50% effective and certainly needs to improve, only Bentley and a fully fit DaSilva would probably yield more in fees than we paid for them, all of the others at present IMHO would be loss making, luckily the academy is still filling that particular void.
This is what I would like to see for the rest of this season, firstly keep blooding individuals from the academy, keep introducing them into the match day squad and when we have (hopefully) amassed enough points to make us safe, ease out all of the deadwood and play the kids.
LJ has gone and is at a club where potentially he can become a big hero, the fanbase is desperate, I suspect nothing short of promotion this season will do for most Sunderland fans, but maybe a close encounter might suffice. I wish the guy no ill in fact ex city striker and huge Mackem fan Robbie Turner is a friend of mine and I would like to see him be successful for Robbie's wellbeing. Robbie asked me what to expect and I told him to expect undefeated streaks and winless streaks and I said he IMHO never had a good record of handling big name players, but luckily Sunderland don't have any of those.
