After 3 transfer windows, I'm very happy with the job this man has done at our football club so far. Admittedly, there was a 3 week period which he got wrong, but on the whole he has got far more right. The appointment of Alex Neil was a fantastic decision (the speculation around Keane is irrelevant). He appears to have made excellent appointments in other areas of staffing as well - Stuart Harvey being a key one. Then there's the players brought in under his direction - Ross Stewart, Alex Pritchard, Corry Evans, Dennis Cirkin, Danny Baath, Carl Winchester and Patrick Roberts have all been great signings. Broadhead, Clarke, Hoffman, Dejaku and Doyle all played key roles on loan too. Finally there is the development of Embleton, Neil and Patterson in the last 18 months. People tend to just assume that these players were going to develop anyway, but I think we've made good decisions at the right times with all 3 of these that is helping to maximise their progress. A lot of Sunderland fans are wary of the DOF model, but I'm happy for Speakman to shape the future of our club. I think he deserves a bit more credit for the job done so far.
The pitchforks were out for him but he’s so far achieved what was expected. The handling of the Neil appointment was poor but I suspect he’s not the only one at fault there. I’m quietly confident going into next season.
That’s an understatement - it was an absolute disgrace. Overall though, I’m happy with his signings and he brought some real talent to the club, especially for L1 level. Let’s see how we recruit this summer…
Well we are promoted so that means a lot is forgiven... If we hadn't been promoted not getting a replacement for Broadhead when he was injured and I am still a little puzzled by Flanagan transfer.
Fingers were burnt during the de Fanti episode, which is why I think people are wary, but he wasn't really a DoF, just a sort of in house agent. Speakman is a different kettle of fish. Mistakes have been made under his watch but everyone is human. People are very quick to criticise. Overall, I think he's doing well.
I really don’t like the way he comes across. Too much trying to sound clever. And I’m saying that as a management consultant. But it’s hard to say he hasn’t done what he was brought in to do. And we are in an infinitely better position than before he was here. So fair play to him. I absolutely back him and the recruitment staff to bring in the right players.
Before the playoff final Quinny was giving a lot of praise to Dave Jones about appointing Neil so I don't think it was all down to Speakman. He has a massive job on to rebuild the footballing side of things after years of decline and neglect so I'm not having a go at him at all, but getting promotion is obviously a massive tick in the box for him. If we hadn't have gone up I reckon KLD would have, rightly, asked serious questions of him. But that's just football, it's fine lines. Big transfer window for him now.
He has achieved this season, imho. To me, the signs are promising. Mistakes were made, but the key is are lessons learned. Recruitment, on the whole, has been good.
Something about him I can't get away with, personally. However, how likeable he is, is unimportant. He'll be judged on his performance, same as the manager. I think AN has given him a major reprieve with the playoff success. Pressure is on him in a major way to do the business this pre season, as it should be. If it pulls it off, he deserves all the credit he will get.
There's no football club in the world that gets 100% of it's recruitment right. Not only has he helped the club to achieve it's goal, but we've done it whilst building a solid base for the future. The Flanagan transfer is utterly irrelevant. Most of our fans would complain any time he was on the pitch (I didn't mind him myself) and letting him go had no material impact whatsoever. It's a bizarre thing to hold against him in my view, especially given we replaced him with Danny Baath.
I think Congerton had an even more negative impact on people's views on a DoF. I know he technically wasn't DoF, he was sporting director, but the crap transfer deals he did and battles with managers definitely had an affect. Probably more the De Fanti.
I think he's done OK. I still think they went too inexperienced with several of the signings but it turned out OK in the end.
I don't like him particularly but I think he's done a good job. It's hard to know who to apportion credit and blame to but the squad is looking very healthy, we've got a top manager and that's all happened under his watch. Was he responsible for appointing Neil instead of Keane or was that someone else like Dave Jones? Who pushed for Defoe? I thought it might have been a good move but I wasn't watching him training and taking his medical. Who wanted to get rid of Gooch? Who identified and pushed for Clarke and Roberts? We don't know. Maybe Speakman deserves to take almost all the credit, maybe not. The bottom line is that under his guidance we were promoted and the future looks very promising. He has my backing.
I think the defoe thing came about because of fan pressure. May have my dates wrong but wasn.t it around the time that the share %'s came out. Seemed to me like a fan appeasement excercise, same with Keane
Hard to say just what Speakman does exactly, but someone is doing something right at SAFC. Interesting to see if the Academy can make up some lost ground next season.
The academy is very important to this self sustaining model we are / have moved towards in my humble opinion. I'm hoping we can start producing one or two a season that can make the first team then sell on if needed
I'd conveniently forgotten about Congerton. I think the power struggles between him and managers show that the appropriate infrastructure hadn't been put in place, unlike now. That was typical under Short, ideas not implemented properly.
I'm still surprised that Congerton is still working in football, as his record isn't great. He ended up at Celtic after leaving us, then went to Leicester with Brendan Rogers. He's just left there to go to Atalanta. Celtic fans don't seem to have a high regard for him and his recruitment at Leicester is very hit and miss. Maybe he works well with Brendan Rogers, but doesn't with others?
I didn't know any of that! Atalanta is a big move for someone like him. They seem to be a club that has been doing things very well for the last few years.
