Maybe, and far more likely, it took a week of AN refusing a contract which would only last until the end of the season.
If money is the only issue, for Neil, that's fine. Stoke is a bit of a nothing club with half our support, home and away, and a dreary stadium stuck on a retail park. They could never match the passion and numbers we showed when we lit up Wembley and London. All of the things that football people claim to love are there, in abundance, at Sunderland ... ... but for Neil it's all about the money. Recidivist badge kissing managers, such as Redknapp, Bruce, etc, will cross a city to manage rivals. They care more for their bank balance than loyalty or integrity. Let's be honest Neil will probably never win a major trophy, with Sunderland, Stoke or anyone else so money is all there is. He has no loyalty to any club, not even his own country, so won't stay at Stoke or the next club or the one after that. But we'll all still be at Sunderland and supporting a club we're connected to ... ... Neil is only connected to his bank balance and counting his money.
One more thing I’ll say (for now at least). Forget Speakman. Forget money. Forget broken promises. Alex Neil was at the biggest club he will ever manage, and loved by the fans more than at any club he’s ever managed. He had over 40,000 fans every week in the palm of his hands, loving him. And he’s ****ed it. After just 6 months. Our leadership may have helped him **** it. But he’s the one who’s thrown all that away, for whatever reason.
I think it's still an important role even as a non football person. Short, for example, started off just happily signing the cheques but eventually realised Quinn, Bruce, Keane, would bankrupt him because the solution was always to spend more. KLD has to ask difficult questions of his football appointments, questions that they wouldn't ask themselves.
He has made that choice. People are mentioning money but I doubt he was on the ****ing breadline here. He is not irreplaceable by any stretch. Officially he’s still here gonna be some head scratching at 12:30 if he’s in the dugout.
***This is all conjecture*** I believe that people should be paid properly for the job they do, and if SAFC have dropped the can in this regard then it is on themselves. However, the way that this played out yesterday seems to have being going on for a couple of weeks. I think also, in years to come he will fully regret yesterday decision and what could have been.
neither neil or club come out of this looking well. going to chuck a bit reality in here, based on a comment from i forget which posted around him not being on minimum wage. bit of real world & me mixed it this, not saying if previous or current employer so dont read the way i word its either. so a role i had/have, id consider decent money but not stupid money. the org i work/worked for i believe in, nationally i one of the lesser paid for exactly the same role, the real higher paid ones are in a higher cost living area, so going there might not change a great deal financially. so a couple similar living cost areas are/have offered quite a decent pay rise, performing exact same role, some of those are basket case organisations some are similar but prob not quite as good & certainly not an org i believe in as much as the one i was/am working for. it is not possible to like/get on with everyone you work with so do i jump & go for a very decent pay rise to an org i believe in less????? i stayed because it was just about the money, i was still making what id consider decent coin, it was about personal beliefs, about where i thought i could achieve the most. did i do the right thing, should i have gone for the coin, short term thinking.....its a different case of course if id been promised a pay rise, if that was the case id do my utmost to negotiate that but also taking into consideration that i still might not get exactly the offer i wanted or had from another org. Again.....which or do you believe in the most. not saying neil is right or wrong....but Sunderland are moving forward, progressing, positive buzz around. stoke face financial problems & quite simply will never ever be the club Sunderland are...not rose tinted glasses its just a simple fact
You wonder if a 3 year deal on more money signed in June would have been enough to stop him going to Stoke. Clearly they can pay more money that we can/are prepared to.
im not clever enough to find @Smug in Boots post & was skim reading last night trying to catch up exactly WTFs gone on....but hes 100% right on this. neil probably wont win anything.....BUT when your at a club like this he had a chance to neil himself into history, if he pregressed us, took us up again this next whatever season he would never be forgotten, we live breath this football club....its our lives....would he really get that at stoke??? he should have done absolutely everything he could to sort it out even for his own career....fxck me if he failed here & was sacked....he could then still go to fxcking stoke thats so much of the absolute joke of this scenario!!!!!
According to Stoke fans Michael O'Neill was on £1.5m a year at Stoke with a playoff bonus, a survival bonus and a very significant promotion bonus (another £1.5m at least). The Athletic article from earlier have echoed that and said that Neil was appointed here on around £350k a year in League 1 but that that has increased since promotion (they don't seem to know to what though).
He strikes me as the type who's loyalty is to his bank balance only. He'll ditch Stoke if one of the PL bottom 3 come calling in March
Well, that's a shocker but having read the comments here it's good to see the general attitude given the circumstances. I just hope this wasn't down to the owners not recognising his value. As has been mentioned, it's the same team and same fans. Get behind the team today, they will need you, and win 3-0. Wishing you all the best
That's absolute nonsense. Are Man Utd skint with their massive debt? FFS people come out with some nonsense. If KLD has more money than the FFP limit how on earth can we be skint
It's starting to look that way. I've seen plenty of people say that anyone would move job for more money but that's not true, there's loads of other factors you should want to consider. In Neil's defence I would say proximity to family would be one. Beyond that, and of course I'm biased, the chance of creating a legacy at a club like Sunderland would be enough for many to overlook the difference in half a million quid per year when you're a millionaire already.
