The more you look at it, making young players the centre of the new strategy is an inspired move: Gives Sunderland an identity / makes us stand out Addresses the geography factor where we normally can’t attract high quality players Helps the club be sustainable. Younger players means lower wages and lower transfer fees. Plus their values have the chance to grow very quickly Our turnover can’t match the Southern / London clubs so it makes sense to admit that and take a vastly different approach
We must not underestimate the value of these sorts of stories. I have said in the past that we should always show more patience with younger players, more so home grown youngsters, than other players. The pay off is huge. Look at Patto and Neil as examples. Perfects examples of how academy graduates can progress at our club. Putting our faith in Neil, rather than buying a 26 year old who may be more experienced and make fewer mistakes, will mean the likes ot Chris Rigg are more likely to stay. Neil binned off for a few mistakes in favour of a more seasoned pro will have Rigg thinking less of us. The fact we have coaches who trust the young lads to learn quickly and grow, and an owner who doesnt demand wins at all costs, means we can look forward to many more Dan Neil's, so long as we accept they learn on the job with us. We had the chance to use Henderson and Pickford as the poster boys, but seemed to never promote from within after them. We musnt make that mistake again. We need to see the likes of Zac Johnson and Rigg coming through next season, rather than buying in their positions.
Yep. That's the way. It was always the way. It doesn't mean that we dispense with pragmatic help from older players, but, like Baht, Evans and Pritchard, they should be the right lads.
Some very good recruitment there to be fair! It their personality aswell, which the club got wrong in many occasions previously!
True, it was the same when we won the play off final and scored the worldy v Reading when we had the fifa twitter account posting links to the goals. It all helps raise the profile and, I assume, makes doing business with clubs like PSG for Michut a little bit easier than it would be for other Championship sides.
The owner is not going to be the problem with this model, the fans are. You can already see minor discontent on social media that we aren't in the playoffs because we had an "opportunity". Next year, the expectation among many will be promotion. If we look like falling short, (some) fans will want Mowbray out and will be shouting for money spent on new players. The first sign of taking a profit on an asset will be regarded as a lack of ambition, despite it being a key component of the model and the reason we signed many of these players in the first place. Dan Neil hinted in his interview that he wanted to have taken Sunderland to the Premier League by the end of his contract (2026). I think a lot of Sunderland supporters will regard waiting that long as failure.
One of the podcasts said we "turned down the chance to go up this year" and that pissed me off massively. It's just a stick to beat the club with
They are a bit too downbeat these days imo. They seem like great lads but always find a reason to have a pop about something . It's up to them, what they say on their podcast I suppose, everyone entitled to their opinion . It's the older lads I'm on about there btw. The younger ones doing the preview pod need binning off ASAP. Lifting patter
People find fault or post negativity then claim it makes them a realist. It's like people saying we have no chance of making the playoffs, then claim it makes them a realist. In reality we're one point away and have a game with Preston which could make all the difference. Being pessimistic doesn't make you a realist.
Fair play Bob, and well said. He is doing what I would have loved to do. I was some way off sadly. But I feel myself almost kicking every ball he kicks. I love him as a player, but also think he is growing into a bit of a leader on the pitch. I hope he keeps progressing. He has the right coaches, the rest is up to him and his attitude, which seems to be pretty good.
your right, i think he need a louder voice, my partner is Gaz Flitcroft, he was a lot like Bally, loud aggressive and powerful, if he get half those attributes, he will be outstanding.
Certainly seems to be finding his voice on the pitch and moving into a leadership role. Been an incredible season for his development he's progressing rapidly in many areas.
