Exactly mate what more could a different manager do? More young players on the pitch, even more attacking football? I don't see how you could do either without getting into the realms of foolishness. The defence is sound even with having to patch it up to almost ridiculous extents. Mowbray is the perfect fit (not that I expected it before we got him) and if anything he's overachieved this season, in a big way imo.
Couldn’t agree more. Expectation was never to get out of this league this year, indeed I’d be surprised if it was even expected next year. Club will surely look and think that next season is ours to take and pad out the squad to cover injuries, if we’d done more in January we’d have been at least 3rd. we’ve the best LB in league, the best CB (and a strong contender for another), 3 of the best wingers and going off goals per minute the best striker had he been fit. We have Lihadj who we haven’t really seen but talent wise is supposedly off it, then Ba I think will be another level after a pre season. We don’t need to change what we are doing and upset it, we need to build on it.
Stoke have unbelievably rich owners however anyone who even thinks of going there from Sunderland is doing it purely for greed. It's a massive step down in quality of football, club size and fan base. Theres a Stoke fan at work and he absolutely hates the style of football Alex Neil is playing. Saying that, if a player isn't the same after a really bad injury, and someone is daft enough to take a risk offering ridiculous wages over a long term contract, I can see where that may be tempting. Not that I am saying Stewart won't be the same player as only he knows that, the club will see once he is back in training. Personally I think he will only leave if there is an offer of Premier League football as we will be competing for automatic promotion next season, I'm sure of that. Stewart also needs to have a chat with O'Nein when it comes to the temptation of leaving, he was so close a couple of years ago and I bet he is over the moon that he stayed.
Our wage ceiling is around 15k per week, Clarke is the highest earner. If Stewart is asking for massively in excess of that it makes sense for the club to sell him rather than a) break the wage structure and b) potentially disrupt the dressing room £15-20,000 per week is hardly a "pittance" even if Stoke are offering £30k for example. No one player is bigger than the club
I get that, but how do you know they're not offering him about say 12/13k a week? I don't know the exact figures that every player gets a week, didn't know any wages were common knowledge tbf.
This is the constant narrative around the club - if a player doesn't sign then they must be trying to penny pinch and offer daft wages. Stewart will being offered what the club believe is fair (and stays within the wage structure) Clubs like Stoke (who haven't just had 4 years in L1 and 10+ years of financial mismanagement) will always be able to offer more at this stage - aren't they paying Gayle something like £60k per week, albeit the mags are subsidising a significant amount of that
There’s never, at any point, been any suggestion from Stewart that he isn’t wanting to stay and open to negotiation. He’s a year on his deal, he will want a contract sorted somewhere, that’s not greed that’s job security. I personally don’t doubt he will start the season here and we will sort his deal in due course. He is the best striker outside the PL in my opinion, Akpom is more of an out and out goal scorer Ross brings a lot to the team. I don’t see us letting him go unless something daft comes up.
I think it's fair to say the injury has come at the worst possible time for all parties - forgetting his on field impact for a moment - they were well down the line with negotiations but now the club might just be holding off in case this in jury is career threatening (in terms of how he comes back and whether it reoccurs or causes him issues). He's had long term injuries before joining us, he came to us with an injury and didn't play for 3 months. Maybe it's last season that was the anomaly. All these things have to be factored in but some in our fanbase what him on a 5 year deal, 30k a week regardless. I like the way KLD and Speakman are running this club. If that means we lose Stewart for the betterment of the club overall, then so be it,....
Can't imagine they'd trigger the automatic extension while there's a new contract offer on the table. I imagine they'll announce it when they do the retained list.
Happy Birthday Dear Tony, Happy Birthday to you Just a shame he's covering the 'F' on his tracksuit please log in to view this image Full name Anthony Mark Mowbray Date of birth 22nd November, 1963 Place of birth Saltburn
I wonder whether this never went ahead (in part) due to the uproar from the fans at the time... I wonder how we'd be doing with Farioli in charge now (he currently has Nice challenging PSG at the top of Ligue 1)... Maybe we should all just trust the guys in charge in future
Think it would still have been hugely harsh to do anything last summer, even if with hindsight it might seem to have been a mistake.
At the time it felt like sentiment over sense but I fully supported TM staying. TBF we had a cracking season under him.
I really don't want Mowbray to leave, I think he has been brilliant for us...but as I said in another post earlier this week, the vibe around a number of fans (not so much on here) is making the outcome looking inevitable ... he has some credit in the bank from a good section of the supporter base, but with every week that passes this has been eroded..its a shame, as I think he would be a good long term manager if supported. We can't just hop from one manager to another when things get a bit tough, makes no sense.
