Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Saudi State FC - FA Cup 3rd Round – Saturday 6th January 2024 - KO 12:45

I don’t think many supporters would expect us to invest to Newcastles level.

But I think it would be fair to expect more investment than what we are getting currently. With the sale of Stewart and our success through promotion and the playoffs last season, we’ve had some decent paydays.

I like the model, but I think that model might be adjusted slightly after Saturday, or id like to hope so.

 

Exactly this

People are shouting for the play-offs, I’d rather we finished just outside of them tbh. We simply aren’t ready and haven’t got the players to compete in the premier league. We need another couple of transfer windows of buying quality now. Not young players with potential. We’ve got enough of them, now.

How many of these young guys from abroad have worked out and made a big impact, so far? It’s being overhyped, imo.

 

There's no point in us saying we need to stay down another season or 2 if we stay on the same path. We will be no further forward. Especially if we lose our best players in the summer.
We need to start recruiting power and pace over the next couple of windows.

 

The £100mill for promotion is worth going up for, even if you come straight down.

 

Good post. What annoyed me about the 3rd was the poor way we lost possession in their half, O9 was then wrong footed and unluckily missed his tackle on the halfway line, forcing Ballard into a desperate last man lunge for the ball. I haven't watched the game back yet, but it felt like we gave the ball up way to easy in their half?

 

Lad I know, Mag at work 100 percent got free beer. He mentioned it before I did. Lad in front of him ordered drinks, went to pay, didn't work, took the drinks, Lad I know ordered 10 pints, same thing happened. It may have been stopped after, but free ale was had.

 

I cant figure out why people dont get this???

 

I am surprised we didnt give them free food

 

It needs patience and an exceptance of yo-yoing for a couple of years to allow for squad improvement and funds to build up. Supporters won’t accept that and hound out anyone who doesn’t deliver instant success.

 

I think I was stopped soon after, but what's a team or youngsters on a bar supposed to do with fans growling.

 

Well yeah, but it’s not as straight forward as that. We have a very young squad and if we were to go up and get battered every week, it won’t do anything for their development or confidence.

 

The club is losing about £7m a year currently isn't it? And that's before accounting for the acquisition of Bellingham, Rusyn, Mayenda etc (probably the Stewart money gone and us back to £7m loss again).

People can think what they like as to whether we should be throwing caution to the wind and KLD should just throw more and more money after it but it's just nonsense to claim that he's not investing or is profiteering.

 

The last accounts showed a loss of around £4 million - that covers the last year in League 1 and the start of the championship.

Thew next accounts are due April and it will be interesting when Grumpy on RTG does his analysis of them. I believe people are expecting a slight loss but nothing untoward

 

That would suit me for another 3/4 seasons to be honest.

 

Same here mate. I’m in absolutely no rush to get back to being defeated more than we win every season.

 

The biggest whingers will be the ones who said, but we’ll be getting a £100 million,

 

No doubt about it. I thought the club wanted to build a team that stays together and can go up and compete. If we go up and get smashed every week, that stumps the development and confidence of these young lads then we’d need wholesale changes with the money gained from the premier league.

It doesn’t seem to me that’s the idea that the club have.

 

Agree. I enjoy watching us play good,exciting,winning football. We're up against some very good teams in this league and until I see us well in the mix at the top,clearly better than anyone else in the Championship,with a team that looks like it can compete in the PL,I'm happy to consolidate and continue to build.
The days of being in the bottom 3 or 4 every week, parking the bus to minimise the damage home and away,hoping for a freak breakaway goal to fluke us a draw,and clinging desperately to the forlorn hope we can somehow manage to muster 40 points are anathema to me.

 

I like to believe everything is being continually evaluated.

I also believe the club would welcome promotion however it came ...

... and if we went up I'd hope they have plans to try to capitalise on it.

The problem with not trusting the club is that it's an endless loop of suspicion and recrimination. There's always room to 'push on' and invest more.

 

My thoughts exactly. We are in a good place, atm. The fans and players are really connected. The football is good and we win plenty of games.

If we were to go up this season through the playoffs, my honest opinion is we have no more than a handful of players that are ready to step up now. We’d need to do a ‘Forest’ and pretty much sign a new squad. I don’t think we have plans to do anything of the sort. I hope not, anyway.