Phil Smith’s article in the Echo this morning is nicely balanced in my view. Sums everything up really nicely. https://www.sunderlandecho.com/spor...coach-search-what-happened-whats-next-4649917
This about sums it up for me too. Hes gone to a side in a European competition, vs a side who finished 16th in the second tier. Not much decision wise to make really. I’d take the Sunderland job, but I am a local lad who loves SAFC. Anyone with ambition should go for Lens imo. Don’t blame him. Hope we have other irons
Might get a centre forward in ready to contribute to the 1st team? Speakman thinks that position is overrated anyway so don't hold your breath.
Stick around mate, you make a valuable contribution. The truth of all of this will come out in the wash at some point. My take is that,as you and others posted,Still had an agreement in place to come here and then got a better offer....most likely money....at the last minute. Might not even have been his money,but his staff. If I was you,I'd be on to my source to try to find out what our next move will be....and stick it up on here to give us some much needed good news!
Stewart was offered improved terms (while he had a serious injury) which the club considered right. Southampton (in much better state moneywise) offered better terms which he accepted. He played approximately 30 minutes for them all season (no goals). No-one can say he will return to form. So Sunderland have 10 million in the bank and have saved paying him a years salary for doing nothing.
So if he likes throwing **** why wouldn’t he make something up. If this was the first mistake that they’ve made I may go along with it, but to be honest there is just as much chance as Walker being right and he doesn’t talk **** either.
Sent him the contract? Depends on who you believe, I’ve read what you say here and that it was verbally agreed. It may be that the contract was sent with a start date of June 1st. I guess we’ll never know!
Best transfer business the club has ever done imo! We also get another 7 figures because Southampton got promoted
Absolutely bang on. Also, do you not find it odd that Roker Report literally said there is no news, and the nonsense needs to stop a few days ago. Then the Athletic post the news and bang, an exclusive to counter within literal minutes. Same as Hope. He hasn't posted a sniff for weeks and bang, same time as Roker Report. The club have been silent for 105 days on the head coach search, the second a reputable no nonsense writer from the Athletic post then boom, local mouth pieces get the briefing to counter. Just all stinks to me. Same playbook as Pritchard. Must think we are all stupid.
Hate to be that bloke but surely it doesn’t take much to read back over your piece or have someone else proof read it before it’s uploaded. I’m only two paragraphs in and it’s already a tough read for the typos and spelling errors. What’s happened to standards.
I have to be honest I wasn't exactly warming to Still with the seeming lack of a definitive commitment from him, started to feel.like he would be off as soon as a better offer came in. Unfortunately I believe we have burned our bridges with Maric, who I was told had agreed to come then was put on the back burner when Still became available. Would Rosenior be that bad? He was very well thought of at Derby and came close last year at Hull, maybe it's a sliding doors moment and we get someone that really wants to build a legacy here
Hope will take calls from anyone from a higher power and run a story on the sniff of a breeze. Fills column inches.
Yeh devils advocate you could say that Michael Walker and Keith Downey were simply being the “mouthpiece” for Still / his agents. Neither said anything all week and then bang at pretty much the same time they said pretty much the same thing. Likewise then Hope and Roker Report in counter. Seems pretty obvious to me that Walker and Downey were acting off the same “leak” from Stills agents and then Roker Report and Hope acting of an off the record denial from the club. truth is probably in the middle
Forgot about the Pritchard **** show aswell. Offering him a token contract extension, through the media, probably knowing full well he wouldn't sign, just to make him look good. "Ah well, we offered him the contract so not our fault he didn't sign".
Day before, Speakman literally doing a press conference, hailing Pritchard as a vital, important player. Unbelievable skulduggery going on and I think lots of fans have had their fill. Need less of this protection PR due to bad decisions and actual competence. The bloke said the aim was top 2. No less. We finished 16 with about 25 defeats. Dodds as gaffer for half a season and now, still no closer to a head coach.
I won’t mind Rosenior unless he has to keep Dodds in his lofty possession. Let’s be honest, the only Speakman buzzphrase out of all of them, his “laser focus”, his “obsessions with progression” that is proving right is his “succession planning”. Someone from inside the business who can step up, even though he has proved he can’t handle it. Whether or not Dodds and Proctor are good enough to be near the front bench, the first team operations need a clean sweep. Because protecting his mate at the expense of the club shouldn’t happen
I was going to say the exact same thing. It's shoddy and makes me think if he can't get that right, the content can't be of good quality either.
For all the **** i've said towards Speakman over the last 24 hours, he was absolutely right on the Pritchard, Neil and Stewart situations. We have Rigg, Jobe, Aouchiche and others in the 10 position, we absolutely did not need to block them with Pritchard who is a bang average footballer and stunk up Birmingham with performance and attitude problems. Neil didn't get with the model, if you don't have full alignment then you can't be here, that goes for KS as well. We couldn't offer Stewart a contract while he was injured... Still Speakman out though. Just think the criticism on him should be the correct criticism.
