Sir Alex Ferguson, I would never deem to question how you manage your successful football club with a massive turnover and its worldwide brand, nor would I tell you how to manage a string of racing horses or how to behave in the presence of royalty, that is your world. My world is a little different, my annual salary is probably half your weekly wage, I have just found out this morning that government consider me to be in âfuel povertyâ because I spend more than 10% of my income on fuel. From the remainder of my fuel ravaged salary, I support my son through his studies at Sunderland University, save for my grandchildrenâs future and purchase two season tickets each season; every home game I make a 100 mile round trip to watch an underperforming team, play one dimensional football. I have enjoyed highs and lows as a Sunderland supporter since 1962 only missing games during my own modest football career but have never felt as disappointed as I do with our current performances following the promise of shopping at Harrods. This is my world and I would not have it any other way, I have enjoyed the relative successes through the sixties and early seventies, suffered the debacle of the McMenemy period and endured the mediocrity served the rest of the time so please donât deny me or any of our magnificent, long suffering supporters the right to voice our opinion and criticise a manager who has spent almost 90 million building a team which has failed to meet any of our expectations. Bruce has failed at Sunderland, not because of criticism from fans or his geordie roots but his inability to build a side that can compete in the premiership despite spending more than Harry Redknapp has at Spurs in the same period. Your support of Bruce is blinkered and smacks of cronyism, you are out of touch with the real world and the conceit that you demonstrate will hasten an end of the golden goose which football has become to a fortunate minority. Why should we not expect relative success after an outlay of 90m over two and a half years? Why should we continue to fork out our hard earned and not complain when our expectations are not realised? Satellite television, attendances and marketing have afforded you and your like the opportunity to enjoy your world; despite this you appear to advocate suppression of the most important group of people within this process, the customer. I would follow Sunderland at any level of the football pyramid, would you demonstrate the same commitment?
Good post Monty. There will still be Mackem's agreeing with Fergie though, who think we shouldn't be looking to improve and just accept our lot. Telling us if we want glory to go elsewhere, not realising SAFC is in our blood.
Must admit the comments from Fergie along with Wenger and even Martinez piping up left me well annoyed. Good post.
Beautifully written. I think all current managers tend to stick up for each other like some sort of clique! even Pardew was at it lol!
Not only very well written, but spot on in content too. Where the hell does Ferguson get off talking about fans as patient for success as ours. 90% of my love for SAFC stems from the team between 1948 and 1957. I've seen about six or seven good years since then. Patient? - the daft old bat doesn't know what it is. Well said, mate.
Must admit, more people should read this piece, not just us..... Maybe the Man U fans apart, everyone would agree with it.... Now how do you do articles?
Well said,Monty..what the hell has it got to do with Fergie??Saggychops also has a pop at Sunderland in today's Sun.They should keep their noses out of our club's business.
You need to post more mate. Superb. By the way I used to be Monty's paper boy back in the day. Great bloke, great tipper..
Wholeheartedly agree,interfering old swine looks down on all the smaller clubs,the patronising old bastard
Excellent post and it probably represents the thoughts of most SAFC supporters, particularly those of us who are showing signs of greying now. Sadly, what SAF and his cronies don't realise is that we don't give a damn for their views, after all, what do they know about SAFC other than the road in and out of town? Yet another attempt to divert attention away from the pressure he is under from the blue half of Manchester.
Thanks for the compliment, I have played golf with Ces Irwin, I used to post on 606 but don't get much opportunity to post these days, I do still read and enjoy the forum.
The thing everybody is forgetting here is that Sir Alex is now not guaranteed 6 points for us a year, and everybody must realise that when a team tries to change something to make ourselves better we do this at the expense of the other managers! Also managers have such well paid jobs, do they want their own chairmen realising that an improvement could be made by replacing their managers?
Loan players are not any sort of long term answer, just look at us and Bolton this term, we relied too heavily on loan players.
