I doubt that he's in that bad a situation. Realistically our matchday revenue is a lot lower than a lot of clubs at the top, but higher than those in the division, I'd guess that we will only lose around £800k-1m from not playing 3 games, not enough to drive him to the edge. When you factor in furloughs and player wage savings via various means, he probably comes out financially neutral. Then in June he'll have some decisions to make. The contracts ending is beneficial for him potentially if there are any doubts remaining about next season. I also think that people will pay a surprising amount to watch us via a stream. Could well see us bringing in £4-500k+ per match on average over a season where none of us could go. I'd pay, and I bet most of us would too. Basically things are up in the air, but Donald is probably not in as bad a situation as you'd think.
I'm not suggesting he's close to the edge ... ... but his chances of progressing, on his own, are virtually zero. We're stagnating and the support will fall away even after football starts again. A lot of people will be skint, racked up debt, etc, and football will come way down on the list of priorities. We've lost every shred of momentum while Donald and Methven have both made it clear they want out of SAFC. In all honesty they couldn't have made a bigger hash of it all.
I agree, I'm not saying I'd want him forever, just that anyone hoping he is going to be forced out by the current crisis (some of the other posters) will unfortunately end up being disappointed. I don't know where we go from here. From his statement, I'd guess he's hoping that everyone else in the division is hit harder than us and that he can build a better squad in the summer because he's not restricted by current player contracts.
And this is why people, including me, have lost patience with him. He's saying he'll be gone by the end of Feb/March/April/May then saying he wants to stay, then FPP want to go/stay/invest in him not the club, etc. How can that possibly inspire the supporters to buy season tickets, existing players to stay and new ones to sign ... it's a total shambles. Donald wasn't restricted by Grigg's contract and I've no confidence whatsoever that he could build a team tbh. If an insurance salesman thinks he knows better than his manager then we're doomed imo.
Whenever I've asked, which I daren't too often, I get the same reply. They've not changed their position since this began. They will take over, if the circumstances are right, and invested money because they're interested in the club. If Donald fails they'll own the club.
Rock and a hard place then, Donald has the potential to go down as the man that destroyed any hope for the future. I think the mag takeover will turn more fans against him for his inability to let go for the greater good
Ah but you are forgetting one thing mate, a lot of the SMB don’t believe that a takeover was ever in the pipeline, despite SD saying so. There are people over there hanging onto his every word. One in particular who defends him to the hilt, yet doesn’t know who Sunderland play until after 3pm on a Saturday.
Let go of what and to who though? The reality is that FPP wanted to do this deal this way. As smug says, nothing has changed for them since day one, which means that they weren't somehow convinced by Donald to do this deal, they wanted to do a loan that could convert if we were successful. That's it. It's not a bad deal for us, and they could one day be our owners because of it, but it's not a bid to own us outright as majority shareholders. Donald has done lots that I've been critical of, and some of it revolved around how he painted this 'takeover' which in reality was a convertible loan that could one day mean many different outcomes. But the reality is that FPP do not appear to be in to buy us right now. We need to get promoted and achieve some upward momentum to get to that point, so blaming Donald for 'not letting go' is a bit harsh when he does not appear to have had anybody to let go to.
Fair enough, if thats the way you ‘know’ it’s been staged, we all may as well give up then as we have zero chance of promotion with dumb and dumber running the show. Dinosaur Phil and his one trick ponies on the pitch and billy liar and DJ posh failing off it.
blatantly obvious it was a takeover, SD said so himself, all the fanzines etc were tipped off, I’m having none of this oh we misunderstood rubbish. Still Kitten said it was never a takeover just a loan to see how we get on ♂️
Well I'm just enjoying going on call after call with cock-a-hoop Mags - FML. This is going to be painful if SD has messed this all up.
Its funny how so many have now crawled out from under their rocks to gloat, my whats app has been inundated these last couple of days, I really hope Karma strikes again.
