The only club signing players are the ones that are “having a go” in terms of spending beyond the clubs means and using their owners money. We seem to have done things the wrong way round mind. had an owner with no money who wanted to spend his way out of this hole Now we have an owner with money who wants to do things sustainably obviously we’d all prefer the second option. But its a tad frustrating. I’d imagine one of the reasons we are struggling with agent fees etc is because everybody assumes we are loaded and will spend more money. And the longer things go on, the more desperate we will look, and the less likely it will be that people drop their demands. just got to trust Speakman. Which I do, although it’s definitely a leap of faith.
Would you be sympathetic to Johnson if we got off to a slow start and he cited the lack of preparation time with new signings as a reason/excuse? I think from your posts you're a reasonable fella so I guess you would but I think it would have the majority frothing at the mouth. That's my concern, it's another obstacle for Johnson in winning round the fans and I think we all need to be united in our support if we're to succeed this season.
I reckon Johnson is as frustrated as the rest of us regarding the slow transfer market. He must know he needs to start well or the fans will be on his back…that’s just how it is. I have a few issues with how he handled the squad end of last season but will give him as much time as we can afford…what that is depends on how well our rivals start the season.
I think everyone would be fuming and annoyed if we did get off to a slow start but we must remember promotion isn’t won in the first month or so, Blackpool are a good example of this. We must get behind them and support the team, hopefully the calibre of players were after are better than what other teams are signing and would hopefully gel better
Am I reading too much into all the "market is stagnant" news stories the club seem to have sent out to local journo's this morning? Feels like potentially the deals they were hoping to get over the line have slowed or gone away. Maybe one is still a go'er (Pritchard), but they were hoping for a few more and now seem to be subtly suggesting they tried but failed.
I think we have to be emotionally readyg to get to the Wigan game with only a couple of signings in. There's still 3 weeks so plenty of time obviously, but expectations keep shifting back. And people think its going to get easier to sign players later in the window but it surely gets harder as clubs are getting ready for the season and agents start knowing richer clubs are desperate.
Be prepared for an away win, then. The current squad is nowhere near good enough. No excuses for a poor summer so far.
The only signings being made are: clubs with new owners overpaying ****e players who aren't asking for much We seem to be in a limbo position of not wanting to overpay for ****e. Which is right. I just worry the club underestimated how hard it would be this summer to go down the safe and sustainable route rather than taking a few risks. There needs to be a balance if we want to compete and use our size of club advantage. Otherwise we are just on a level playing field with all the others.
The club got rid of a load of players and was always going to be a massive rebuild. I just hope they didn't assume it would be easy to persuade players to play at the SOL. Lets not forget we were told by Speakman that we had two lists, one for the Championship and one for League One. Then in May he said he wanted to identify the club’s identity and last week we had Davison saying the transfer budget had been approved (doesn't mean to say that work hadn't been going on in the background). Madbob no matter what you think of him had said all along that nothing would happen on the transfer front until after the meeting on 20th June, which judging by Davison's comments he was correct That is unthinkable, as is not having made a single signing for the first team on 9th July. No one is suggesting throwing cash around cos that hasn't worked for us in the past, but if KLD thinks we can become sustainable by staying another year in league one then he is wrong. To be sustainable long term means investment now. I don't know many fans who would come and watch **** league one football because the beer is cold, the pies are delicious and the Wifi is great Yes we still have time and the AOL works, the recruitment for U23's and sports people in the background looks fine, but no one can have a go at Sunderland fans for thinking the worst is still not over, we have been living on empty promises for years, we have done our part now over to them
Having been lucky enough to observe summer recruitment drives from fairly close proximity, albeit at a significantly lower level, the one thing that guarantees good acquisitions is patience.
This. We seem to have tried the "spend money" approach when we had no money. And now we have money are trying the "don't need to spend money" approach. Which as valid as it is, puts us on a level playing field (or indeed behind) other clubs in the league. Which means our recruitment has to be brilliant. So we are putting all our faith in getting it right. I guess its natural as a Sunderland fan to not have too much confidence in good recruitment. But lets be patient as discussed!
thing is, the club is using this new system to identify targets, there have been plenty of 'out of contracts' since the end of the season that i am sure we could have had tied up by now, maybe none actually fit 'the plan' but as a league one club we will never fill the squad with championship/premier league capable players...the 'hard core' of the match day squad needs to be the players they target but i feel we will need others in to bulk up and cover for injuries, not meaning any disrespect to such players but while capable of playing in this league they are the ones either unlikely to make the step up or are reaching the end of their careers...our targets need to be those who should make the step up that we would like to hold onto. maybe the club are confident of getting certain players in, maybe some deals are done but for some reason dont want to be announced yet, a lot of time seems to have been spent on the contract talks with wyke, onien, hume and geads and i agree with @Teesdarlomakem (apologies if it wa snot you marra) when he said give them a time frame then move on, we cannot keep falling behind because one or two are undecided and possibly losing targets while we wait. i am still keeping faith with the new regime but we really need to see the main match day squad filled this next week, especially with a limited amount of pre-season games.
I am trying to think of signings in league 1 I would have liked us to make. There arent many. The keeper Ipswich have signed springs to mind. Possibly Edwards at Wigan. I am also trying to think which clubs look stronger at this stage than at the end of the season. Wigan do, but they are starting from a very low base. Burton too. Some might be weaker. Lincoln losing Grant looks tough for them. Ipswish have signed a couple and lost a couple. I also note Rotherham ans Sheff Wed have also not signed anyone. It doesnt strike me that we are falling behind other clubs at all to be honest. I know we lost a load of players but most we wanted shot of. O'Nien and McGeady any league 1 club would have signed. Embleton back in. Neil, Younger, Hawkes and Patterson up from the 23s. All in all we will sign players to add and improve us and fitness wont be a problem (example Piggott training back at Wimbledon). I just reckon we are where the clubs pushing for a top 2 squad are, needing to wait for the dominoes to start toppling at higher levels.
