Summer window

I still don’t understand how Speakman (and KLD) are seen as villains and with suspicion by a sizeable proportion of our fanbase. It’s even more unfathomable considering all they’ve achieved in such a short space of time.

As for Dodds, our development of players over the last couple of years has been fairly remarkable. I’m guessing he’s played a pretty significant role in that(?).

 

Great article in The Athletic today on the perils of gambling your financial future on promotion. Adds further weight to Sunderland's model of self sustainability

Regrets and relegation – how losing the Championship play-off final can wreck a club - The Athletic

 

Haters gotta hate...

I know people who cannot stand Speakman and every success we've had on the pitch and in recruitment is apparently in spite of him. Got told that most of the players don't like him, and the club are penny pinching with Cirkin's contract renewal, yet here we are in a higher division with a massively talented squad and a club travelling in the right direction for the 1st time in years.

Some in the fanbase always have to moan or have someone to blame - Speakman is the public face of the club, so it's natural he gets the grief. I'm mentioned before that a friend of mine knows Speakman very well (in a professional capacity) and has said he's absolutely committed to the self-sustainability model and nothing (not even RS getting injured) will divert his focus. It's admirable, but I get how it winds certain people up. Certainly his comments about Dajaku being the 3rd striker or how "we as a club aren't aligned to playing a traditional no.9" do not help.

Having said all that, I can't see how anyone could genuinely criticise the current regime - there has been lots of good work, but there is still plenty to do, especially off the pitch but the direction of travel is (in my opinion) very encouraging,

 

there’s some, especially on Twitter, who have made their opinions on individuals known early, and then rather than admit they were wrong will double down on it, waiting for the moment that person slips and they can say “look I told you so”.

 

spot on in the second bit as well btw.

he could be the most arrogant man in the world but if he keeps helping our players develop how they are he can say what he wants.

the argument will be “they’d have developed anyway” but he’s part of that package and I love what I’m seeing.

 

I think to an extent too, we now have a generation of fans that have grown up knowing nothing except the club being mismanaged, struggling in the Prem then falling through the leagues and dwelling in L1 for a few seasons. As a result their relationship with the club is wholly adversarial, a real us vs them mentality. They want to go to the match to groan at misplaced passes and to piss and moan on about ‘typical Sunderland’ and other woe is me nonsense.

It’s not something I can relate to and I’ve no idea what it will take, if it’s possible at all, to ‘fix’ this element of our fanbase in this regard. The comments do sound increasingly silly though the better we do.

Edit: I say a generation of fans, that implies it’s youngsters that go on like this, I don’t mean that, it’s more a proportion of our fans that have become conditioned to be like that during that period.

 

yeh I don’t blame any of the fans doing it either tbh. I think sometimes it’s also a self defence mechanism. You don’t want to be hurt by somebody so you assume the worst in them and then when they let you down you’re not as hurt.

it also hurts less when you lose when you have somebody to blame it on. That’s why managers, owners etc are either constantly changing or reviled by fan bases. It seems the default position for a lot of people is scepticism and dismissiveness

 

No surprises there. Nice to have a summer free of drama

Edit - thought Pritch was out of contract.....

 

You'll also get those who had good relationships with the previous owners,who will find any reason to have a dig at KLD, Speakman etc.

 

Think Pritch has another year mate.

 

If we rate him & are in for him, make him an offer & he goes elsewhere....his priority is not his career or development....any young player doesnt want to come here now they are fools & not for us

 

SIGN ME UP

This is where you have to hope the memory of Klopp/Liverpool sending Elliott to Mowbray at Blackburn shines through. In addition to what happened with Amad.

This would be brilliant.

 

This is the lad we 100% should be going for, class player who has played in the championship before

Will help replace the goals n creativity of Amad. Hes top of my list for loan signings

 

I've never seen a tweet or hint of a transfer rumour and gone YES as quickly as I did here. They don't even link him to Sunderland. But its just perfect in every way for all parties and I'd struggle to see why it shouldn't happen

 

Agreed mate, the guy is class n fits exactly what we are trying to do. Hopefully they make it happen

 

The 2 posters who consistently criticise/refuse to give credit to Speakman and Dodds are those whose pals have lost influence within the club when Speakman has taken control.

There are no circumstances where they will give credit to Speakman so it's not worth debating. They're not able to detach themselves and see it objectively on these subjects.

 

Surely they will only consider loaning him to a Premier League club? He's good enough to contribute for half of them in my opinion.

 

Is one of these individuals me ? If so you're very wrong. I have no pals from the previous regime. Very against Donald and Methven. Most should be able to tell you that.

Speakman has done well. Made so errors but it's part of football. He doesn't think he is above himself though.

 

Agree

I dont mind folk not liking speakman or not taking to him but i cant stand when he gets no praise for the job hes done. Some on here continue to slag him and think weve been successful in spit of him - he is the driving force behind us being successful. Ive seen the likes of stewart harvey n james young get praised so much (rightly so) but speakman gets zero praise yet hes the one whose brought them in and sets the vision

Hes transform this club with KLD, KLD clearly had a vision when he bought us but its speakman that drives that vision.