Jordan and Lee linked with a move to 'Pool. Bent already gone. Gyan move possibility. Gordon linked with other clubs. These are (were(Bent)) our best players and although these may only be rumours it's also possible there is some truth in them. With 4 loan players already gone back and the injuries to Campbell and Gordon, we are dangerously short of players. I don't like the sound of losing 2 very good prospects and replacing them with the likes of the man utd. 2 Vaughan to me is just like another Dean Whitehead, ok, but no improvement. It seems to me that all our top players are linked with moves away and even though SB and NQ seem to indicate they won't go, how many of us really think that if a decent offer comes in they'll be off. I can understand how the likes of Wigan feel when other clubs come after their better players (we're guilty of that) so when it happens to us we can't complain. It's a compliment in a way that top clubs are after some of our players. The danger is that by selling our good players we either stagnate or go backwards or even get relegated. If SAFC are serious about improving then we should be keeping our best players and adding top quality and not possibly losing the above mentioned players to replace them with the likes of Brown, Gibson or Vaughan. We already have better players than those. The above paragraph sounds obvious but we've been here before (selling Jones and Bent for instance) Maybe no-one will be going. Maybe we will actually sign some quality players. First of all we have to replace 4 loan players who have gone back to their parent clubs. All 4 were quality and to even stand still these must be replaced before contemplating strengthening the squad. We need at least 3 strikers (providing Gyan stays) one of which must be an adequate replacement for Bent plus 2 of the quality of Wellbeck. All through the team we need improvements and quality back up but nowhere more than LB. We all know the story there so it isn't worth repeating on here. So then, the question: Should we be worried we are losing our better players and are replacing them with ordinary players or do you think we'll keep them all and add some top quality players?
Nothings happened yet, but the old saying "every player has a price " is true. Some will go, but as long as they are replaced by better, why worry to much, that's the aim of all clubs. At the moment, im a bit worried about Henderson going, and hope it doesn't happen, as i don't see too many replacements with his potential. There's a few, but how much would they cost. Apart from him, i see nearly everyone is replaceable, and see replacements for them. Not to worried about it at the moment, but if Henderson goes, then someone comes in for Sess. My view may change. The rest? not bothered, as i don't see to many offers coming in for them.
rumours very seldom have any factual content. It is the silly season after all and the newspapers are short of football stories so they make them up.
I can see where you are coming from mate. Itâs setting a very dangerous precedent if we sell Hendo and Catts IMO. We will rightly simply look like a selling club just happy to be there and not a developing one looking to become a player in this league. We have a thin young squad already and what we donât want is to make that worse before we make it better. If we signed say Palacios, Vaughan, Larsson and N'Zogbia and let Catts go (not Jordan imo) then that would be different. As we saw with Judas, its suicide to let players go before replacements have been sought and secured. We need to build on this squad and establish ourselves in that top 10+ place with much more ease next term and selling Catts and Jordan without adequate replacements will weaken us and make us much less attractive to potential signings as well.
Whatever about the relative merits of keeping/selling the likes of Hendo and Catts, there is another maybe more important angle to all this. 1 â Ellis Short He will see two other American owners, Lerner and Henry, lashing out major bucks. Lerner on Bent to survive the drop and Henry on Carroll + whatever Dalglish wants this summer. I doubt if a few mill profits will prompt him to request that any specific players be sold. But will he realise that getting anywhere significant requires similar big bucks, both in the transfer market and on the wage structure to keep our best? Letâs hope so. This will be a very interesting summer in more ways than one. 2 â Steve Bruce His third year of building his own team. Is he prepared to more or less start all over again having lost a number of first teamers? (ignore returning loanees). If he has to bring in say 8 new players, thatâs maybe 10 games into the season before they gel properly. Too risky from SBâs point of view methinks. This applies to SAFC now: I simply don't want to see any of the 1st team being sold just for profit. Certainly not this year.
I believe it will all boil down to finances: if season ticket sales drop alarmingly, then we will be forced to sell some of these players, simple as that.
Worry I find goes with being a Sunderland fan so I do my best not to. In one season I worried about Bent not scoring, Gyan not starting, Sess and Muntari taking ages to come, Bent going, long list of injuries growing, Muntari not performing, a top ten finish going down the plug hole, the drop looming. Thats why when we beat WHU we all shouted like we had won the EPL title, a few days without worry and now it all starts again.
I think the opposite is true, lower spending means lower ticket sales next year and so on. If Bruce and Short want bums on seats they will need to spend in order that we win something and become successful. If you look into Shorts business dealings you will see he has spent money to make money. The bottom line is if one day SAFC get into the champions league the club with be worth a lot more than it is now. You will see them spend this summer, the problem is not money it's attracting players to the club so I don't think you will see any movement any time soon. SB and SNQ will only let players go if it's best for the club. Bents head had been turned he was having a poor run of form and was obviously not getting on with Gyan, IMO he was sold for footballing reasons.
It's a vicious circle we don't perform and the fans stay away so we have to sell our best players, then without our best players we get worse so more stay away so we sell our average players and, before you know it we are in the third division with a crap team. Vegas I think Bent went because he could see what was happening at SAFC and didn't like it, that and the money as it's always about the money in the end.
