Sir Bob Murray

What exactly did he do that was so wrong?

I am too young to know exactly what it was, so why did people want him to leave? There weren't protests against him, were there?

From what I understand he came in and saved us from liquidation, is that true? Also he funded the stadium and he was the one that started the AOL.

And when he did sell it he wanted to make sure it was sold to the right person. Legend in my eyes.

So what was it that Murray did that upset people?

 

Legend may be taking it too far. He just didn't have the courage of his convictions or deep enough pockets. At least he moved on in a dignified manner.

 

To keep things very short, it was simply that he did not have enough financial clout to take the club any further and to his credit, he knew it, which is why he sold the club to people who did have enough money to take us forward.

 

During Murrays tenure there were several opportunities to break from mediocrity, and Bob pleaded poverty and never put up the money for players.

There was also the matter of Tom Cowie offering to buy the club and rebuild the club from the ground up, which Murray refused , and we stayed in the doldrums.

In the event though, Bob stayed true to his world, put us in the stadium, started the academy, and then got out.

He nearly left it too late mind, as without Drumaville, there is a strong chance the club would have hit administration, the share price had hit the floor, and the club was in a manic depressive state.

For me, his legacy far outstrips the flaws in his regime, and i'm sure many would join me in a rousing applause were he to be presented at the SOL now.

 

I think the main problem was, the toon were the entertainers and Sir John Hall was backing Keegan and spending a small fortune to do it. Murray didnt.

I still believe that playoff win for us over them, was the wrost thing that could hve happened to us, and the best thing that happened to them.

 

When I saw this thread, I thought I'd post the good & bad points of Murray.

You've posted the good points, and credit where credit's due.

You left out getting relegated with 19 points (a Premiership record at the time), and then getting relegated with 15 points (breaking our own dismal record!)

We would never have done a Leeds/Pompey with Murray in charge, but also we would never have survived for more than season or two in the top flight.

 

I remember the 15 point season, I was 9 or something at the time and I literally gave up on looking for the scores, because we'd lose every week, so happy when Derby 'beat' our record.

Was I right in thinking he saved us from liquidation?

 

Mate, we were a matter of days away from doing a Leeds, Murrays stake charged to £25 million in value 6 weeks after we floated on the stock market, i think he sold up at 7p a share or summat.

We were ****ed.

 

I stand corrected!

Looks like I was being too optimìstic (rose tinted glasses and all that).

 

Well at least he wasn't like Ashley, eh?

 

Just to add to this, in 2005 Mick McCarthy got us promoted to the PL and for his efforts he was given a meager £1.5m by the chairman (yes, one and a half million quid!) to strengthen the squad for the 2006 PL season, in which we were promptly relegated with 15 points and Mick very unfairly lost his job. No club was ever going to stay up with such a lack of financial backing to the manager.

To this day, I feel very bitter at the way Mick McCarthy was treated by Bob Murray.

 

As i say, his legacy is magnificent, and without it, being disappointed to finish 10th in the top tier would be pie-in-the-sky fantasy for us!

No, he genuinely cared for the club, and god knows where we'd be without him getting the SOL done, and getting the sale to Drumaville done.

 

How true. And the pressure of it all made him quite ill in the end, too.

 

My God this could be an interesting thread. Been done before but here we go.

At the time he took over, Murray was very much a breath of fresh air after Tom Cowies stagnant reign and the total mess we were in after Lawrie McMoneybags shafted us. At first he galvanised a club in total turmoil and his first appointment was to bring Denis Smith (my all time favourite manager) to the club along with Marco Gabbiadini. The rest as they say was history. Promotion to the 2nd Division and then the play off game v Swindon had Murray as a local hero. We went up to the First Division via the back door but there we were and that's when the trouble started.

Bob Murray is a wealthy man but not wealthy enough and we were abject at being a top flight club throughout his reign. Subsequent relegation, followed by promotions, then relegation's were the norm for us for a huge portion of his time. Underfunded and always scrapping the barrel for 2nd class players meant the football on offer was aften highly spirited but utter ****e at the same time. Managers were dispensed and new ones brought in until the master stroke of Peter Reid was sprung and Murray once again regained some credibility. The championship season after the Charlton game and the 2 years following were undoubtedly the best football I have ever seen at SAFC in my 36 years. SKP, Quinny, Johnston and Summerbee were just about the perfect attacking machine I have ever seen. We were awesome and then problem of the Murray era seemed to be forgotten. Unfortunately, although we did spend bigger than ever before, a combination Reid's destructive personality and a fear of spending any more, destroyed the team that was built and we were relegated again. The appointments of Sgt Wilko, Butcher, Crosby and Buxton were baffling to say the least and spelled the beginning of the end of Murray for me. He presided over a cheap and not so cheerful 2 decades and admittedly whilst McCarthy was a brief rest-bite, ultimately the humiliation of giving him no money to spend when we went back up, resulted in a points tally of a depressing 19 & 15 point seasons. That 15 point one was the absolute final nail in his SAFC coffin. There was no way back after that.


However, I have reflected much as I have become a wiser, older owl (honestly lol) and my thoughts on Murray have softened somewhat. He did what he could with the finances he had and refused to bank roll a folly of the fans. That probably saved the club from financial doom but ultimately led to 20 years of utter rubbish football (barring maybe 4 or 5 years during all that time). He suffered due to the Halls and Shepherds big money roller coaster ride at Sid James during that time and we did look like the poor relations for much of the 90's and 2000's. Not his fault but he also lacked that flair and imagination SJH had in abundance. One was a serial entrepreneur and the other an accountant. It showed off and on the field of play.

Murray's legacies without a shadow of a doubt and there are 2 of them to my mind, are the SOL and AOL and his handling of the sale of the club to SNQ. Both gestures are fitting tributes to a man who genuinely loved the club and has ensured that the club have made huge strides since he owned the club. The stadium is magnificent and so are the facilities at the Academy. Every player, manager and visiting hack have commented on the world class facilities we have at the club. The selling of the club to Niall and the Drumaville Consortium for a nominal fee really (considering what some lesser clubs were being sold for) shows he genuinely wanted the club to survive and prosper. Contrast that with the greedy fat ****er up at NE1 and you see what a good man Murray is. There was no knight in shining armour waiting in the wings and until SNQ came along, he battled on manfully. As soon as Quinny came, he effected a swift and easy hand over.

I'd like to think he could be presented on the pitch sometime at the SOL, so that fans can have the opportunity to thank him for his efforts and for the way he has ensured that the club is in good shape currently. Murray meant well, tried hard but ultimately failed to succeed but he did leave with dignity and kept the soul of the club close to his own.

 

Cest,

I've said many times that he should be presented at the stadium, he took the flak, and he deserved a lot of it at various points, but we never really got a chance to thank him for the legacy, and for the timely exit from the club, which ultimately made us a viable proposition for one Ellis Short.

 

BB - he deserves to be given that honour and I am sure SNQ would agree. I reckon he has been offered it but refused as he is a very private man (obsessively so from some stories I know about) and maybe doesnt want that spotlight?

I think he would be very well received these days dont you?

 

Enough said.

 

I'm certain of it Cest.

As a man of 31, really i was at an age when i'd get involved with stuff that i knew little about, i went along with a lot of the negativity at the time, Murray had to stay away from games towards the end of his tenure, due to threats of violence, this was after he had moved us to the SOL.

I for one would clap my hands raw for the fella, being a bit older and a lot wiser, what the man did for the club is something that any true Sunderland fan can be eternally thankful for, he failed many mid term exams during his reign, but he managed to get out of it with a flying pass at the end.

 

BB - I'm 46 mate and when he took over the club, I was 21 years old and the majority of my adult years was under his regime. At the time, all I saw was them up the road under Keegan and Hall take noocarsel onto new heights, whilst we huffed and puffed and generally struggled in the top flight. I had to put up with clowns like Crosby, Buxton, Butcher and Sgt Wilko appointed as manager but then there was Smith, Reid and McCarthy (I still have great affection for Mick) to balance the books. However, I too was one who gave him a lot of pelters for allowing us to constantly fail and its that failure that has probably tainted my views at times and makes me a bit too bitter about things that go wrong at the club. I just got sick of the club letting me down over the years.

Age too has mellowed my thinking though in general and today, I'd like the opportunity to thank Bob Murray for the way he handled things in the end with great dignity and love of the club.

 

Absolutely.

I mean, a lot of the stuff flying about was 'never puts his hand in his pocket, milking the club (with the floatation)' etc...

Facts were, he was a wealthy man, a multi millionaire, but his fortune was approximately the value of a single top class footballer.

The float was intended to swell the coffers, but relegation that season saw the prices fall from an (admittedly false) extrordinarily high high, and they never recovered, despite the 'mega seasons' under Reid (a masterful appointment at the time).

If we'd have just got that draw on that day at Wimbledon, Murray may well have seen the investment needed at that point and we may be 4-5 years ahead of where we are now, he was that ****ing close, potentially, 1 goal.

We were abstract that day, Wimbledon weren't interested and we still lost to a pathetic goal, it didn't seem the end of the world then, but looking at it now, was that game the nail in Murrays coffin?

Starting life at the SOL in the championship unquestionably quashed his hopes of funding the club via the floatation.