We'll be held to ransom whichever way we go Bri, whether loan deal that players will want silly wages cos they know we're in dire need, or transfer fees cos selling clubs know the same. Either way they need to be brought in. I just don't buy into this theory being bandied around that going down could be the only way forward for us. There's other ways to clear out the deadwood without chucking away £80+m and risking the owner taking a walk.
If we go down we could well be ruined, we've learnt enough to know there's something wrong financially. People just look at Soton and Swansea and think we need that. We'd to go down before we could build to that blueprint and wanting to go down just to try another club's blueprint is utterly demented. Going down isn't going to take big earners of our books, wage will reduce with relegation clause but nowhere near enough to cover the loss of revenue. People need to be careful what they wish for. Relegation could turn us into the next Pompy for all we know.
"Stoke City have been able to transform their spending power because of the financial riches of the Premier League", says Potters chairman Peter Coates on BBC website. It makes me want to puke. WTF happened to our financial riches ?
Exactly make and do we want to risk that? i ****ing don't for sure. I'd rather we recovered from this bad start, regroup and let DA work with the team through the season and hopefully finish in a respectable position. Somewhere around 12 place would do me to prove the doubters wrong, those doom mongers who have us down already. Then rebuild from within the safety of the EPL with the revenue that brings. I think if we were to go down it would be the end of us.
Have you been living solitary confinement? We've spent badly, we're in debt, and we don't break even, where do you think our 'riches' are? Pissed up the wall of course. Steven Fletcher, if he's paid 40k a week(which he could well exceed as one of our high earners) his fee plus wages will have cost us £20.25m so far. AJ if he's on around the 50k suspected, fee plus wages will have cost us 17.8 million. Danny Graham on his apparent 35k a week will have cost us in wages and fee has cost us 9.5m so far, for one friggen goal. Even Jack Rodwell if on around 30k pw(again I'm being reserved) with fee and wages has already cost us 11.5m. That's 60million just keeping 4 average players at the club. We've hemorrhaged money on **** while running in the red. Not to mention 4 manager and backroom team settlement pay offs in 4 years. Agent fees, singing on fees, installments still on players after taking losses, supplemented wages on ex players who forced us to top their wages up at their new clubs in order to force the move. That's probably where our 'riches' have gone. All this from an Irish and an American chairman, the first not knowing business and the other not knowing footbal who've surrounded themselves with the wrong people and ran the club into the ground
No way, me neither. Relegation is the last thing I want. We're having enough problems keeping our head above water in this league financially.
To be honest I feel sorry for him. He has made some good signings, Lens, Mvilla. I also think Mathews will come good. Coates was decent when you look at his end of season performances. He has been let down by the players, the signings were going in the right direction but now the team has performed so badly it makes us look desperate, if we had won 2 games and were flying his job would be much easier.
Just got back on line so apologies for late reply. I'm pretty much like the majority on here. It sickens me to know that the club I've supported from 1971 when I was 8 years old has got into this sorry state. I loved the football we played with Quinny and phillips etc and reckon they were the best times except for when Bob stokoe took over and took us from relegation candidates to the fa cup, I was told I was too young to make the journey so a friend of my dad's had my final ticket...........the ****! Back to modern day, I hope Dick will stay if he hasn't got his players in by the end of the window, but I wouldn't blame him if he walked. I like the man and the way he goes about his business. He says that Short has been great so it looks like he is being supported by the top man as well, or was it clever talk? Deep down I think we have been unlucky in the targets we have gone for down to failed medicals etc, could have done more research beforehand though? Still think they are working like crazy behind the scenes to get the right players in but only time will tell. Obviously we are looking at different players to everyone else otherwise it would be splashed all over the tabloids. My wife doesn't understand the frustrations and mood swings form great joy when we win to the opposite side of the spectrum when we lose or worse when we don't even compete in games. I'm hoping Dick is the right man to sort the poison that runs thru our club out and get the team competing again and playing for each other. They should play for sunderland with the same passion that drives the supporters to follow the red n white stripes of the team I will follow to my grave. Sorry if I waffled on
My heart sank when the walk out took place when Norwich got their second goal, which was not a bad one. I've been around football long enough to know when not to put the boot in when someone needs a lift rather than a bollocking. Those who did go may well have contributed to the players feeling more pressure than is reasonable leading to an even more unsettled performance. The players may be on big bucks but that is the way of football now, they are as human as any one of us and more positive support could maybe have lifted them. Seen us go into half time 1-3 down to league champions Chelsea but with the crowd behind them we won 4-3. Might sound a little bit Walt Disney but strong support regardless might go a long way to helping a team that is still finding its feet.
Some great input on this. If we had to apportion blame to this mess we are in and have been for what seems forever how would you spread it out? Splitting it into three categories of Board Level, Managers and Players. Here's mine for starters: Board 75% Manager 20% Players 5% The players to me are the least to blame because it's the clubs decision to make the offer and give them their wages. On the flip side after last Saturdays performance more effort and desire could clearly have been put into the game as we witnessed once Watmore came on. How can our club offer someone a new five year deal then his first game after that deal he's taken off after 30 mins because he's crap? Managers we have had over the last few years would appear at times not to have been bad appointments if we take the O'Neil one for example. How did that go so badly wrong? Paying out such large amounts for Graham, Fletcher and even Johnson who hasn't really produced what potentially he could have. Did he come into the wrong mix of players but still the manager should address the problem. It's a results orientated business and we just haven't got them. Lastly, our beloved board including Ellis Short. What a shambles. We lurch from crisis to crisis. What is our plan going forward? Do we have a plan going forward? I don't care what anyone says....going into the Championship would be a disaster and there's no certainty that we can get back to the EPL very quickly if at all. Short has shown his is ruthless with his managers. Why not with his board? Shouldn't they be driving the club forward. Shouldn't they be more open to the fans? After all 40,000 plus turn up every game. Seems as though we have lost the plot on this one. Maybe a bit of arrogance that on their part thinking whatever crap we field the fans are going to turn up. Look what happened last week when goals went in against us....you could see the reaction, Sad really....
Us fans aren't faultless either, we were better away last season for a reason. Nerves everywhere and as soon as the chips are down then the big fat stupid imbeciles are up out of thire seat verbally abusing them. Every part of the club is part of the problem. Us fans included imo.
So throw the fans in the mix as a fourth percentage....what's your mix? Great article on RR by the way.....
Maybe it's because of their history of relatively small ambition propped up by lowish gates so they gradually established their base through ordinariness, whereas we have always given ourselves the title of a big club just waiting to happen. Bring in an ambitious manager, give him money and land ourselves with high paid under achievers. Stoke bought cutely within their means, appointed a no-nonsense ordinary manager playing hard to beat football which we would not tolerate and gradually built their credentials. It was an odd statement to make though since the chairman fell out with Tony Pulis about lack of transfer spending a couple of seasons ago.
