S.A.F.C. - the future

I think its £7.60 in the away supporters areas and £7.30 in the rest of the ground and £4.50 for a bottle of coke. I know loads of West Ham ST holders, including my wife and in-laws, due to living in Essex so I've heard their moans! Didn't realise it was due to the stadium leasing arrangements. Its a nice ground but its a pain in the arse to get to and there's no proper pubs close enough.

 

We also don’t know what the cost of the lease is. Probably need to charge £7 to break even.

 

Agree.I also have in-laws season ticket holders at the Hammers. They have a drink in the Lord Napier at Hackney Wick before the match and it's a canny,soulless walk from there to the stadium. I always have the feeling that if the crowds weren't so huge,there would be a lot more groans and more than a nostalgic glance back to Upton Park.

 

Wouldn't be surprised. Mind, it's a massive hike on last season when the most expensive pint was £5 something (still expensive enough mind) and they always did a discount if you bought two pints.

 

Ah right! My lot go in from the opposite direction- usually get the train into Stratford and then have to negotiate the shopping centre so there's not really anything there other than the microbrewery place, which is quite good.

 

Yep. there's some serious mental gymnastics going on from those in the Anti-Speakman camp.

The general consensus is that we've spent about £7m. I would have guessed that most of our signings come with clauses attached and that it has the potential to be a few million on top of that. Even at that price, I think we've done good business. If Clarke and Ballard cost us a combined £7m I'd have thought that was a fair price. But the suggestion is that we've spent a lot less than £7m and brought in Clarke, Ballard, Alese, Bennette, Dajaku, Bass and Simms (loan fee). That sounds like outstanding business to me. If any one of them breaks out as a Championship star, they'll be worth that money by themselves.

This was our line up the week Speakman arrived:

Burge, McClaughlin, Wright, Flanagan, Hume, Scowen, Leadbitter, Power, Maguire, McGeady, Grigg

This was our most recent line up:

Patterson, O'Nein, Batth, Cirkin, Gooch, Evans, Neil, Clarke, Pritchard, Simms, Stewart

We've clearly made massive strides forward and if we've done it by spending peanuts then Speakman is doing an even better job than I give him credit for. I know large parts of our success are down to Alex Neil and Stuart Harvey... but guess who appointed them? 2 more great choices by Speakman.

 

Not sure I get the Speakman hatred. People talk about the "horrific January window that left us short" but here we are, a division higher using all but 1 of those January signings in our first team
Our recruitment since KS has come in has been another level - obvious stars such as Cirkin, Evans, Stewart, Winchester (last season), Clarke and Ballard with only 1 iffy signing (Alves) and the jury still out on Alese, Bass, Bennette etc

 

Let’s not forget the Defoe signing…

 

Yeah fair enough. Didn't cost the club much in the end. 6 weeks wages? He would have forfeited any signing on fees/loyalty bonus by exiting his contract.

 

You’re right originally, the recruitment under Speakman has been very good but I feel we needed more experience this summer. Seems like Alex Neil thought the same…

 

Was Defoe Speakman's choice? Was signing him a footballing decision or was it a PR decision? I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter.

 

We certainly need more bodies, and ideally those with Championship experience but they don't have to be 27-31 years old. There are young lads who have played fewer than 50 games in this division and are more than capable
With Evans, Bathh, Wright, Gooch and O'Nien there are enough experienced heads in the the dressing room

 

In my opinion it was a signing that we had to make - had he signed for a L1 rival and scored goals that kept us out the play offs it would have been political suicide for the club

 

That's a good point!

 

I was of the opinion that it was KLD's choice and Speakman was against it. I could be wrong on that though.

 

I've been over the road and seen posts saying we need rid of the owners, posts saying everything is a shambles. Posts blaming Speakman for everything, posts complaining about lack of ambition, it's possibly the most negative I have seen it.

Yet Saturday with the branch and with some mates before the game, everyone was annoyed at Neil but positive we were moving in the right direction.

On here people mostly seem positive things are improving, yes there are issues but in general are positive.

I'm in the things are going generally in the right direction and whilst there are things that clearly need improving Rome wasn't built in a day and we are still getting over Short and Madrox.

 

Any idea if the stadium tours are back on? Fully expecting them not to be, but wouldn’t mind a pleasant surprise…

 

I think apart from that with Neil everything is positive and I think time will show the club made the right choice where he was concerned. Already looking like they dealt with that situation well!

 

No club, no business runs smoothly 100% of the time. No owners or CEOs get everything right. What's clear is that whilst KLD has got 90% of things right on the pitch (inc investment in academy/facilities etc) the off-field stuff is lagging way behind. These things take time, however I'd like to see us appoint a pro-active figure to deal with ticketing/commercial/marketing etc and get us back up to the required standards

 

Just been thinking about how far we have come and looked at our transfer activity over the last couple of seasons.

2019/20
https://www.worldfootball.net/teams/sunderland-afc/2020/6/

2020/21

https://www.worldfootball.net/teams/sunderland-afc/2021/6/

2021/22
https://www.worldfootball.net/teams/sunderland-afc/2022/6/

This season

https://www.worldfootball.net/teams/sunderland-afc/2023/6/

The difference since KLD came is is like night and day, I am convinced that Ross Stewart was his first signing and not the two idiots.