Published on Tuesday 26 June 2012 09:45 SUNDERLAND owner Ellis Short wants to make the club a permanent fixture in the Premier League top 10. The American believes high-profile stability is the key to the Black Catsâ development in future years and says if that target can be achieved, then the club will have the platform from which it can really mix it with the leagueâs pacesetters. âThere is a lot of pressure, not just to stay in the Premier League, but to improve,â he said. âWe are not happy with finishing 13th, we are not happy at all, but we realise that you need steady progress, you need continual progress. âYou donât want to finish seventh twice in a row and get relegated the next season, which has happened in the past. âWe do feel like now with Martin and with the progress we have made, we are well-positioned. âWe want to be well within the top 10 â we certainly canât promise that, but we are not happy with where we are and we do want to continue to improve. âThere is huge pressure to do so, both from the fans and their expectations and also just from the sheer size of the economics that are involved in the Premier League.â Short will rely on OâNeill to oversee the immediate task of getting the club a top-half-of-the-table finish next season and has promised to do all he can to back his manager in the market. He said: âMartin and I have been talking all summer long about what we are going to do. âThe fans have a pretty good idea of what we need to do and everybody has a pretty good idea of what we need to do, so now Martin is looking at specific players that we might want, and then there will be a lot of work and then trying to get those players here. âBut we donât want to sign players just for the sake of signing them, or because it feels like they are inexpensive for some reason. âWe want to identify players who are good and who will definitely improve us, and try to bring them in.â Short was speaking during the rarest of media appearances, launching the club’s innovative new sponsorship deal with Invest for Africa, an organisation backed by London-based oil company Tullow Oil, which aims to promote business opportunities on the continent. Short said: âCommercially, this is a good deal for us, but more importantly than that, it expands our presence, it expands our fan-base potentially. âIn the modern world of football, we are going to be living with financial fair play, so our spending will be limited by what we bring in. âThe Premier League is a global business watched by billions worldwide. The reason that the TV revenues are so high and continuing to grow is a reflection of the fact that all these people globally watch it. âTo thrive going forward, we need to be able to grow revenue, and to grow it locally doesnât make any sense. âThis is where our fans are, this is by far the most important area for us, but even the UK with 60million people isnât enough when you are looking at TV revenue generated by billions. âAfrica, as has been said many times today, is a very fast-growing continent with 300 million people watching Premier League matches. âIf we can become a very popular team on that continent, itâs probably better than being the 100th most popular team in the richest economy in the world.â
On the other hand........ http://www.footballfancast.com/2012/06/football-blogs/are-sunderland-locked-in-the-bargain-basement All ifs & buts atm. The next few weeks will tell I guess.
To be honest he has to do better than Bruce did, so we need to finish 9th or better, otherwise we might as well have stuck with him. We need to get a couple of good strikers in. Bent, Gyan and Welbeck were the difference between 13th and top half IMO.
Syd, more importantly, your Queen has arrived in Northern Ireland http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18592988. May I be the first to add 'whoop de ****in doo'
Well he best put his money where his mouth is... He's an ambitious fella, and failure for him is not an option... As for the African thing, time will tell.
Yep we can get Ronaldo's left leg, and strap it is Catts, nowt better than a goal scoring midfielder.
Yes we are in good hands but we MAY have to have a year or two of relative austerity. As has been stated, a lot of money has gone down the ****ter.
Bingo Bango Bongo Ellis down in the Congo Well what do you know [video=youtube;bgDF2xfcbv8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgDF2xfcbv8[/video]
He needs to get the cheque book out AGAIN and sign a couple to quality players instead of several average (at best) ones a la Bruce
