Speakman interviews ...

Sounds pretty positive imo.

 

Will listen tomorrow after the bairns match... might have sobered up by then

 

Good to see you back mate.

 

Reckon Michut had offers from teams he saw as a better move, I reckon we will see him at a premier league club next season.

 

Cheers mate, that's good to hear.

 

Nice one that!

That's the best interview I've heard from him. Maybe he's more confident and settled now, but he sounds like a man who knows himself, knows us, and knows what he's doing.

Had my criticisms of him in the past, but much credit where it is due. He's clearly an asset.

 

I've had colleagues I didn't want to spend a second too long with but who were great at their job ...

... I'm not interested in Speakman as a person and, in any case, we'll never know him personally. I don't need all club staff to be 'one of the lads'. We've had that before and it doesn't work.

If he can repeat the work of the last two years we'll have one hell of a club.

 

Personally never get the negatives towards Speakman.

Since his arrival, been the best recruitment and development in my 40 years on the planet.

Nothing but support and confidence in the bloke from me.

 

Me neither mate.

I think it originated from people connected to the club who had their noses put out of joint ...

... I really hope I'm wrong but I was told Kevin Ball was one of those moaning the loudest.

 

If we continue along the trajectory we’ve witnessed under him, does anyone really care about him being “well-liked”? The improvement we’ve seen in such a short space of time has been absolutely phenomenal

 

I mean, how often are successful people truly liked?

The fact we managed to sign Cirkin, Clarke and Roberts in League One is absolutely insane.

The Jobe deal, the potential on Ba & Lihadj. Getting Ballard ahead of Burnley.

Adding and building the academy numbers (and fixing the place)

Man (and those working with him) has/have been outstanding.

Some of the best lads I know, and some of the most successful, are a bit arrogant and some would call them ****ers.

They don’t care. I doubt he does. I think, in fact I know, the man has been a brilliant coup and asset to our club.

 

Let's hope so, if he makes another mistake like the big one he's made twice he'll be held accountable.

 

You could say a bigger mistake would've been to have brought in one of the list of suggestions who subsequently failed at the club's they went to. We finished as fourth top scorers without Stewart and Simms, neither absence was a mistake.

If Ballard and Batth had played at Luton we'd be at Wembley this weekend imo.

 

Is it really a mistake not bringing in players that they dont feel are good enough??? He clearly said they had offers in for strikers in January but the other clubs wanted too much or the players didnt want to come.

I would rather we just sign players that want to come here, and are good enough to play for us - rather than just bringing someone in for the sake of it.

For me the big mistake would have been to bring in a striker just for the sake it. Thats exactly what we did with grigg, we paid over the odds for him as wigan knew we were desperate for a forward

 

Grigg, Danny Graham, Rodwell, etc were bribed to come and had to be begged to leave which cost a fortune and lowered morale ...

... they end up sitting on contracts that restrict future spending.

Remember, a dog isn't just for Christmas, etc.

 

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spo...aan-speakman-praises-sunderland-boss-27005201

"With Tony, head coach, coaching staff and support staff, they've gone about their business in a really professional manner," Speakman told the club's Youtube channel. "They've soaked up the adversity and issues that naturally crop up in a season.

"That's been communicated down to the players who have been first class in their approach. We've probably had some adversity you don't want and been unlucky at times but nobody has felt sorry for themselves and that attitude to try and achieve regardless of circumstances means we exceed expectations.

"Ultimately it's a really good platform to go on and try to achieve more. Top teams and business perform well under adversity and pressure.

"We're always going to come under scrutiny because we're such a big football club and it means so much to so many people. Everyone has embraced that."

Speakman said: "We're really really pleased with where the club has got to, the position we got to, the performance of the players and staff. The reflection is still going on.

"It's still quite raw to get so close to a second successive Wembley final but we're super-happy with where we got to and we're really, really geared up to build on it next year. Most of all it's representative of the club.

"The club is moving along at such an incredible pace at the minute on and off the pitch. That's really pleasing and it bodes well for the future."

 

A different take on this is squad management is about risk management. You have 11 first team players and then it’s about backup. That’s a mixture of youth and experience and with transfer fees and wages comes at a cost. Speakman is constantly taking risks in the squad decisions, some work, some don’t. A couple of backfired what looked to be pretty badly but we got promoted once and almost a second time in a row exceeding expectations.

What I’m trying to say, probably quite badly, is that Speakman is there to manage the squad and take risks to develop it to a budget. Not every decision will pay off, sometimes 2 will hit you in a row with Simms being recalled and Stewart getting injured. He’s not there to win them all, he’s there to win more than he loses. He’ll also have sign off from the board in some of those bigger decisions. He is accountable but I reckon at the moment he is in credit.

 

My biggest concern is losing Speakman in this transfer window. I expect some players to go we cannot afford to lose him.

 

honestly do not understand some of the comments aimed at the club staff ( and yes, i have voiced opinions over the years ) when there has been little time to really judge them, we all sit thinking 'why did they not sign him' etc but i suppose there is good reason...unless you are a moron and just kept increasing your bid for a player who did not want to come and everyone told him he is not worth that much.

the recruitment team have made it clear that they look for players who not only have the skill set they require but also have the correct attitude, so many players will have been looked at and brushed aside if they did not meet the criteria, the lack of strikers did indeed hit us hard but we 'survived' and i would be annoyed if we were now left with a couple of emergency stand-ins on good money we can not get rid of...been there, done that.

 

Some people were desperate for us to sign a striker, fair enough.

So what if we'd paid Leeds the £6m for Gelhardt on a 3 year contract, failed to go up and found his attitude wasn't quite right ...

... would that prevent us signing someone else this summer, probably.