From the BBC. What's the manager's future? The turnover of managers at Sunderland and lack of consistency has been cited as one of the factors in the decline at the Stadium of Light, with seven bosses in five years unable to change the club's on-field fortunes. Chris Coleman was appointed in November after Simon Grayson's departure, inheriting a side at the bottom of the Championship with just one win. He has since picked up a further five victories, while their end-of-season form has suggested there is potential within the current crop of players after a win and three draws in their past six games. please log in to view this image Chris Coleman's win percentage is 18.5% from 27 games Although Coleman's popularity with the Sunderland support is mixed, the fact he is keen to stay beyond this season is largely seen as a positive. Most have sympathy with the 47-year-old who, after leading Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016, had just one transfer window in which to reshape a squad which was already in the Championship relegation zone. Detractors will argue he took over in November, thus giving him the games to make changes, and that his January recruitment was not good enough. "He admits to mistakes but the majority of fans believe he hasn't been dealt a fair hand and want him to stay," BBC Newcastle's Sunderland commentator Nick Barnes said. "He's pledged to stay and barring an extreme scenario where he's given no help at all in the summer regarding a transfer budget, then he should be at the helm in August." With a full pre-season and the opportunity to potentially recruit, there is the opportunity for the Welshman to give a truer measure of his progress. "Whatever was needed I never brought it," Coleman reiterated to BBC Newcastle in the aftermath of relegation. "Over 46 games we've not been good enough. We had a lot of games to get it right. "I think I'm the right man for the job, but to get it where it needs to be there are certain things I need to do and the club needs to do." Sunderland suffer second successive relegation Coleman 'unsure' over Sunderland future Finances and ownership Owner Ellis Short has offered the club for free in exchange for taking on debts The issue of Sunderland's finances is inextricably linked with the ownership of Ellis Short. Not even relegation to League One with the 'luxury' of a £35m parachute payment from the Premier League will put them in a favourable position. The debt remains huge, even if player sales and the reduction in wage bill to £35m have trimmed down the last reported figures of £137.3m from April 2017. To put it into perspective, Uefa's annual report lists Sunderland as having the 13th highest net debt in Europe, more than that of Paris St-Germain, Porto and rivals Newcastle. Former Manchester City and Everton midfielder Jack Rodwell remains under contract and, although his salary also recedes, it still totals upwards of £40,000 per week. By contrast, the average salary of a League One player is between £1,700 and £2,500. Any transfer fees or other sources of income such as parachute payments, central funding or television revenues - the majority of which are reduced in the third tier - will go straight towards servicing debt. What position Sunderland find themselves in for the 2018-19 season could rest on the future of owner Short. The Texan businessman, who took over in May 2009, placed Sunderland up for sale and then in February further revised the offer to allow someone to take over the club in exchange for taking on the debt. "We don't know what's happening above us, I can't say 'we've been relegated and this is my plan', because we don't know what the chairman is doing," Coleman said. "Am I in the plans or not? I came to manage Sunderland, it's a great club and we're in tough times and what's happening round the corner I don't know." Barnes added: "The chief executive Martin Bain has been tasked with savagely trimming overheads and reducing the club's overall debt which is believed to be in the region of £70m plus a similar figure owed to Short. "While Short has made an offer to sell the club for a pittance to any interested parties, that offer appears to be mired in caveats and deadlines. There has been interest expressed in taking over the club but the general consensus is that the stumbling block is the debt. "Interest payments alone are £8m per year and even the remaining two parachute payments will not cover the outstanding money owed to the bank, which has a two-year repayment schedule in place." If someone does come in to take over the club during the summer, it would likely depend on whether the debts could be wiped out. Otherwise, transfer funds will again be limited for Coleman and a continued reliance on the loan market required. The squad please log in to view this image With Premier League squads come Premier League wages, but once a team drops out of the top flight the strain on the budget suddenly becomes far more difficult to manage. Rodwell, Lee Cattermole and Lamine Kone have remained at Sunderland on top-tier money, while part of the salaries for Didier Ndong, Jeremain Lens, Papy Djilobodji and Wahbi Khazri remain on the payroll. Besiktas have exercised their option to sign Lens permanently following a spell on loan, but whether those other players remain at the Stadium of Light depends on whether the clubs wanting to sign them are prepared to pay similar salaries. Experienced centre-back John O'Shea is out of contract, as is last summer's signing Marc Wilson and fellow defender Billy Jones. January acquisition Kazenga LuaLua could also leave at the end of the season after his deal comes to an end. please log in to view this image Young academy talent, coincidentally blooded in the Checkatrade Trophy as part of the under-21s side playing against League One and League Two clubs, could now be the cornerstone of their team. "Much has conspired against Coleman, such as the blow of losing Duncan Watmore to a second cruciate ligament injury, but on the bright side the emergence of George Honeyman as a potentially long-term midfielder for the club and the promise of forwards Joel Asoro and, to a degree, Josh Maja are a few of the positives from what has been a difficult and wretched season," said Barnes. "For 23-year-old Honeyman and his counterpart Lynden Gooch to prosper in a team that has been mentally and physically leeched of positivity over the last nine months is a credit to the pair. "The likes of those two and Ethan Robson, who has been on the fringes of the first team this season, are potentially the fulcrum of the side over the next few years." The problem Coleman could feasibly face is players he wants to keep being desirable to other clubs, while those he would like to offload fail to attract interest. Support and stadium During the Premier League years, Sunderland would pack out the 49,000 seats at the Stadium of Light in derbies against Newcastle United or in hosting Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester United. Those crowds have tumbled in the Championship, although they remain the fourth best-supported side in the second tier with an average of 27,597. Only champions Wolves, Leeds United and Aston Villa have better averages, while Sunderland's cumulative Championship crowd of 607,153 with one home game to play is more than three times that of League One leaders Wigan Athletic. Not that having such a large support has helped Sunderland, evidenced by just two home wins and seven draws from their 22 games this season. No side has won fewer games on home turf. Even with their home attendances nudging towards 30,000, skewed to an extent by season ticket sales, there have been large spaces at the Stadium of Light. "The published attendances in the mid-20,000s have been patently massaged to add gloss to a desperate situation," said Barnes. "In reality the true numbers turning up have been closer to 15-18,000, which in the circumstances is commendable. "Those that have stayed away can hardly be blamed. Their patience has been sorely tested. Consequently the atmosphere inside the Stadium of Light has been funereal and counter-productive, working to the benefit of the opposition. "Sunderland are nervy and tentative and on a number of occasions, despite starting brightly, have conceded the opening goal and their brittleness has led to capitulation." This has prompted the decision to close the upper concourse of the stadium from next season to all but press, directors and hospitality, a move which has also brought criticism from supporters who have to move seats to other areas of the ground. It is a cost-cutting measure with a view to reducing stewarding and kiosk staff, as well as trying to improve the atmosphere by bringing more fans into the lower bowl. While a trip to the ground might be a novelty factor for fans of their new peers in League One, it is an increasingly tougher sell for Black Cats supporters. Reasons for optimism? Sunderland are not the first, and certainly will not be the last big club to slide down the leagues. There are a catalogue of illustrious names, from Sheffield Wednesday to Nottingham Forest and Leeds United to Manchester City who have suffered the same fate but bounced back to the Championship at least. Almost 20 years after Manchester City went on their tour of the third tier they are now the modern-day mega club, while Leicester - a League One side as recently as 2009 - went on to win a miraculous Premier League title in 2015-16. If Sunderland wanted to look at one other club to give them hope for the future, then Wolves could be it. Wolves have gone from the despair of the third tier to promotion within four years The Molineux side were the last to drop from the Premier League to League One in successive seasons but will now return to the top flight four years after their one successful campaign in the third tier. And, should the Black Cats need further grounds for optimism, then they could look at the fact that with Wigan earning an immediate return to the Championship, it means that in eight of the past 10 seasons at least one club relegated to League One has bounced back at the first attempt.
Figures from April 2017 haven't been released yet. Think they've jumped the gun on this article. They're working off figures from April 16 which were released in April 17 so they won't be even close to accurate. There's figures due to be published and we're in limbo on ownership so why didn't they wait the usless ****ers
It's all very well making comparisons with other clubs but in reality every club has to be taken on its own merits. While there are examples of clubs being relegated from the Prem and ending up in the third tier and then bouncing back, clubs like Swindon and Bradford City were relegated from the Premier League and then were swallowed up again by the lower leagues, never to be seen again. In fact, if there are any comparables, Bradford City are one of the most pertinent. Like us they were financially mismanaged by an owner who didn't know what he was doing and who wasted money on expensive but ineffective players.
If the young lads who have shown promise but not cut it in the Championship fail again next year we will be in big trouble, regardless of who is at the helm.
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spo...ation-confirmed-sunderland-can-begin-14561394 found this too. https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/foot...lands-teen-strikers-joel-asoro-and-josh-maja/
Somebody needs to take one for the team and, erm, dispose of Jack Rodwell... He's strangling the life out of the club with his wages, he needs to go yesterday. I don't think we'll 'do a Coventry', but I don't think we'll do what Leicester, Southampton and Wolves have done either. I can see us a bit like Leeds, a few seasons in league one and then just sit as an average side in the Championship for the next decade.
When players, especially the youngsters, sign a contract with our club they all come out and state how happy they are to commit to a great club like ours. Well this summer is going to be a big test of those young players when other clubs come calling as they stare at least one season in Div 1 in the face and realise the reality of that. Will they all be happy to get guaranteed first team football at this lower level, or will some believe the hype about how good they are with agents whispering new deals in their ears about the grass being greener elsewhere. It's going to be an interesting summer and I can't see CC getting much downtime if in fact he does stay. Time will tell.
Just to win more games than we lose will do me. The dust will settle at some point and it wont matter what league we'll be in to me. Oh just to have a season when we could have prolonged satisfaction that we are capable of doing the bizzo. String a few wins together and actually look forward to the next game. Then my interest might pick up again. The majority of my supporting life we have not been in the premier league. Didnt bother me then and it definitely doesnt bother me now.
I don't think Honeyman will want to go anywhere. We've given him his chance in the 1st team, he's taken it, and I think he'll remain loyal to the club, but if Short is still around this may change.
Loyalty is a rare commodity amongst footballers these days mate. Especially when you consider both the influence of agents on the player and the players own ambitions, especially so when they're in, or on the fringe of the national squad.
