I think he gets some undeserved stick mind, Clarke said he wanted to leave last season and Speakman said no, this season he asked to leave again so he negotiated a good deal for Sunderland or risk playing a player who doesn't want to be here and has a negative effect on the team. He was promised Sunderland would not stand in his way if he wanted to move on, and to be fair to Jack he stayed another year after saying he wanted away. Speakman has already said this in his interviews.
Some top clubs after him. https://www.hitc.com/real-madrid-an...gV37Xvhd0-Otj72ong_aem_zynjPaHOscR8jHs6BJd5rA
Was that a quote from Clarke about wanting to be away last year? Or from speakman? I think it's obvious the club got the best deal they could for him. We couldn't hold him because the bid wasn't high enough as it goes against what we are promising young talent, would we have got Milan if he got wind of us refusing to let Clarke make the step up?
Coz he did such a bad job with Clarke deal... at least with Speakman we help on, if it was SD on the other hand
no point some are utterly blinded by their dislike for the guy they wont see sense JC was days away from putting a transfer request in and asking to train alone.
Speakman has brought in 2 of the top 5-6 fees ever received by the club, having joined when we were in League One and whole squad was worth about the same as a steak bake. He is more than welcome to handle negotiations thanks.
He got 14m for a player who’s played about 27 minutes of football since we sold him! That, to me, is the most amazing football business ever done by pretty much any club in history!
Speakman said we told Clarke we wouldn't stand in his way, he had the opportunity to leave last year and we asked him to stay. He stayed for another year so now we must honour our part of the agreement. I quoted him wrong earlier on, Speakman didn't say no, he asked Clarke to stay for one more year after asking to leave. Anyway, Speakman is doing a great job.
Thing is, the other side said the same. Defoe simply couldn’t score over there, probably linked to how bad those around him were rather than his ability, but Altidore could and couldn’t over here!
Altidore was a beast for Toronto. He was so nearly a PL player, we are talking such tiny margins between him being a flop and a monster. He had a lot about him, just the bits he didn’t have were pretty critical. A flop that none of us dislike. Unusual that. Maybe because we got JD18 for him like…
Yep, shame how it worked out here for Altidore He did have some very good games for us though. Mags away the second 0-3 he was superb
That touch inside mate, I’ll never forget it. He did some lovely link up stuff. He might actually have fared far better nowadays as a wide left of a front 3. Was just that baffling thing that he was a tank, and he really was strong, but he didn’t know how to use that to his advantage. Not a flop in the usual sense, he did bring something, he did contribute. Just not a striker or finisher.
Good clip that. Knows his stuff. All good calls. That Beadle is going to be a really top keeper, was gonna say ‘where’s Cirks’ but honourable mention about right given the injuries. Some really tasty lads on that list so to have 3 plus 1 is something to be proud of. Nobody is sleeping on Rigg which is bad for us, in terms of how long we get to enjoy watching him, but good in terms of we will have half the world fighting to pay for him when time comes. Actually the one I’m least sure of on the list is Trafford, who’s been in the squad already.
