Charlie & the Big Don

[stokeu]

Aren't you precious, but thank you. If you did not understand, as the poor grammar distracted you, I think I would have actually cried real tears (literally).

Sweetheart, I'm not as precious as you it seems. If you bite at this good natured jibe you ain't gonna last long when it gets tough on here x

 

[stokeu]

Slightly different to the oxfordmail article [emoji23]

Can someone remind me where I stowed my moonshiner rake please? It's a full moon tonight and I need to take advantage, I have my red trousers on and have scraped my (little) hair back for maximum forehead exposure

 

[holdsteady]

Do Donald and Methven have any choice but to go for it this season? Disaster if they don’t go up isn’t it, as even if they made it up he following season they would be really up against it in the championship then. They will spend big this season but Chaz will bullshit and claim they haven’t I reckon.

 

[Paul Cannell]

Financially they have to, plus, they're very much in the shadow of a bigger, better team so their adherents will expect the moon, the stars and the title with gold balls on.

And even smoothiechops couldn't get away with saying they have a smaller budget than the top three after them put together.

It will be a humiliating failure for them if they fail. What lad who grew up in North Shields wouldn't love to see that?

 

[LondonRoader]

Promotion should be a give me with their budget/parachute payments where ever the income comes from, but these two and others now joining them are in it for the money, so there will be cost cutting on the way as we have already seen.
There will be a player turnover that won't be cheap, there is also getting the right balance of players in with an inexperienced manager at this level that has to get a squad together to compete (I don't understand the agent thing apart from cost cutting), the bigger teams who have recently come down and gone back up kept most of their squads and added to it to get promoted, they were stable teams on and off the field, they will be every teams big game and they will have to be on it from the start, So I would expect them to get promoted one way or another.

What would be success for Sunderland and what would be success for SD & Co?
Promotion back to the Championship for the fans and then pushing on challenging for the PL.
Would promotion be a success for the business model of SD & Co if they lost money, I know they will be extracting wages etc from the club but that is not the bigger financial picture and with the costs that come trying to be competitive in the Championship I can see this could quite easily turn into a financial nightmare if they don't get a suger daddy on board, it's all right trying to make a few million but the potentual is also there to lose a lot if they don't get it right , all I can see at Sunderland is relative inexperience in almost every department apart from PR of course.

 

[m]

It seems to be a given that SD and CM are in this for the money, but is that necessarily the case?

Surely a football club is the ultimate boy's toy? And the bigger, the better.

Does anyone think SD made a profit at Eastleigh?

 

[Paul Cannell]

It seems to be a given that SD and CM are in this for the money, but is that necessarily the case?

Surely a football club is the ultimate boy's toy? And the bigger, the better.

Does anyone think SD made a profit at Eastleigh?

Yes, but it would be inconvenient to say "It's a 'frolic of my own*' and it may cost the farm but it's a shiny fun thing."


* 'A frolic of my own' is a US legal phrase used to exempt employers from liability for their agents, employees or servants even when they (the agent, employee or servant) are on their (the employer's) direct business if the agent, employee or servant is doing something for any or no reason that is not part of that business. It is also the title of a novel by an author who is worth one billion times more than the egregious s**t Philip Roth - William Gaddis.

 

[SteMerritt]

I just hope that being Oxford fans, the first thing they do is change that red and white nonsense for proper colours.

 

[LondonRoader]

It seems to be a given that SD and CM are in this for the money, but is that necessarily the case?

Surely a football club is the ultimate boy's toy? And the bigger, the better.

Does anyone think SD made a profit at Eastleigh?

Fair point, but if SD made a lose at Eastleigh with his "boy's toy" why would he go bigger if it wasn't for the money?
Eastleigh might be making a lose as a club but isn't there land involved in and around the ground? I'm not sure if SD relinquished that with the club..

 

[m]

Fair point, but if SD made a lose at Eastleigh with his "boy's toy" why would he go bigger if it wasn't for the money?
Eastleigh might be making a lose as a club but isn't there land involved in and around the ground? I'm not sure if SD relinquished that with the club..

A bigger, better toy?

Interesting point with your second sentence, I knew nothing of that.

 

[Grumpy Git]

Sunderland are in for a shock if they think they'll walk the league. They will have 46 games where the other teams are going to try and prove a point. Flashing the cash doesn't always work... ask Bury

 

[The Forgotten Highlander]

It seems to be a given that SD and CM are in this for the money, but is that necessarily the case?

Surely a football club is the ultimate boy's toy? And the bigger, the better.

Does anyone think SD made a profit at Eastleigh?

For most millionaires buying a footy club increases their exposure as well as massages their ego but SD has never struck me as someone driven by ego. He is a businessman at the end of the day and he will be aware of the high risk involved so there must be a chance of an extremely lucrative reward at the end of it all.
Anyway I still think SD will own Oxford Utd and its stadium one day........

 

[Matt D]

Slightly different to the oxfordmail article [emoji23]

I don't know charlie that well - although enough to be amused by him being sent up by private eye! but in fairness my experience of charlie is not one of red (or mustard...) trouser pocket-patting, it's that it's hard work being allowed to get your round in.

 

[tonyw]

Sunderland are in for a shock if they think they'll walk the league. They will have 46 games where the other teams are going to try and prove a point. Flashing the cash doesn't always work... ask Bury

I know I'm banging on about this a bit on this thread......but people really do need to stop with the Bury comparisons!

Yes, Bury had - from all reports - a pretty substantial wage budget last season, especially for a small club with not many fans. And they blew it in every way possible.

But Sunderland will be able to run a wage bill that is at least five times as big as Bury's and still break even.


What we're seeing with Sunderland is the first direct intrusion of Premier League silly money into our league. And when you have one team that is receiving TV payments that are three times bigger than any other club in the division's total income, it creates a financial imbalance that is, frankly, laughable.

Many of us have complained about the haves and have nots that the Premier League has created for years. This year, we're going to see that exemplified firsthand. And it's going to take a colossal effort from any other team - and some colossal incompetence from Sunderland - if anyone's going to successfully bridge that gap.

Might happen. I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[Concretebob]

Anyone got a question [emoji23]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1002204388440576001

Mr Dick interviews a...

 

[MarkG]

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/spor...r-agreeing-deal-with-stewart-donald-1-9188414

 

[Sinner]

Sweetheart, I'm not as precious as you it seems. If you bite at this good natured jibe you ain't gonna last long when it gets tough on here x

Hello Dear - quite liked your post so sorry if I came across a bit churlish - must have been one of my middle aged man moments!

 

[Sinner]

It's honestly hard to say. We're focusing on expenditure, which is a significant amount, but they're a big club, so will have a fair amount of income as well. And I'm sure some of their players must have market value. @Sinner: which of your players are worth anything and how much roughly would you expect to receive for them?

Next season should be very straight forward for them in my opinion. The following season, however, is a different matter entirely. Increase in costs (transfer fees and wages) means that they won't have more a few seasons in the Championship to gain promotion to the PL. Any longer and they will probably start to worry.

SD and CM have talked about not wanting to deal with agents and stomping out player power. Lovely words, but to me that sounds more like a fantasists dream than anything.

This was what one SMB poster reckoned - about 40m

Oviedo 2m
Djilibodji 4m
Kone 6m
Mcnair 5m
Khazri 6m
Ndong 6m
Borini 5m
Lens 6m

Might be optimistic but would expect more for McNair and there are other youngsters clubs have their eyes on on, but hopefully they are the future including McNair. We had 6 academy players int the team that beat Wolves 3-0, not including Honeyman & Gooch who are established in the team.

 

[holdsteady]

This was what one SMB poster reckoned - about 40m

Oviedo 2m
Djilibodji 4m
Kone 6m
Mcnair 5m
Khazri 6m
Ndong 6m
Borini 5m
Lens 6m

Might be optimistic but would expect more for McNair and there are other youngsters clubs have their eyes on on, but hopefully they are the future including McNair. We had 6 academy players int the team that beat Wolves 3-0, not including Honeyman & Gooch who are established in the team.

Depends on how much some of those players earn, if someone offers to take a want away uncommitted high earner off your wage bill then would you really risk pricing them out of a move, I think a couple might go on frees but that would still be saving you millions.

If some of those players go for £5 million then football really has gone mad after what they have produced over the last two years.

 

[Sarge]

While them Mackems have more money than any other League 1 side ( courtercy of Murdochs sky sport millions/ PL parachute payments) and it should be a given they go back up to the championship at the first ask, as Saint n Greavsie used to say its a funny old game. Nothing is ever certain .... especially in the lower leagues,..... the wrong players, and/or the wrong manager/head coach for league 1 can put a serious spanner in the works of any aspirations no matter how much money is available.