- Joined
- 8 Dec 2017
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- 13,516
Hope he's not holding his breath for a reply...
Hope he's not holding his breath for a reply...
Ironically, for the right reasons they did themselves over by either not selling Maja and keeping his goals until the end of the season, or at least keeping him at the club and refusing to sell him until they already had a replacement signed on.
I dunno - he was quite cheeky and smirky when being asked about his situation a couple of times. Not saying he’s a rotter or that he’s some sort of supervillain, just that I think he would’ve been aware of what his agent was doing and was fine to go along with it. He looked pretty complicit.I know that Maja's agent was being an a**e - and he's the one who made out like a bandit because a transfer fee was paid - but it's hard to imagine, seeing the kid on screen, that the guy was going to be terminally disruptive to the squad if he was made to stay for an additional six months.
The same player we tried to sign 12 months after they did, which would’ve smashed our wage structure in the process.
And if my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle. It didn't happen. And why not? Quite possibly because they tried to get away with a cheap manager and spent far too much on Grigg, relying on him for goals and performances that just never arrived.If Sunderland had got promoted that first season, and gone on to sell the club for a decent price in the Championship, the bag-carriers would all be hailing Madrox as financial geniuses who pulled off a massive deal, all the while doing it with short term measures like a cheap manager, and splashing out on Griggs to get them over the line.
Likewise, but it seems we’ve been as guilty as they were, and with regards to the same player in the same window. The difference is that our flailing around didn’t come off like theirs did, but we tried to do the exact same thing. Merely thought it worth highlighting for those who were making out our own processes are perfect.Which I hope didn’t happen at the time and still don’t!
Likewise, but it seems we’ve been as guilty as they were, and with regards to the same player in the same window. The difference is that our flailing around didn’t come off like theirs did, but we tried to do the exact same thing. Merely thought it worth highlighting for those who were making out our own processes are perfect.
If all you’re doing is signing Bjørn Heidenstrøm from Orient and picking up Claudio Nunez on a free then you’re not having that one.
Certainly not suggesting that our processes are perfect - there's undoubtedly a fair amount of last minute emotional panicking and flailing that goes on at OUFC as well too.
It is certainly the case, however, that we're better at locking down our most promising academic graduates for a few years, so we don't have our hands forced like Sunderland did with Maja (yes, we still sold Shandon - but at least we got closer to value for him; we weren't negotiating looking down the barrel).
And I hope/believe that, on the 'buy' side at least, KR gets more input into the signings than Jack Ross apparently did at Sunderland.
That being said, it's possible that some deals - the Jamie Hanson purchase, for example - went down similarly to what we saw on screen at Sunderland!
I've just finished watching it and that's a fair summary. Stuart Donald seems a nice enough, genuine kind of person. Great entertainment. Hate to say this but I even felt for the Sunderland supporters at the end. 'When's it going to be our turn? Sob. Sob'So Stu & Co took over Sunderland on the cheap looking to flip it later to make a tidy profit and walk away.
They get shafted by the previous owner by either not doing due diligence (CM) properly or not spending the money to get it carried out by professionals to find the odd £10m hidden here and there.
The club was leaching money everywhere with the previous owner just signing the cheque and the staff ambivalent of the clubs situation, they were getting paid regardless.
Stu & co went in there looking to get rid of the deadwood, shake up and stream line the backroom staff to fit the financial model that they hoped to achieve to get the costs down and make the club look a more enticing project for the next owners and a saleable club.
They almost achieved that but for the fact they lost twice to a Portsmouth side, you can blame the manager/backroom staff for not securing their assets and were lacking in the transfer market overall.
For what they set out to do it almost worked and the next series would of been about the new owners, the way they handled the transfer and financial situations it doesn't look like they had the nous, appetite or finances to deal with the championship and the spiralling costs that would of brought.
If they were there for a season and got promotion they could of flipped the club and walked away with a bundle of money, fair play to them on taking the risk, but now this situation from the outside seems to be a drain emotionally and financially on them, for CM to say they are solvent but had to "borrow" £10m to fix lifts etc seems a bit of a stretch.
It's a very entertaining series with some great moments, I do wonder if there is a series 3 and that will focus on this seasons tribulations.
You'd have thought SDs strategy now would be to flog Sunderland to anyone who'd give him enough to cover the major proportion of what he has personally spent. The thing is, even if they went up the pressure on SD would then increase anyway because their supporters see the club as a Prem team - they won't be happy 'surviving' in the Championship.Newcastle United £300m takeover close
A Newcastle United takeover takes a step closer after new documents show that owner Mike Ashley has entered into a charge agreement with potential buyer Amanda Staveley.www.bbc.com
Bad news for Donald....if Newcastle get a dream ticket owner of a sovereign wealth fund from Saudi and the Mackems watch this the delusion of expectation will Sky rocket and put more pressure on him
.... they won't be happy 'surviving' in the Championship.