Stewart Donald anyone.....

I wonder what @uptheus take on it all as he was always telling us Stew and Charles were the answer.

Don’t think you can compare owning Sunderland versus Oxford. The outright expectancy, size of clubs, debt differences are vast. I still maintain that had Stewart taken over Oxford we would have done ok, and still believe if one day he does take over he’ll do well then too.

As for now/current ownership, we’re doing well, but I’m still no clearer in terms of who truly owns what or where the finances come from or what the future strategy is. Still believe Tiger are only in it to make money on new stadium etc (a la Kassam), but just hope we’re not shafted as much this time as we’ve/councils have hopefully learnt our lessons over the last 20+ years.

I just felt with Stewart being a true fan that he would have had the club at heart, whereas, most owners are in it for themselves which I believe Stewart to be at Sunderland too.
 
I’ve just seen the first episode and it’s extremely well made. You certainly get to see D and M’s many flaws but they are well meaning guys. Clearly there was a very poor atmosphere at the club with bad attitudes and a lot of staff dopiness. But they clearly had a plan which er they’ve had a lot of problems in executing. Seems to me that Donald has lost interest now and is gagging to sell up.

Chas is a dynamic bloke and doing his best. But boy does he love himself. People shouldn’t quite be so quick to slag in my opinion though.

Well worth watching anyway.
 
As much as Charlie is Charlie, you can’t argue with what he was trying to achieve. He was being f held back by a negative group. The point highlighted previously shows that. Also a while before all that, as shown on the documentary he delivered a presentation to key staff ( I assume ) and at the end asked for questions. He got none. He went on to say maybe he should have planted some. Now that’s a worry, fair enough you may not like the man, or his ways, but ultimately you pull together for the job ( football club ) in hand.

Sunderland is rotten, the majority of the players , the management, even the staff. But most of all the fans. They are the worst. And to think after we played them twice this season Geordies were bad. f**k the lot of em bar a little bit SD.
Having been on both sides of that fence a few times, I think that you have to realise that the SAFC staff have either probably heard that style of presentation many times or are suffering from low motivation due to the many issues they have had at that moment, so you need to read the room and adapt what you are doing to your audience.

CM will have thought it would look nice for the cameras, but the body language was a cringefest.
 
To be fair to all, the production values on the show are very high, and you can be sure that the editing etc have been very carefully worked to look like the office. Of course you need the raw material to work with, but still very clever production.
 
a bit more level headed? Maybe, maybe not.

...but if you’ve heard some of the anecdotes I’ve heard directly about Tiger from decent sources then the guy is absolutely bonkers.

And whilst ive little time to defend Charlie we should be far more respectful of Mr Donald on here. Firstly he’s supported us hugely on a financial level in our very darkest hours in the conference.

Secondly it may be that one day he might be the one that saves us from darker times again.

He reads these forums and should have earnt our respect purely on his massive financial contributions with little expectation in return.

edit: he needs to get the arm length on his shirts and suits sorted though ??
I was of the impression it was SD snr who was the Oxford fanatic, funding most of the conference days "extras", Beano etc.
 
I think that’s probably necessary PR given circumstances? what else can he say given he’s Sunderland owner and we are rivals.

Admittedly not there yet though so I reserve the right to change my opinion

Agreed, he couldn't really say anything else.
 
To be fair to all, the production values on the show are very high, and you can be sure that the editing etc have been very carefully worked to look like the office. Of course you need the raw material to work with, but still very clever production.
Undoubtedly true, but if that it was allowed to be shown, what was left out?

I really mean this respectfully, but someone like CM who has a long history in PR/Marketing, should have been mindful of what that sort of thing entailed and weighed the risks up for them personally and the football club overall by doing it. Especially one who portrayed himself as the mutts nuts on that sort of thing in the past. I can't believe he was that naive or arrogant.

Still, it's made me laugh harder than much of the comedy out there today, so I am glad for that.
 
Thought SD was shown to be a well meaning owner, but at times seemed well out of his depth, and for all the good turning around the big losses the club was suffering he then messed up big time on Grigg and he actually didn't have to sell Maja and so guarantee promotion, losing 1m euros in the Maja transfer fee to guarantee promotion instead was the difference.

I have seen and experienced far worse bosses than CM, and he just seemed like a fairly typical new boss trying to make his mark. What can't be denied is the success of levelling the losses that SD and CM achieved, and you can't help that they were a bit unlucky that they appointed a tactically negative manager and they decided to give their top scorer away that left them completely short. It could have been very different with just a couple kicks of a football and they would have been lauded as saviours of the city not just the football club. There is undoubtedly good work done off the pitch to level Sunderland AFC up, but it looks like someone else will eventually be the hero because what is for sure is that eventually Sunderland will be promoted some time in the next 2-4 years.

The series was very surreal in the fact that overall their season was a disaster on the pitch, yet episodes 1-5 painted a falsely positive picture giving the impression they were beating everyone albeit with late goals, and only episode 6 realised the gloom that they were all in. Funny how 2019/20 has been even worse.
 
As much as Charlie is Charlie, you can’t argue with what he was trying to achieve. He was being f held back by a negative group. The point highlighted previously shows that. Also a while before all that, as shown on the documentary he delivered a presentation to key staff ( I assume ) and at the end asked for questions. He got none. He went on to say maybe he should have planted some. Now that’s a worry, fair enough you may not like the man, or his ways, but ultimately you pull together for the job ( football club ) in hand.

Sunderland is rotten, the majority of the players , the management, even the staff. But most of all the fans. They are the worst. And to think after we played them twice this season Geordies were bad. f**k the lot of em bar a little bit SD.
Been watching this doc with interest-and in this particular episode chazza wouldn't have got anywhere near in saying 'any questions' if amongst that crowd of statuettes our own sheepskin warrior was planted in there! You know who you are.

Coyy's.
 
Don’t think you can compare owning Sunderland versus Oxford. The outright expectancy, size of clubs, debt differences are vast. I still maintain that had Stewart taken over Oxford we would have done ok, and still believe if one day he does take over he’ll do well then too.

As for now/current ownership, we’re doing well, but I’m still no clearer in terms of who truly owns what or where the finances come from or what the future strategy is. Still believe Tiger are only in it to make money on new stadium etc (a la Kassam), but just hope we’re not shafted as much this time as we’ve/councils have hopefully learnt our lessons over the last 20+ years.

I just felt with Stewart being a true fan that he would have had the club at heart, whereas, most owners are in it for themselves which I believe Stewart to be at Sunderland too.


Fully agree with that sentiment. Whatever happens to football after the apocalypse, the dye has unfortunately been cast regarding the future of KR at the club, after the transfer saga. With so much uncertainty regarding fixtures, players contracts and finances at clubs, clubs will be looking at who has recently been successful in their job. Managers like KR, who I have no doubt is keeping his ear to the ground, will be prime targets for Championship clubs.

I really hope he stick with us, and sees the job through. If Blackpool seemed to turn his head slightly then lets hope another northern club on the up don't come knocking as he wants to be successful and move back closer to his family up north seemingly.
 
Having now watched the full thing, Methven doesn't come across that well, but in his defence I don't think he's helped by his staff. There was a losing culture at the club that seeped its way from the terraces into every aspect of the football club, and whilst Charlie overstepped the mark on plenty of occasions, it's easy to make him look like the only villain when a decent amount of the staff at the club are turning up and going through the motions. Like when the marketing girl said 'there's no way we're going to get to 40k' and they hit 46k. In the past it made no difference to her because under the old regime she'd still be there next week.

There's a point towards the end where Donald says that there's nothing like Sunderland fans. He means it as a positive, but it can also be seen in a negative light too. It may be exacerbated by editing, but by the way a lot of the fans were behaving you'd presume that they were mid-table or worse, not in the play-offs and in the EFL Trophy final. Passionate fanbases can be great when they're going for you, but Sunderland fans can so easily turn like no other fanbase I've seen (other than perhaps Newcastle).
 
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So this Sartori chap, did we dodge a bullet?

I thought he was meant to be our saviour.

Based on 30 seconds of Netflix footage ? Not disagreeing or agreeing but I Think I’d make judgments on more objective basis

Episode two I saw a sneaky little walk on from Matt Everett
 
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The Josh Maja and Will Grigg sagas should be watched by every OUFC fan who threw their toys out of the pram in the last transfer window. It's an example of what players, and their percenters, will do to get a player to move on, and what happens when Owners lose their focus and break the structure when buying players. Coton and Hill looked like they wanted to say something more earthy on Grigg, but didn't - presumably as they were on camer .

As for Maja, either he's a great liar or he's unbelievably thick and naive. For his sake, I hope it's the latter.

Am I the only one who noticed that they never showed it raining in Sunderland when they were out and about? And the appointment of Ross cost them - what research they did on him as it was clear he was a 1 goal defend manager from the off. Were they trying to be too clever?

Overall impression. Methven is a pillock (but we knew that), Donald is likeable, naive and perhaps not the wisest or perceptive of owners, Sunderland and their fans were more deluded than we were when in the Conference - that is saying something - and overall, it looks to be an incredible financial conundrum that I can't see SD or Sartori sniffing much of a profit from it.

A final dig... Methven from the side looks like Beavis from Beavis and Butthead in profile. Once you see, you can't unsee it!
 
I haven't seen the while serious, but the bits I have seen show most of the key figures as naive and amateurish. We had people moaning about the money we got for Baptiste, but €1.5m for Maja? SD knew that he'd been absolutely done over, which is why he compounded the problem by going all in on Grigg. Wigan knew that he was desperate and just sat back and waited for the bid to keep rising.

Of course, a camera crew following Tiger and co. round could have shown things just as farcical and I'm sure that many aspects of the football industry are equally insane. But no one comes out of this well, and I think the only way out now for SD is to do a deal with the Americans and disappear. He is massively out of his depth and surrounded by buffoons!
 
On episode 4, so glad we don't have Donald at OUFC now. Recklessly upping bids for Will Grigg when it doesn't make financial sense. Sustainability must come before short term success. Lowe and behold it came back to bite them in the a**e. He's shite!
 
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