Fan Letters: “Ellis Short, Martin Bain, Robbie Stockdale - please leave our club now!”

Dear Roker Report,

What is Sunderland AFC all about?

Passion, togetherness, faith, family.

In my 30 years as a Sunderland fan these are the reasons why I fell in love with the club. Standing on the terraces at Roker Park, fingers froze to the bone but with a warmth breathing from the foundations of the building, with all of those feelings wrapped up in an experience that you cannot find anywhere else.

But what is it now? None of those things... not one.

Being a fan of this great club is in our blood, but the values it held once do not exist in the modern day, and there are numerous reasons why. The passion was lost many a year ago, and many debilitating relegation battles have meant an acceptance of failure, and in failure passion dissolves - it's lost from the stands, the players, the staff.

Sunderland is not the club that I remember going to watch as a boy. It's a cesspit of abject failure. Togetherness, therefore, also does not exist in our club any longer - the fans are not together with the club because of the inadequate choices made by unqualified people in positions of power, the ownership and everything else that comes with it as a result.

This has never been the case before - the club, as a whole, has always been a unit of togetherness. This is the main reason no manager has a chance of being successful - because of the loss of passion and togetherness, and because of the loss of faith from the fans who have suffered years of abuse at the hands of uncaring decision-makers.

Once again we are looking down the barrel, looking to appoint yet another manager.

My ears, eyes and brain go into overdrive at this point of the year and, like Christmas, it's the only time of the year I get excited about Sunderland - which is sad to say the least. It's happened for years now, and it's just not good enough.

In my opinion, the root problem is a culmination of 3 main factors:

- The board: Inadequate management of the football club for a number of years.

- The players: They’re overpaid, have too much power and many of them just don’t care.

- The fans - Many of us have lost our passion, belief and togetherness.

Sadly, when it comes to assessing who will take the job now that Simon Grayson has left, I feel that many supporters are deluded. We believe that we are something we are not, and until we realise this and start taking ownership of the situation we are in, nothing will be good enough.

For example, 'Bring back Big Sam!' - c’mon, have a word with your self. Having unrealistic expectations will see us fail again. It's time to get a grip and accept we are not who we were.

And that's the sad thing about Sunderland AFC - this isn’t the club that I fell in love with.

Gary Stephenson

Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

From top to bottom our club is a shambles.

There’s no direction, and no pride from the players in playing for the colours that they wear.

Ellis Short, Martin Bain, Robbie Stockdale - please leave our club now.

In terms of replacing Simon Grayson, I would go for Peter Reid, with SuperKev as his number two.

We have players who don't give a flying f’ck. Jack Rodwell, for instance, should be ashamed for stealing a living out of us.

Us supporters deserve a whole lot better than the sh’t we are getting at the minute.

Rob Brown

Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

Isn’t it interesting that following your article on the state of the Sunderland academy we are seeing the likes of Tom Robson and Dan Wright re-appear, Andrew Nelson head out on loan etc?

Damian Lydon