FAN LETTERS: “Our owner wants to be President of Uruguay - what does this mean for Sunderland?”

Dear Roker Report,

I’ve just read the article on your site which highlighted that Juan Sartori plans to run for office in Uruguay, and if I’m honest this news leaves me with some deflating questions.

What does this mean for Sunderland? Surely he can’t devote time to us if he’s concentrating on becoming president? Does his involvement with our club come down to being nothing more than Sartori flexing his muscles to show he’s in business overseas?

I have to admit it’s a little concerning.

Jack Harford

Ed’s Note [Gav]: Yeah, I guess at this stage we don’t know a great deal about what is going on. It’s obviously great for Sartori that he plans to go into politics but it does feel, like you say, slightly deflating as any invested amount of time into that venture would come as a cost to Sunderland. Many fans had hoped that, eventually, Sartori and his rich family would take the club over - that still remains a possibility of course, but not perhaps under the same circumstances as we thought it may have happened previously.

It’s too early to say yet, of course. Let’s wait and see. I’m still processing the fact Sunderland’s co-owner wants to become President... it’s a bit mad!

Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

What a relief it is to finally once and for all be rid of that tosser Ndong. Hopefully the news of an agreement between the club and Djilobodji will follow soon, and we can move on from this sorry episode in the club’s history.

I do wonder how much of what has gone on and what they’ve had to deal with was made privy to Stewart Donald et al when they purchased the club from Ellis Short. I’m just speculating here but it doesn’t exactly feel as though they were given the full story when buying the club and have instead had to deal with a load of nonsense that they weren’t expecting to have on their plate, amongst other stuff.

Was the club sold under false pretenses? Who knows. I feel sorry for the current owners though, having to deal with so many mistakes from our past that had nothing to do with them.

Thankfully they seem motivated, professional and eager to please the fans. Decisions are being taken with us in mind and that can only be a good thing. Onwards and upwards.

Keep the faith.

John Ellington

Ed’s Note [Gav]: These are very valid concerns, and in truth Stewart Donald has alluded in the past a few times now that certain information wasn’t presented to him during the negotiations that they’ve only since picked up on.

There’s no denying that they’ve had to deal with all kinds that they really probably shouldn’t have, mistakes made by old chief execs and managers - such as handing out ridiculous contracts to players in order to convince them to stay/come, signing players that were the wrong fit for this club, giving big name managers contracts that exceed their worth and so on.

The best time to properly assess all of this will be a year or so from now, when you can look at the operational side of the club and ask “have things changed for the better?” - it’s likely we’ll be able to say yes, but there’ll still be work to do, whether we are in League One or the Championship. Stewart Donald has spent a lot of money already fixing this club and for that we can only be grateful - but we have to support him and his team whilst they strive to transform this club so that when we do land back in the Premier League, we don’t repeat the mistakes of the Ellis Short era once again.