Fan Letters: “Imagine if Sunderland had signed M’Vila instead of blowing a fortune on Ndong?”

Dear Roker Report,

So I read today that Yann M’Vila would eventually like a return back to the Premier League, and that he spoke in the French press about how much he enjoyed his time at Sunderland.

Does anyone else feel like they’ve just been hoofed in the bollocks?!

What a f**king missed opportunity that was. M’Vila was easily the most classy midfielder I’ve seen at Sunderland since Claudio Reyna and we had him there on a plate - but refused to finance the deal and as a result he went elsewhere.

Infuriating. It does make me think about what impact such neglect has had on us in recent years - the constant mindfulness that we should always take the safer, cheaper option. Signing players like Borini, Rodwell and co appeared safe bets at the time but have ended up costing us as while they were canny players then, they turned out to be a load of twaddle.

Imagine if we had signed M’Vila instead of Didier Ndong? The claim at the time was that his wages were too expensive, which is fair enough, but then to replace him with a man nowhere near as good or experienced as him that we had to break our transfer window to sign?!

It still boils my piss to this today. This f**king club, man.

I hope Yann gets himself a move back to the Premier League, its the least he deserves. From the outside to me it looks like he’s been messed around loads since leaving Rennes. The Russian club he joined offered him ridiculous money but loads of off field politics led to him being basically held up there, and then he had to endure being strung along by Sunderland.

Sounds like he’s doing well at St Etienne and he’ll be back soon enough. Just can’t help but think what a shame it is that we won’t see him playing in a Sunderland shirt again, when it wasn’t even that long ago that we had the opportunity to secure him right in the palm of our hands and instead blew it.

One of many mistakes, eh.

Peter Green

Ed’s Note [Gav]: *sigh* - yep, Peter... It’s been a hard slog being a Sunderland fan in recent years and one of the most baffling transfer decisions we’ve made in that time was most definitely not biting the bullet on M’Vila and signing him when he was available on a free. I know the argument was that his wages were too much, but then you look at some of the deals we offered other players in that time and you have to wonder how he was any less of a risk than some of the others. I’ll forever be a Yann fan!

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Dear Roker Report,

I listened with interest at this week’s Roker Rapport Podcast when my childhood hero Gordon Armstrong spoke (what a bloke by the way) about his involvement with takeover consortiums in the past.

It gives me some comfort that these groups wanting to take charge of Sunderland are consulting with former players and people that have the best interests of the club at heart - hopefully whoever takes us off Ellis Short’s hands sees the sense in having ‘Sunderland people’ involved at boardroom level.

Derek Johnston

Ed’s Note [Gav]: I agree Derek. Personally I think that Sunderland need fan representation at boardroom level so that fans can at least feel they have a say in major decisions. Lord knows that had Ellis Short done the same we might have avoided some of the horrendous calamities we’ve faced in recent years had Sunderland supporters had a say in what occurs.