Fan Letters: “I hope the silence means something’s brewing!” Are Sunderland fans hoping in vain?

Dear Roker Report,

I’m intrigued by the silence coming out of Sunderland at the moment. I know nothing of the new owners and it seems nobody else does. Could it be big changes are on the way? I hope so.

There’s been lots of fans complaining about the state of our club but I’m not sure even then if the severity of it has set in. We just lost to a team Scunthorpe only places above the National League, wasn’t even close, then lost to Gillingham.

I was pleased to see reader Chris Wynn commenting on PP’s contract. Nobody seems to take much notice of these things but they’re vital. It’s incredible to me whether it’s workplace laws or agents I don’t know but how can anybody be appointed for effectively three seasons without trial periods, performance and result provisions. Maybe that’s why PP hasn’t been sacked. Two wins in twelve ...Too costly to sack.

There’s also the question of what sort of mindset this creates for all, managers, players, assistants if they know they can bludge and get paid anyway or worse still given a pay out if they’re sacked. It’s not fair on the fans, the genuine people who hold the game up or the lower tier players who pretty well play for their love of the game, and holding down another job. The usual minority spoiling for the majority and that’s not just football.

Gav makes many interesting points. I don’t know what half these people do and it seems many are not committed to the club or area. It seems they’re involved in other things and FIFO.

True to form after being ignored by Short and then sacked by Donald one person who did care was Chris Coleman. He was treated appallingly and was rumoured to have put his son in school, his family excited for the next season and what lay ahead. Cruel.

That done, what next. Appoint Grayson. He reminds me of Parkinson and if I recall he also brought in his cronies as support making terminations even more difficult and expensive.

Who can ever forget Steele and Camp and Grayson stubbornly refusing to start Ruiter despite the fans almost rioting. I don’t get it. Surely a way to win over fans is to do what they want. The same things happening now with PP persevering with players who aren’t producing and leaving promising and others out. If Connelly just scored a hatrick wouldn’t it be logic to give him a start and the player feeding him. Again I don’t know what players are instructed but obviously one reason Grigg isn’t scoring is he’s not getting the service. You can’t score if the ball doesn’t come your way. The alternative is the forlorn site we saw against Gillingham with him going looking for the ball because no one was giving it to him. Bit like playground bullying.

The bottom line is all the training talk tactics and formations count for nothing if you can’t get a shot on target in 90 minutes.

I don’t know the answer and it’s a shame as supporters we seem to spend a lot of time talking about administrative issues when all we want is a team that entertains and gives us a lift every week.

Other than shop around for another run of the mill manager, not to mention if anyone wants the job, I’d go right out of the box, and both a bit pie in the sky. What’s to lose. We’ve just ‘lost’ a Director who says gonna and ain’t, another who’s head is in politics overseas and all apparently FIFO. None are connected to the area or the fans.

I’m not sure if fans realise just how bad it’s got. We’d have to almost win 20 games on the trot to go up automatically.

My choice could be seen laughable, but there’s nothing funny about what we’ve got now, two wins in twelve. I’d go for either a ‘marquis’ manager like Allardyce or Reid purely to get us promoted. Short term and expensive yes and add to that an open cheque to bring in strikers like Defoe or Ibrahimovic to get the place heaving. It’s unlikely either manager or players would want to come to what is now a mid table league one club (Division 3).

My other choice and this is one which will have supporters choking on their beer, until they think about it. Like I say what’s happening now isn’t working. Moyes, Grayson, Parkinson.

My choice are two managers who’ve won four trophies I can think of and a club that’s been promoted four times in five years. I’m talking about Lee Picton and Graham Fenton. Remember we were a Premier League club, we’re now a League one club mid table.

They could come in for the rest of the season then return to South Shields to continue the great job they do there.

It may well be the size of the club and expectations could be too much but they respond well to pressure, good tacticians and very well versed in the game, and they’re local.

Ridiculous, maybe but look what we’ve got now and if PP is sacked mid season who’s on offer.

I don’t get a lot what’s going on at Sunderland. Who can ever forget the huge money wasted on players who contributed nothing and not remotely interested or connected to the area. Even Phil Brown, why wasn’t he considered. JR’s assistant Fowler ..

I /we can only hope the silence is something brewing. I know Sunderland is a big club but there seems to be layers of administrators and overlapping and nothing happening on the field.

You can’t blame players for having a laugh over a Big Mac, the jokes on us and I’d be laughing on their money too.

Picton and Fenton although of course it won’t happen would knock that right out of them and have players giving their all week in week out. If the fans saw that and the results weren’t there they’d still applaud the effort. They’d also foster team spirit and use substitutes what they’re there for, to change the game not doing what we saw last week at Gillingham with a sub coming on in injury time. Maybe there was an injury I don’t know but don’t think so. They’d bring in flair to the game, what’s this hoofing upfield we’re seeing now, that went out with the hills.

So that’s where we’re at. What a shame and what a shambles. Maybe we really do need something out of left field, what we’ve got now isn’t working.

Peter Chase

Ed’s Note [Damian]: Hard to find fault with most of what you’re saying, Peter. Though I will say there’s plenty of blame to be laid at the feet of under-performing players like McGeady and Maguire huddled over a happy meal when they can’t get a place in the squad because they’re so unfit/sh*te.

Ultimately I’m not sure I have the confidence to say I believe that something is brewing, as you put it. I’m getting the impression that Stewart Donald is bewildered and wasn’t at all prepared for the storm of Sunderland AFC in crisis. Ironically, he’s the old man that can take us out of crisis, but again I don’t believe he knows how.

The run up to the January window, with us arguably marching towards another season in League One (ARGH), is going to be tough pill to swallow.

At least there’s Christmas to look forward to?