Fan Letters: More Sunderland conspiracy theories about owners, investment & transfers shot down

Dear Roker Report,

SD pulled of the deal of the century , a debt free SAFC with the ownership of the SOL and AOL intact and still some assets on the pitch to cash in on if required. So we were led to believe.

New seats, Rodwell disposed of and others banished to loans around Europe.Fees came in for Khazri ,Lens and Coates etc . A rosy picture it would seem.

Juan came in to join the feel good party on wearside and all seemed to be on the up.

Charlie told us the p*ss take party had stopped!! Great news.

All going quite well sitting 3rd with games in hand , win them and we would be top. Then we hear Josh Maja wants to go. Well for me that’s when the wheels fell off. The 1st challenge of JR the managers reign in dealing with an unhappy player . How sadly wrong it went. Agents are there in the game , deep rooted for now at least and like it or lump it you have to deal with them.Safc could not agree terms on a new deal so Josh was sold. It could have been so different, we could have kept him , let him run his contract down and get compensation if he still wanted to leave in the summer. I for one think we would have gone up if he had stayed we were a far better balanced team with him at the focal point of the attack. We controlled games better, his clever movement dragging less talented defenders all over leaving gaps for others to exploit.Although far from the finished article , he’s streets ahead of Grigg and Wyke in footballing brain.

Championship footy next season , why would Maja want to leave this summer but if he did ,the extra £10m revenue that SD stated live in a podcast that championship footy brings would have more than compensated us for his loss on a free.Also, Grigg would not be at SAFC and £3/4m whatever the true figure is would have been saved and available to put towards buying a striker capable of scoring in the championship.

Instead, SD chose to cash in on Maja and shot SAFC in the foot big time. The 1st real big decision and the club got it wrong big style. Now the Benji situation is being totally mismanaged. A young boy with talent and is being left to rot until he signs a new contract. Wrong decision. We are in league 1 we cannot treat players like dirt and expect there to be no consequences or repercussions.Hearing these facts coming out of the club , why would players want to put themselves in the firing line of this possibly happening to them down the line, simple they wouldn’t and they aren’t.

Weve reportedly tried and failed to sign Shankland, Wilson and Ladapo and with the greatest of respect none is a world beater. McCrorie from Rangers preferred to go to Portsmouth.No smoke without for as they say in all these rumours. This says enough for me, the whole package of SAFC is not attractive anymore.

SD is facing the tough realities of running a huge football club and I sincerely hope he succeeds. At present though I believe he is proving to be out of his depth and juggling everything involved successfully is beyond him.

STID

Martin Hindmarsh

Ed’s Note [Gav]: Re: Kimpioka, it looks like whatever issues there were have been sorted it out, temporarily at least, as he’s training with the first team again.

I also wouldn’t believe every transfer rumour you see in the press. I’m not convinced we were interested in signing Ladapo or Wilson, and Shankland was a John Park target.

Let’s just see how things go. If we sign George Dobson that’ll be three decent League One signings added to our squad - there’s just no need to panic yet.

Photo by Mark Fletcher/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

I share your thoughts about the ownership of our football club all we doing is taking in free transfers

Unknown players who according to Comments these players are going into the under 23’s ( What do our Own produced players feel about that ) no wonder Embleton & Robson are unhappy and will probably move on !!

As for the way the fans are being deceived by a pair pure amateur spiffs who basically appear to be lining there own pockets, is nothing short of disgraceful we are approximately 4 weeks away from the start of the season, which let’s not know kid ourselves we don’t have an easy start which hurts me to say that these opponents shouldn’t be on the same pitch as SAFC, however the facts remain that they are. These teams love to come to SOL As it’s there cup final, punching above there wait in order to keep us down there, which gives them a great payday.

Finally I cannot believe that we have Stuck by Ross as his has been responsible for our worst ever, lowest position.

One further rant in you like, every player we have supposed to have been linked with who played for Jack Ross have all turned us down !! So much him being a good motivator/Coach ?? . I am still waiting to see

When they sell The goalie / McGready/ Oviedo etc as all they are interested in doing taking the And shafting the loyal supporters if is as stated approx 23,000 season tickets sold. Stick up your jacksey Charlie Methven your arsehole.

Malcolm Dobinson

Ed’s Note [Gav]: *sigh* - I’ll address each comment one by one.

1) “Unknown players” is such a sh*tty comment. We’ve just signed the #1 ‘keeper from the team that finished three places below us, and an international full back from a team in the league above. Add to that the impending signing of Walsall’s 21 year old captain, and that’s decent business for a League One side that I hope will continue in a similar vein. For the U23s squad we’ve added a small handful of players, just like we did last summer, who have dropped out of Premier League academies. I’m not sure what you’re expecting, really.

2) Are Embleton and Robson unhappy? That’s a first for me. Embleton hasn’t signed a new deal yet but I haven’t heard anything about him being unhappy. Robson committed to a new deal recently and is earmarked for a role in the first team, and is very highly thought of. Again, you’re the first person I’ve heard suggest he’s unhappy.

3) “Amateur spiffs who appear to be lining their own pockets” is quite the accusation. Have you any evidence to back this claim up? If Sunderland’s owners are taking money out of the club then I’d sure like to know how, why, and how much.

4) “These opponents shouldn’t be on the same pitch as SAFC”, again, is such a sh*tty thing to say. We’re in League One because we deserve to be here, and nobody is too big to be in our situation. We are where we are through nobody else’s fault but our own.

5) Ross has a lot to prove. I don’t agree that he should have been sacked but he won’t get a second chance to impress and needs to start the season well, as I don’t think he’ll be afforded any room to make huge mistakes. We need to get promoted and if the early signs are that he’s not capable of achieving it, I don’t expect him to last very long.

6) I’m yet to see any proof of players turning us down bar the lad from Rangers who, in fairness, we only approached as he was taking his medical with Pompey. Don’t believe every single transfer rumour you read. The signings of Burge and McLaughlin came out of nowhere, proof that we probably play our cards a lot closer to our chests than you’d believe.

7) Who said we’re selling McLaughlin and McGeady? Oviedo is the only one that makes sense - why would you pay £46,000 a week to a backup left back in League One? It makes terrible business sense to hang on to him. He’s completely replaceable and the money we’d save in cutting him loose would go a long way to supplementing the signings of additional players who we can take forward with us.

All in all... try not to be so negative and cynical, Malcolm. We’re a League One club with a League One squad and a League One budget, with a League One manager and a League One owner. Deal with it. The sooner some of our fans take their heads out of their backsides and realise the situation we’re in, the sooner we can all move forward.

PA Images via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

when is the take over going to happen it was supposed to be 19th June we are still waiting !!!where’s the new signings !! are we been sold down the rover again !!!

Anthony Prior

Ed’s Note [Gav]: The date that you are quoting came from a journalist, not the owners of the club, who never publicly spoke about the completion of any deal with Mark Campbell nor placed a date on it.

Since then, though, Stewart Donald has spoken on numerous occasions about the fact we haven’t agreed anything with any new owners, and that we don’t actually need additional investment yet. The only way we’d seek new investment is if the interested parties tick all of the boxes, and since nothing has happened yet I’d suggest that no suitable parties have came forward yet. I’d personal rather we seek the best deal for the club as opposed to bringing people on board for the sake of it.

We’ve signed five players so far - two first teamers - with George Dobson apparently the next man through the door (for a fee). We’re just over one week into pre-season. Chill!

Photo bt Mark Fletcher/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

Tell you what majority of real Sunderland supports want

Is what was promised stability within the club first

Then the use of the promise by stewart donald and his board of directors that reasonable investment

Be put into the club to get us out of the sh*thole they call league 1.

This club with it tradition over years and the facilities we boast the stadium the academy

Of which a lot of premier league teams can only dream about.

The purchase of some quality players,now that he has chopped all the dead wood away and reduced the size of the squad to a realistic size

But he needs still to get rid of some of the believers whyke grigg honeyman and the whole of the central defence before we can even think about getting out of this league

Let’s see mr Donald’s true ambition for the club

Or at least say he carnt afford to do it.

Dave Rose

Ed’s Note [Gav]: Sunderland spent more than every other team in League One put together last season, breaking the record spend for a single player in the process. Is that not reasonable investment?

I’m really starting to grow tired of conspiracy theorists who just ignore the facts to suit their arguments. There’s plenty of things that deserve to be questioned but I’m not sure this is one of them. If Sunderland don’t spend at all this summer then, by all means, question it.

The transfer window doesn’t close for almost eight weeks. Now is not the time to panic.