Fan Letters: “Sunderland need a spark of creativity” says supporter Edward

Dear Roker Report,

Sunderland need a spark of creativity loads of free agents on the market at moment

Jack Wiltshire must be getting bored not playing

Andre Green former Aston Villa winger young quick and scores goals wages can’t be to much

Need to explore this market if results and form is going to change

Edward Adams

Ed’s Note [Rich]: Cheers for your letter, Edward. We definitely need to strengthen the squad in January, whether through loans or picking up free agents. I know Wilshire has had a long history of injuries and is not really the age profile of players that, by all accounts, we’re going to be targeting from now on. Green is a really good call, he had a successful loan spell at Portsmouth in 2018-19 and played for England age group teams right up to U20s. I’d hope he’s one that will be on the club’s radar.

Photo by Alex Morton/Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

Hello lads, I wish I could find some thing positive about our beloved SAFC. We all know our club has been absolutely been stripped of all pride and dignity over the last 3years. We had our Premier League money snatched off us by a couple of horrible chances. I’ve made my feelings known on how we have been drained of any notable standard.

I dont expect anywhere near top 10 premiership, but these clowns have dragged us to unknown depths of misery and heartache and a sense of been robbed and burgled.

Here we go again a manager whis done nowt hes done the manager of month in lower league twice I think over about 8 years of management.

Well thank you once again to our useless owner we are now officially a lower league club employing staff not anywhere near good enough to represent safc.No I wont give this fella time cos just like the last dross he should not be here. SAFC does not need lower league ex managers of Oldham or bristol city he got nowhere notably with them.

I think the only way of saving SAFC from the mediocre owners managers and playing staff is to sell me soul to the devil and ask him to GET RID OF THE POISON THAT IS IN SUNDERLAND AFC.

I honestly think as I said in my last letter now that we have again chosen mediocre leadership we will be a lower league team for a long long time.

LED BY ABSOLUTE CLOWNS WHEN WILL SAFC EVER BE ANYWHERE NEAR WHERE THEY WERE UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF PETER REID AND NIALL.

Absoluteley heartbroken at where we are.

Jarvis ‘n Billy

Ed’s Note [Rich]: Thanks for your letter Jarvis, hope you and Billy are staying safe and well. To be fair to Madrox, they weren’t the ones who got us relegated to this level and they almost achieved their goal of promotion at the first time of asking.

A significant change is quite clearly happening behind the scenes at the club that we expect will see Donald’s control of the club come to an end sooner rather than later, although the devil will be in the detail of the deal, I’m sure.

On Johnson, we need to remember that all managers have to start somewhere - I’m sure you’ll recall that back in 1987 Denis Smith came to the club from York City, implemented his own philosophy, promoted youth and managed to get us promoted twice.

If you listen Kristjaan Speakman talk about what he and Johnson want to do here, it might give you a bit of optimism for the future of the club. He was on the club’s podcast yesterday.

Dear Roker Report,

I totally agree that the two new arrivals at the club, the Director of football and the new manager, will need time to get a squad together that are fit for purpose for a club of Sunderlands stature.

Also, I would like to see a list of current players and when their contracts run out published and the supporters asked witch players they would like to see removed or retained at the club.

Stay safe,

William Wynd

Ed’s Note [Rich]: Hi William, cheers for writing in. Someone somewhere will have been keeping track of the reported lengths of player contracts, although I don’t think that there are many who are on deals that extend much beyond the end of this season. I’m all for fan involvement in the club but, for me, there’s no point having a Sporting Director, Head of Recruitment and Head Coach if they pass on responsibility for selecting the playing squad to the supporters. These are decisions for professionals to make using all of the information and data analytics at their disposal.

Dear Roker Report,

Hi , I have supported the lads for 60 years, and more disappointments than successes. But I have to say this is the lowest of the lowest. I have never seen such a poor squad and struggling to name anyone who deserves to wear the shirt.

But my huge concern is that Donald, Methven and Sartori are still involved with the club. They have no ambition for our club other than making money. They’re comfortable with us being an average division one team full of free transfers, free agents and loanees.

The only time money has been spent has been on Grigg and what a star he’s turned out to be. Being a Sunderland supporter you have to be an optimist but its hard to see how things will improve, I hope I’m wrong.

Regards

Ken

Ed’s Note [Rich]: Hi Ken, hope you’re keeping well. It’s beyond doubt that this is the worst squad Sunderland fans have ever seen, and the league doesn’t lie - right at this moment we’re an average League 1 side. In terms of the future ownership of the club, one thing’s clear - Stewart Donald can only make a decent profit on any shares he retains in the club if we do actually progress up the divisions and become a more valuable investment proposition.

The events of the last week or so do give me cause for cautious optimism - everything that the new Sporting Director has said about structures, plans and vision seem to be music to the ears of most Sunderland fans. What’s needed now is the serious money to back them up and turn plans and ideas into a solid reality - first and foremost a marked improvement on the pitch.

Photo by Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

I have been a Sunderland supporter since I was about 7 yrs old and I am now 72. So I’ve been through some good, but mainly bad times over the years.

These days have been the worst. I was there when we went down to the old third division and, hand on my heart I’ve never seen a worse team than this present one .

The one that was relegated to the third had much more fight , passion and pride in wearing the shirt than this one , Parkinson got rid of a few very high earners and a few dead wood and journeymen but got rid of some very good players too , replaced them with freebies, league one and two players and finished up with a mediocre squad of players therefore ending up with a genuine league one team which leaves us in this situation, looking at the Sunderland till I Die series you could see that Donald was desperate to make a good impression and buy someone (Grigg) who couldn’t hit a barn door, then signed Graham (again) and STILL can’t score, leaving Johnson with a massive job on his hands.

Hope he can work it out but I won’t hold my breath, they need a manager with at least SOME experience in the Championship.

I don’t think I’ll be renewing my season ticket ever again

Bill Harding

Ed’s Note [Rich]: Thanks for your letter, Bill. It pains me to read letters from fans such as yourself who’ve stuck with the club through thick and thin for decade after decade who are feeling despondent. I think we can have some confidence that Lee Johnson and Kristjaan Speakman are going to implement changes that may well result in an improvement in terms of the way we play football and the profile of the players we bring in. We’re supposedly in the early days of a totally different way of running the football side of the club, and Johnson has plenty of Championship experience, so and as always I’d say “Keep the Faith” (however hard that might be).