Fan Letters: Readers concerned about Stewart Donald & the amount of youngsters in the 1st team

Dear Roker Report,

As long as results keep coming, no one really gives a toss about SD. He is now under the radar and memories are so short. He says anything that he thinks we need to hear. All his BS and contradictions are easily seen by Googling back to May 2018. From the first day he came into the picture, saying he was fronting a consortium of wealthy investors. Like everything else he has said it’s fantasy. He and Satori didn’t need to borrow the £9.5 Million and use all safc assets as security. He says he could easily have put this money in himself but it was in the best interests of the club to borrow this money. What absolute crap. What the hell though, as long as we go up, who cares?? I just pray this doesn’t end in tears for safc. Please note I’ve not even mentioned our parachute money.

Sam Lucas

Ed’s Note [Gav]: As I’ve said in previous editions of Fan Letters, I still have my own concerns over Stewart and the running of the club but I feel that we now have to take him at his word, that he’ll look to sell the club. In the meantime, our support is needed on the pitch to give the team the best possible chance of earning promotion. Since the turn of the year results have improved massively and the players and manager have been backed by massive crowds home and away. Excellent stuff. Let’s get promoted, find new owners and move on.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

Do you all have an impression on why so few U21s have made the jump to the first team, even in just playing a few games at a time? Hume and Gooch have hovered around the first team for years so I somewhat discount them. Asoro and Maja made the jump, and Mumba has contributed despite being quite young. Aside from them though, for how good our academy ostensibly is, in League 1, I would think there would be more players that would have broken into the conversation at least. Is it due to inconsistent results and the pressure to win perhaps, or are there just not the players there? There are teams both in this division and those divisions above us, who regularly play teens, and it makes me consider why Sunderland is not able to do likewise. Thank you for your time.

Colter L. Lasley

Ed’s Note [Gav]: I can only presume, of course, but I’d say that there are a variety of reasons why. The first one being that the U23s team is not very good. They’ve not won this season and have just one point. The second is that the first team HAVE to get promoted. Integrating young players when you’re trying to gain promotion is difficult - there are experienced players like Josh Scowen and Kyle Lafferty who can’t get into the team. Declan John and Will Grigg can’t even make the bench!

Ultimately, the pathway to the first team has to be better for these lads. Kimpioka and Mumba need to go out on loan and earn some experience at other clubs. We can’t get ourselves into a situation where players are into their twenties, like Ethan Robson for example, and are only just going out on loan.

Once players prove themselves elsewhere, more of them will then be ready to play first team football for us. Denver Hume is an exception I guess.