Fan Letters: Discussing Sunderland’s future - will new owners start with a clean slate?

Dear Roker Report,

I am 61 years old and have supported the lads since I was about 7/8 years old and have seen many, many bad times at my club but these last couple of years are probably the worst I’ve seen.

Parkinson is not the worst manager we’ve ever had (Hello Mr Moyes) but he is not the type of manager to get your underperforming players doing their jobs to their utmost ability.

Sadly it looks like another season in this league and if this is the case would it be beyond the capabilities of the club to hire a manager who will look at the league and realise that most if not all of the teams have one or two decent players and rely on physicality, moaning constantly at officials and gamesmanship.

Of course none of this will happen as long as the current owner is there and waiting for someone to make him a handsome profit on his “investment”.

I will always follow the lads and sadly can’t get to the games very often these days and I hugely admire those fans who follow them away through thick and thin .I don’t know what the immediate future for SAFC is but I’m sure we will rise again.

Brian White

Ed’s Note [Gav]: Really, we’re stuck currently in a ‘short term’ plan for Sunderland’s future. Regardless of how the action on the pitch plays out, we’re likely going to have new owners by the end of the season, by which point they’ll appoint their own people to key roles.

All we can hope now is that we get promoted so the new owners have a clean slate to start from. Parkinson felt like a short term appointment at the time and I doubt he has a future here beyond the summer, so to me it seems pointless calling for his head now like some fans are. Let’s just hope he does the job he was brought here to do, and we can worry about what happens next in the summer.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

SD was always only in this for the short term. He never had the cash for a project. It was simply tidy up a big mess, and sell.

I really do not know why the £10m loan was given and what the purpose of it is. We didn’t spend any of it in the January transfer market. We got a few players in, mainly freebies or loans. But what was the point if they were not better than what we have. I am assuming that is why none have been given an opportunity, apart from Wright. What we have is not good enough for an automatic promotion. Losing to Portsmouth and Coventry, then drawing with Fleetwood and Gillingham, shows that the 100 point season is hanging on a thread. Yet our manager is sticking with the same eleven week in week out.

It is frustrating, but it always has been. That is life as a supporter of Sunderland football club.

I cannot understand why, if we have the biggest budget in the division, we haven’t got the best players. We have had four transfer windows to get the recruitment right.

Time to blood some of the new boys Parky.

Adrian Donnelly

Ed’s Note [Gav]: My best guess is that it was taken to deal with the club’s cash flow issues. We’ve got the pay the bills somehow, right? Donald has said recently they’ve never touched the money, so maybe it was just taken as insurance.