Fan Letters: Sunderland fans discuss disappointment surrounding running of the club

Dear Roker Report,

Like many of your correspondents I reluctantly stopped my season ticket card and that of my granddaughter. For me this will be the first time I have not renewed since 1976.

Over the (many) years I have put up with sometimes appalling management by the club but SD and his cronies have reached new levels of incompetence.

Still I have no doubt my thick skin will allow me to return once I know I can actually enter the stadium.

Keep well and keep up the good work.

Stuart Anderson

Ed’s Note [Tom]: Hi Stuart, thanks for the email! I think the club have been shaken a bit by many fans’ decision not to renew. This will undoubtedly have serious financial implications for the club, but what makes it all the more frustrating is that it could have been easily avoidable if the club’s management had shown some empathy and common sense. I’ve read a few articles about teams who showed some courtesy to fans and offered them a full refund whilst also explaining the manner in which the fans’ payments would help the club. Lo and behold, they had a much better level of renewal because the fans simultaneously felt appreciated and informed. It’s not rocket science. Thanks for the positive words and stay safe!

Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

It’s sad what our club has become, hasn’t it? Gone the days of waking up on a Saturday morning so excited for the match whether home or away, you felt no matter how the bad team was, you felt they were giving it their all for YOU.

Match days and nights were so special no matter what game, you’d be so desperate to watch again. Now as the club has had it’s heart and soul systematically ripped apart in the last few years it is a sad, pathetic mess.

The last few years, it has not felt our club, it was a soulless sports team with only a select few in the club who cared for the results and fans. To watch how this club has dwindled is embarrassing. Sunderland AFC is embarrassing at the moment and unfortunately I can’t see a way out if it.

The way the club was portrayed on the second season of Sunderland til I die made me think that it’s not just the management and board who are hapless and out of touch, but from my point of view a lot of other backroom staff and people involved with the club, showed no desire or ambition to sort things out, it seemed like their were happy in the position they were in and were afraid to speak up.

The club is ripping of the fans left right and centre, with all the carry on with the season tickets, everyone involved have lied out of their skin.

Due to the situation in the world right now, it’s crazy to think what is going to happen in the next few seasons, I worry deeply for the this football I have loved. I can’t see us getting promoted next season or in the distance future. I can honestly see what happened to Bolton or worse Bury happening to us if we’re not careful.

Stewart Donald and Co. have lost all trust with fans, that’s apparent and there is NO way to redeem themselves, he needs to sell now.

Stewart Donald, sell this club now, take the first offer, even if a reduced one, and go! Go away, take everyone you hired with you, go back to Eastleigh, go back to Oxford, just go. We will never trust you again, we don’t want you here, you are ruining our club. You have been completely out of your depth since day one. This football club as silly as it’s sounds, is life for some people, it really is.

Yours sincerely,

Adam Pallas (a fed up fan)

Ed’s Note [Tom]: Hi Adam, I think a lot of fans feel just as disillusioned as you are, unfortunately. The season ticket fiasco simply highlights the disappointment many have felt in the way in which the club seems so distanced from the fans. I would be cautious about wishing for anyone else but the current ownership - there are definitely worse options out there for us. This is an enormous job for the club to rebuild these badly damaged bridges, however, and I think they will sell sooner rather than later. Whether it’s to the group with the club’s best interest at heart is another matter entirely, though. Thanks for writing in, stay safe, mate.