Fan Letters: “Perhaps there may be a different explanation regarding the share issue”

Dear Roker Report,

While everyone is shocked at the revelations on the share issue perhaps there may be a different explanation. KLD and Sartori seem to have affiliations other than Sunderland and they together form a majority of the shareholding. The statement on behalf of Methven and Donald states that the club continues to lose money and they are paying their pro-rata share of the debt. Perhaps KLD and Sartori have not bought the rest of the shares presently in order to make Methven and Donald contribute. They may also have an agreement in place to buy the shares at the same price regardless of the club's status next year. KLD and Sartori will have the best legal and business advisors available given their status and l would think it is very unlikely they have been sold a deal by the others which to the uninformed eye looks very favourable to them.

Gerard Hiscock

Ed’s Note [Martin]: Thanks for the email Gerard. There’s been a lot of reaction to the news of the shareholding, and people are rightly disappointed about being misled by the club and owners. With the figures released, it’s been disingenuous at best to describe KLD as having a ‘majority’ and Donald a ‘minority’. However, there’s a lot of presumption too - as you say, Sartori and the Dreyfus family have affiliations outside of Donald and Methven, so to automatically lump Sartori in as ‘Madrox’ is an easy route to fit a narrative and fuel outrage. That said, the sooner Donald and Methven are out of the club the better, and hopefully KLD buys them out as per their statement. Their ongoing presence is toxic and we’ll never truly move on as a club unless they’re gone.

Dear Roker Report,

All this negativity and hostility is understandable but what do fans expect to change. Going back to the 70 s when Sunderland have been available for takeover there has never been many interested parties with deep pockets... except Ellis Short, who had no idea. Local men Cowie and Murray were reluctant and had to be prompted to takeover, Quinny had a job finding interested parties. That leaves us with chancers out to make a quick buck and lunatics with beards - and the young Frenchman who the jury is still out on.

Fan-led takeovers can never raise enough money to buy, and more importantly run a big club. My point is nothing will change in near future because there are no knights in armour riding over the hill to save us. We might as well all get behind team and new manager and at least try for the playoffs because there's a real danger with the mood of fanbase things could get even worse and we could even miss out on them.

David Wilkinson

Ed’s Note [Martin]: There are (nearly) always people willing to buy football clubs, but getting a good one is the challenge. Ultimately, we all want one thing, and that’s to see SAFC be successful, and this season that means getting out of League One. Thanks to appalling mismanagement, our only realistic chance of that this season is the playoffs, and come match day that’s all anyone will be focused on.

Photo by Will Matthews/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

We - and I mean all SAFC fans - need to stop being so negative and get behind the starting eleven on Saturday. Miracles can happen and if we can scramble three points let’s see where it takes us. Wigan have three tough games off the trot and if they lost would be dragged back toward the chasing pack So let’s do what we can as fans and roar the lads on regardless of how the game is going. We can’t be doing anything about dodgy officials on the pitch so let’s intimidate them by being noisy. You never know what might happen.

David Stobbs

Ed’s Note [Martin]: Thanks for the email David, and absolutely we can still go up, although it will take another team or two imploding as we have. Being concerned and negative about off field antics can spill over into match day, after all it’s the only chance most of us get to be vocal about things, but we’re usually pretty good at putting that to one side and getting behind the lads - and that could make a huge difference come the end of the season. It’s easy to forget with all of the crap this week it’s Alex Neil’s first game at the SOL, and it’ll be interesting to see how he sets things up and what he’s changed.