Fan Letters: “What do people see in Alex Pritchard?” asks one Sunderland fan

Dear Roker Report,

Can someone explain to me what Pritchard is good at? I know he is a bundle of energy and runs around like a headless chicken but how he is considered a great player at this level and is constantly given high marks in analysis by so called experts is one of life’s great mysteries.

Take the Charlton game, most opinion was that when he had to leave the field we had lost all creativity and dynamism but I just could not see that. For all the effort there is very little end product. In the Charlton game he made 23 tackles winning 3, he lost the ball 8 times from poor passes, out of a total of 25 passes in the game only 2 were key balls that could have led to something positive, he took 8 dead ball kicks finding a Sunderland player only 3 times and only had 2 shots in the whole game one being blocked and one pushed out for a corner even though it was probably going over the bar anyway. Needless to say he didn’t even attempt any headers. He is a poor mans Johnny Williams and totally over rated.

Gerald Hearney

Ed’s Note [Rich]: All I can say, Gerald, is that you and I have very different ideas about what a good footballer looks like. And isn’t that what’s grand about this game - we’re all entiled to have our opinions, but it is good to be reminded of why clubs employ qualified Head Coaches to pick their teams!

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Dear Roker Report,

Sunderland fans should forget about having a 48,000 seater stadium. Forget about once gracing the Premiership with our presence. Forget about our wonderful long standing history. Why?

Because our owners are doing that day in, day out. Week in, week out. Month in, month out. Year in, year out.

Like many owners they don’t have the emotional ties to the club through the generations like fans do. They say they care but do they really?

We have multi billionaire owners but a PA system that isn’t fit for purpose and have a pitch that wouldn’t be out of place in the Northern league.

I wouldn’t trust these owners and yes that includes KLD with running a National League club. Their level is more suited to a National League North Club struggling to win promotion.

If by a stroke of luck and we get promoted what are the chances of these owners assembling a squad anywhere near strong enough to compete in the Championship when they can’t even install a state of the art P A system? Or a ticket office or club shop that operates at less than National league level?

If the Premiership is Everest then the owners are struggling to reach Penshaw Monument. It will be like this for the foreseeable future aslong as certain share holders and owners have anything to do with SAFC.

KLD has to step up. He knows what he has to do and if he won’t or can’t do that then in my opinion he has to step aside and hopefully we’ll get an owner who is serious about getting our once proud club back to where it rightly belongs.

Stay safe and well.

Eddy Clarke

Ed’s Note [Rich]: Cheers for your letter, Eddy. You’ve expressed the thoughts and frustrations of many. Unfortunately we cannot force the owners of our club to spend money and run their business differently as we have no direct input or oversight, and we can’t simply demand that another billionaire comes along and KLD sells up. So my question back to you and other readers is this: what productive actions are we going to take to actually change things?

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Dear Roker Report,

It’s never too early for those involved to get a foot in the door but being a Scot Alex Neil will have seen plenty on BBC Alba. He need go no further than Ross Stewart’s old club Ross County where Watford loanee Joseph Hungbo and top scorer in the Premiership Regan Charles—Cooke are terrorising defences from their wide positions. To have someone with pace would be a welcome change.

Meantime Alex is doing a grand job with what he has been left with.

David Haswell

Ed’s Note [Gav]: Historically we’ve done very well with players coming down from Scotland, and there’s certainly a lot of talent there that we can pick up as we look to make our way back. Stewart is a great example of a player with untapped potential that, to the credit of the recruitment team, was a gamble worth taking.