Dokko

What you need to do is buy two and combine

They need to get out of that division fast before our u23s become decent.

I'm going to miss this twitter account. Just think what the next one will be like.

The more I think of this the more I feel uneasy about it. I thought it was worth knowing a bit more about our bedfellows and tbh, it’s not great. I’m sure people have a greater depth on what has happened over time so won’t go there, but what I have read there isn’t any excusing and doesn’t sit well with me. I really don’t know how I feel now. I’ve been desperate for so long for Ashley to leave and to have proper financial backing it has been anyone but Ashley, but now that’s happened I just wish it was someone else. RB & Staveley only would be great, and build up at a slower pace. But we don’t have a choice in who owns us, just what we as fans do next. Can I tell myself PIF is not the royal family and is slightly removed? Can I hope no more atrocities and a new dawn for us and SA forgetting the past? Can I tell myself football shouldn’t have to deal with politics and not my problem? Do I hope they fail the test? Do I walk away? I think the euphoria of getting rid of Ashley overlooked everything for some time. I was hoping to see what happens next before making a decision, now I just feel a little sick at the thought and guilty for still wanting more from the club.

Average ticket price last time they were in the prem was £11. There’s no money in Sunderland .

Spurs want him to take a pay cut due to cv19 so may be flexible on amounts owed.

From what we’ve been liked with: 1. Rafa - as already stated knows the club and deserves a crack at it for all he did for us and for bringing investment to the table. 2. Poch - did a great job at spurs but the lack of investment in the team to subsidise the stadium held him back. Also this * 3. Allegri - proven winner in Italy, but know little about him and style. *

Saudis own 30% of the paper he writes for.

Should probably lock the "New Member" functionality of the forum until a few months after the takeover is completed. Once the hype (positive & negative) cools down a little bit then open it back up. Not sure new members are the problem

Right now having cash is king. Stick it in gold if you want to be mega safe. A company as large as SD could burn through 300m quite easily over the next year just fighting the fallout of the virus. Taking more on is a massive gamble, and he’s lost a couple under normal circumstances.

Mods are going to have their work cut out to stop this shit spilling over in to every thread.

There’s a huge part of me that thinks he’ll take this money and semi retire. Football is not his game, the least likely option is him buying another club, but with the high street struggling and so volatile especially after the virus, is it even safe to start buying it all up? I think he might just fuck it all off, take his money and run and let SD manage on its own.

Absolutely. I hope something organic remains because I've never felt envy of thy elite clubs, and not out of simply being contrary, either. My envy has been towards those clubs who've wanted to better themselves within their means. But you can't help but read stuff like that and think, wow. Yeah, my envy stretches as far as Leicester, wolves and at times Bournemouth. Not once have citeh or chelsea made me said about our situation.

He's getting rinsed on twitter. Even brought up owner of his paper backing Saudi opportunities.

That rugby cup thing was worth an estimated £17m to the city before it arrived, but sure i heard it came in at £30m in the end.

https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/march-and-april-2020-newcastle-ufc.1507830/post-31547551 Not even an hint of irony. Even trying to call newcastle a town

Vidal and Coutinho and that’s before the club is officially sold.

NCC are thick as fuck if they don’t bend over backwards to keep the stadium where it is. Match day brings in a lot of income for the city. I’m hoping the land is bought back or plans adjusted. Has any work started yet?

Been saying for years , they are perfect for each other. Would love to see him buy them! He'd get them to the Premier League and probably have them hovering around 13th-17th like he has with us. Difference is, for them that really IS success. I'd rather they stayed where they are. To reach that level it would cost £100-150m not including buying the club. To stay at that level will cost money Sunderland have never generated. He’d have to put in £20-30m a year to keep them in the division, one slip and it’s back down and start again. If he were to buy them he’d see them in the championship living off what they earn and within their means, which is mid table championship. His hope would be to go up every few year and milk the tv money before going back down to status quo. Tbh, anyone buying Sunderland should know that is all they are good for without some serious luck in producing talent and retaining good football management.

I kind of disagree. Like it was said earlier, we had deals lined up for Townsend and Loftus Cheek. There is a world of difference between Gayle/Ritchie and Townsend/Loftus Cheek. They were the type of players I felt we should have gone for. Given the choice now, who would you have taken? If players of the calibre of Townsend and Loftus Cheek were willing to come to is in the January window, wouldnt it have been likely that a similar calibre of player would have come in the preceding summer? Ashley pulled the plug on those deals and when we did go back for Townsend Fat head was being a c*** and wouldn't do a deal at the same price. Rafa was getting in his 5th-10th choices due to budgets and slow movement from the club. We'll be hitting the top end of the list this time round. It will be totally different. Again, it's not about the actual deals per se and why we didnt sign them, it's the fact that that calibre of player was willing to come to us and yet in the summer preceding that we signed players of a lower calibre. If you know you can sign higher calibre players, theres no real excuse not to. Those players would have not only lifted us out the championship but would have also been excellent in the premiership too. Ritchie and Gayle were excellent championship players but average prem players. Hodgson and Howe clearly thought the same as well... Agreed, but you're aiming that at the wrong man in this situation. Perhaps I am, yeh. My reading of it at the time was Rafa did have free reign at the time and so was fully accountable for what we signed in that particular window. I felt that way because he seemed pretty content (no murmrings of unrest in the media) and the transfer policy was basically scrapped for him. He could have said no to a signing, like he did with Joelinton but the club had said no to him about hist 1st few choices, so he's now taking chances on players further down the list. Next in line may have worked out better, who knows. but that's as far as control went. Hindsight: I'd rather we signed no one than Murphy and Muto, but it could have worked out well at the time they came in, that's the gamble. 100% agree with that, I have absolutely no idea if there were any constraints imposed upon him for that summer 2016 window, I just thought there was enough evidence to suggest all those signings were his first choice because I'm sure we'd have heard about it if he felt seriosuly restricted at that time. He probably acquired his top targets earlier on in his time here because he was looking at lower level players to get us out of the Championship. All his buys then cam off imo, I remember thinking WTF you doing buying Murphy? Then made to eat humble pie as he did his bit, even got a good fee back for him. After that i stopped questioning him on transfers. Murphy and Muto were later in the reign. By then the club were in a power struggle with him and less willing to meet any of his demands. They would push through younger players on his list as it met their resale objectives but weren't committing to his plan any more. I think Almiron was the one player all parties agreed on, but price meant it we wasted a long time trying to secure him. Signing Joelinton was a fuck you from Ashley to Rafa in hope of him producing the goods. Looks like Rafa was right. He's our Grigg.

BTW we sold Townsend (relegation release clause) the same month we bought Ritchie. Townsend was available on loan in the jan window after a poor start under fat head. It didn't go through and by the time we came back up in the following summer he was playing well under Roy (i think) so wasn't available.

I kind of disagree. Like it was said earlier, we had deals lined up for Townsend and Loftus Cheek. There is a world of difference between Gayle/Ritchie and Townsend/Loftus Cheek. They were the type of players I felt we should have gone for. Given the choice now, who would you have taken? If players of the calibre of Townsend and Loftus Cheek were willing to come to is in the January window, wouldnt it have been likely that a similar calibre of player would have come in the preceding summer? Ashley pulled the plug on those deals and when we did go back for Townsend Fat head was being a c*** and wouldn't do a deal at the same price. Rafa was getting in his 5th-10th choices due to budgets and slow movement from the club. We'll be hitting the top end of the list this time round. It will be totally different. Again, it's not about the actual deals per se and why we didnt sign them, it's the fact that that calibre of player was willing to come to us and yet in the summer preceding that we signed players of a lower calibre. If you know you can sign higher calibre players, theres no real excuse not to. Those players would have not only lifted us out the championship but would have also been excellent in the premiership too. Ritchie and Gayle were excellent championship players but average prem players. Hodgson and Howe clearly thought the same as well... Agreed, but you're aiming that at the wrong man in this situation. Perhaps I am, yeh. My reading of it at the time was Rafa did have free reign at the time and so was fully accountable for what we signed in that particular window. I felt that way because he seemed pretty content (no murmrings of unrest in the media) and the transfer policy was basically scrapped for him. He could have said no to a signing, like he did with Joelinton but the club had said no to him about hist 1st few choices, so he's now taking chances on players further down the list. Next in line may have worked out better, who knows. but that's as far as control went. Hindsight: I'd rather we signed no one than Murphy and Muto, but it could have worked out well at the time they came in, that's the gamble.

I kind of disagree. Like it was said earlier, we had deals lined up for Townsend and Loftus Cheek. There is a world of difference between Gayle/Ritchie and Townsend/Loftus Cheek. They were the type of players I felt we should have gone for. Given the choice now, who would you have taken? If players of the calibre of Townsend and Loftus Cheek were willing to come to is in the January window, wouldnt it have been likely that a similar calibre of player would have come in the preceding summer? Ashley pulled the plug on those deals and when we did go back for Townsend Fat head was being a c*** and wouldn't do a deal at the same price. Rafa was getting in his 5th-10th choices due to budgets and slow movement from the club. We'll be hitting the top end of the list this time round. It will be totally different. Again, it's not about the actual deals per se and why we didnt sign them, it's the fact that that calibre of player was willing to come to us and yet in the summer preceding that we signed players of a lower calibre. If you know you can sign higher calibre players, theres no real excuse not to. Those players would have not only lifted us out the championship but would have also been excellent in the premiership too. Ritchie and Gayle were excellent championship players but average prem players. Hodgson and Howe clearly thought the same as well... Agreed, but you're aiming that at the wrong man in this situation.

Sels is doing alright in France isn't he? Also we got our money back (5.5) with loan (1.8) and transfer (3.5) fee. Don't think we needed a GK at the time mind. Lazaar was only 2.3m, i reckon we'd have seen half that back with loan fees as well. Muto & Murphy though, at the time where we really needed players to challenge were a huge waste of resources and hindered us. I'd add Joselu to the s*** list. Atsu was close to being mentioned but tbh in his loan spell here he was good and i would have signed him in case he stepped up. To be fair to Rafa, I think his hands were tied by that point so I dont actually blame him at all for some of the s*** we bought when we got up. If anything it was a testament to his ability as a coach/manager to achieve what he did with some of that dross. 100%. If he can do that with players of that quality, what will he be able to do with top end players here? He certainly won't have to continuously drill the basics in to them so will be able to develop them quicker on other things. I also think the players deserve credit for steeping up, most beyond their abilities. You've just got to look at Sunderland for the last 3 seasons to see players constantly under achieving, not performing and not giving their all to see how it can pan out. Where we look at the handful that haven't worked out, its the opposite for them and its the handful that have, who have all left already because everyone and everything else around them was shit. We'd end up there with Bruce imo. 2 more seasons max and any good work will have been undone and we'd be in freefall.

I kind of disagree. Like it was said earlier, we had deals lined up for Townsend and Loftus Cheek. There is a world of difference between Gayle/Ritchie and Townsend/Loftus Cheek. They were the type of players I felt we should have gone for. Given the choice now, who would you have taken? If players of the calibre of Townsend and Loftus Cheek were willing to come to is in the January window, wouldnt it have been likely that a similar calibre of player would have come in the preceding summer? Ashley pulled the plug on those deals and when we did go back for Townsend Fat head was being a cunt and wouldn't do a deal at the same price. Rafa was getting in his 5th-10th choices due to budgets and slow movement from the club. We'll be hitting the top end of the list this time round. It will be totally different.