Thing is they were actually "up for sale" as soon as Donald and Co took over. They thought they could do a flip back to the Championship and then bale out at a profit. He was originally seen as the saviour after Short virtually gave the club away. He may have stabilised the club financially but does not have the funds to match their ambition. Their recruitment's been based on Frees and out of contracts (eg, Burge and Willis). Jumping from owning Eastleigh to Sunderland was a jump too far......
If I was a Sunderland fan, I would also be fuming if we had the wage bill of the rest of the league combined and were sitting in mid-table.
We're in no position to gloat either, despite the hysteria on their board they're still fundamentally in a better position than us I'd say
Partly added to by the day we beat Spurs to stay up on the last day and they went down! Was that 97?Every set of fans has a section of Neanderthals.
I’ve never bought into this fabricated rivalry between Sunderland and ourselves. It’s only come about after the anniversary of that Bristol game in the 70s.
Half the people who feel strongly about this ‘scandal’ weren’t even born when it happened.
I don’t understand why people would be happy with this?
When a community is at risk of losing its team, it’s a tragedy. It’s surprising this would come from us, with our experience renting the RICOH and our current exile from Coventry.
It doesn’t take much for the next Bury, Bolton or Wimbledon (the original) to happen.
Blimey, worse than I thought, amazing how high the wage bill is / wasThe finances make grim reading
Sunderland AFC's 2018 Finances - Back to Back - FINANCIAL FOOTBALL NEWS
Blimey, worse than I thought, amazing how high the wage bill is / was
The new owner claims to have paid £40 m for the club but in reality just used the last parachute payments which meant the finances of the club just got worse.
The whole set up looks murky, they have a very good local journalist in the Sunderland Echo whose been banging the drum for a while
The finances make grim reading
Sunderland AFC's 2018 Finances - Back to Back - FINANCIAL FOOTBALL NEWS
Thanks for posting the articles, they make a very interesting read . It also highlights what a good job MR and his team have done in developing a competitive team in this league.Bit more on their finances here which explains why their wage bill will be limited to ‘only’ about 16m this season. Gets more interesting for them the longer they stick around in league 1:
SCMP: The daunting financial challenges facing Sunderland this season - what’s the issue & why?
Thanks for posting the articles, they make a very interesting read . It also highlights what a good job MR and his team have done in developing a competitive team in this league.
However, given the hit to revenue of playing at StA then we could be facing Increasing difficulties ourselves soon
Yeah, it gives a flavour of the difficulties clubs face when they try to set wage bills, contract lengths etc etc. You need to plan a year or three in advance but don’t know which league you’ll be in. One thing I did take from that article was that we are certainly at different stages of a club’s existence — we seem to be heading in the right direction at present, it will be interesting to see if Sunderland can stop the slide now (unlike us when we were last in L1) and if not it won’t be getting any easier for them.Thanks for posting the articles, they make a very interesting read . It also highlights what a good job MR and his team have done in developing a competitive team in this league.
However, given the hit to revenue of playing at StA then we could be facing Increasing difficulties ourselves soon
Yeah, it gives a flavour of the difficulties clubs face when they try to set wage bills, contract lengths etc etc. You need to plan a year or three in advance but don’t know which league you’ll be in. One thing I did take from that article was that we are certainly at different stages of a club’s existence — we seem to be heading in the right direction at present, it will be interesting to see if Sunderland can stop the slide now (unlike us when we were last in L1) and if not it won’t be getting any easier for them.
Imagine the difference three years of premier league parachute payments would make to our budget now. What is it, £90m?! Reckon we could make it to the prem with that sort of investment. Oh well.
But if we got promoted and trebled our wage bill - which still would be the lowest in the league - and got relegated again we’d be in a catastrophic state?
Not necessarily, would depend on the contract length and structure. If in your scenario (if I’m understanding correctly) we got promoted, trebled our wage bill but didn’t have relegation clauses and had a squad full of championship salaries on 5 year contracts, then we’d be screwed if we dropped down again. Exaggerating for effect, but that seems to be the difference between Sunderland and us, we have already cut our cloth, to some extent — Sunderland are still cutting and may have to cut a lot more if they don’t go up.But if we got promoted and trebled our wage bill - which still would be the lowest in the league - and got relegated again we’d be in a catastrophic state?
Not necessarily, would depend on the contract length and structure. If in your scenario (if I’m understanding correctly) we got promoted, trebled our wage bill but didn’t have relegation clauses and had a squad full of championship salaries on 5 year contracts, then we’d be screwed if we dropped down again. Exaggerating for effect, but that seems to be the difference between Sunderland and us, we have already cut our cloth, to some extent — Sunderland are still cutting and may have to cut a lot more if they don’t go up.
Personally don’t think promotion has to be a disaster for us as long as the fans expectations are realistic and we don’t spend money we haven’t got (which we don’t really tbf) to stay up.
Your hope so, but you’ve seen this place after 2 defeats. Imagine after 8 defeats and bottom of the league. Actually don’t think we’d be that bad even with the current squad, but there’s always the chance.I think most could accept getting relegated if we made a fist of it.
Fuckin hell lighten up!It’s a real issue as their ground is mortgaged to an American company with a purchase clause
They are a big club with a huge heritage and fan base. It’s a bit pathetic to be gloating to be honest.
Exactly the over reaction on this site to a defeat is bizarre.Your hope so, but you’ve seen this place after 2 defeats. Imagine after 8 defeats and bottom of the league. Actually don’t think we’d be that bad even with the current squad, but there’s always the chance.
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