Reidy: I didn't "go stale" at Sunderland

Peter Reid has denied suggestions that he had "gone stale" at Sunderland after such a long spell in charge - and suggests he had ideas to change things which he wasn't allowed to implement.

In an interview in today's The Sun newspaper, Reid says "Maybe seven-and-a-half years is too long at one club yet all the talk about me being stale was never the case. It was simply frustration because I couldn’t change it around like I wanted to."

Reid, now in charge at Leeds, says that despite it all turning sour towards the end of his spell at the Stadium of Light, says he'll look back on his seven years there with affection - but acknowledges how many supporters wanted him out.

"I had known for a while that a number of the fans had had enough of me. I could take the hint when a few of them threw cans of lager over me.

"When you don’t carry the total support of your crowd, that builds up pressure on yourself and the players - so there was only one way that it was all going to end."

"That break between leaving Sunderland and going to Leeds was maybe just what I needed because it gave me the chance to recharge my batteries. But I never ever lost that desire or passion for the game.

"I enjoyed some great times up at Sunderland, none better than when we finished in seventh place in the Premiership. I wouldn’t have chosen the way it all ended but I’m certainly not going to criticise anybody up there over our parting of the ways."

Much has been made since David O'Leary's surprise exit from Elland Road of Leeds United's debts, and it was rumoured during the close season that the finances were so dire that Reid was told only to make loan signings or free transfers. But he says he believes his options at Leeds are much broader than they were at Sunderland.

"Despite all the money problems, I still have the kind of options here that I didn’t have at Sunderland.

"Hopefully, come next summer the finances of this club will be such that I will be able to go out and spend a bit."

Vaux chief exec points the finger

The former chief executive and chairman of Sunderland's Vaux Brewery, Sir Paul Nicholson, has pinpointed who - in his opinion - was to blame for the company's demise.

In excess of 600 jobs were lost when the brewery closed four years ago after a proposed management buy-out to save the firm was rejected and Sir Paul told the BBC, "It should never have happened. There should still be a brewery here and there could have been a brewery here employing hundreds of people and contributing to the economic life of Sunderland."

Sir Paul, a third-generation member of the founding family, has had his memoirs published, and The Publican magazine says he apportions the blame largely - although not totally - towards Martin Grant who was chief executive for a short time before the company was broken up.

Nicholson says in his book "Brewer at Bay", "The only idea he (Grant) could come up with was we should close the breweries and buy from outside suppliers for our pub estate. It quickly became apparent that the new chief executive was very opposed to retaining the breweries and was prepared to use almost any means to frustrate their survival."

And he quotes from a letter he received from a former PR adviser to Vaux, with a damning view of why the company was broken up: "What struck me was that the values the company had worked so hard to instil and live up to – transparency, openness, believing in people, care of the community – all seemed to be sacrificed on the grubby altar of spurious shareholder value."

Copies of the book are available from The Memoir Club in Spennymoor (tel 01388 811747), all profits go to charity.