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Speakman gone

Southern Monkey said:
The sacking is great news. The club makes decisive decisions and having 2 different people in a similar role wasn’t working.

This decisiveness will be needed in selling top value players soon, to ensure we have a chance of reinvesting and staying up, and I also suspect RLB will be gone within a year. People will argue but if the ownership want progression RLB isn’t the man I’m afraid.
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for anyone who wants to reply to this, he a completely outed sad mag fornicator. Just put him on ignore rather than rise to his shite bait please - it'll upset him way more which is by far the funnier outcome
 

His job was far more than just making signings. Will be interesting to see the structure evolves over the coming weeks.

Intrigued to know what’s gone on or if always been part of the plan.
 
It is funny watching people backtrack on podcasts and socials saying they were always a fan 🤣🤣 give over, after the few dodgy windows in league one then the whole 16th and manager farce your telling me you were always fully behind him 🤣.

He got more right than he got wrong and now looking over his full stint with hindsight he obviously played a pivotal role in our rise. But some saying they were always behind him 🙈 stop rewriting history.

I don’t mind admitting when I was wrong but some fans just can’t. I thought the Beale thing the 16th finish and a host of misses in the transfer window would see the end of him. I’m so glad I was wrong, and proof while we have a decent idea of things seeing we are so far invested in everything with our club you never really know the full story.

Congratulations speakers, you ups here out weigh the downs by some margin, I was wrong back then for thinking you’d taken us as far as you could and thank fuck I wasn’t making the calls back then 🤣 I’m sure you’ll have a huge selection of good jobs to pick from after the job you did here.
 
He's worked miracles for us and earned his reputation. Brings clubs back from the dead like. I guess it's part of the natural transition where the model isn't our main strategy anymore?
 
Dave_39 said:
Sunderland AFC today confirms that Sporting Director Kristjaan Speakman has left the Club with immediate effect.

Kristjaan was a key figure during one of the most significant periods in the Club’s recent history, playing an important role in bringing Sunderland back to the Premier League.

Appointed in December 2020, he led a comprehensive rebuild of the Club’s football operations, reshaping its recruitment and performance infrastructure and restoring competitive momentum.

His time on Wearside included three victories at Wembley Stadium, including Sunderland’s first win at the national stadium since 1973 and two Play-Off Final wins.

With Premier League status restored and a strengthened football leadership structure in place, the Board of Directors has made the decision to continue the Club’s journey without Kristjaan.

Director of Football Florent Ghisolfi will continue to lead Sunderland’s sporting programme after assuming control of all football operations in July 2025.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus said: “Kristjaan has made an important contribution to Sunderland AFC during a period of significant transition and growth, helping to rebuild the Club and restore its place in the Premier League. Strong foundations have been established throughout our football operations over the past five years, and that phase of redevelopment is now complete. As we look to the future, our focus is on building from that position of strength with clarity of direction and sustained progress. We are grateful for Kristjaan’s commitment and professionalism and wish him every success for the future.”
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You wouldn’t describe KLD’s brief comment or the club statement as terse exactly, but to me it’s lukewarm at best, considering the magnitude of Speakman’s success.
 
Turnip from the Tip said:
You wouldn’t describe KLD’s brief comment or the club statement as terse exactly, but to me it’s lukewarm at best, considering the magnitude of Speakman’s success.
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“With Premier League status restored and a strengthened football leadership structure in place, the Board of Directors has made the decision to continue the Club’s journey without Kristjaan.

Director of Football Florent Ghisolfi will continue to lead Sunderland’s sporting programme after assuming control of all football operations in July 2025.”

This section is the most telling to me. He’s been moved out/aside
 
admwil said:
“With Premier League status restored and a strengthened football leadership structure in place, the Board of Directors has made the decision to continue the Club’s journey without Kristjaan.

Director of Football Florent Ghisolfi will continue to lead Sunderland’s sporting programme after assuming control of all football operations in July 2025.”

This section is the most telling to me. He’s been moved out/aside
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This was the case for anyone to see when the new bloke came in. It was said at the time he was taking over Speakmans role and Speakman was taking over player development . They have obviously just kept him to help out until straight after the transfer window shut to help out with the changeover. People shouldn't be shocked as both on and off the pitch if we can take it to the next level (This bloke has way more knowledge of the overseas market and signing big deals than Speakman , who did a very good job for us )

Personally speaking and it's just my opinion but everyone at the club is replaceable in the drive to keep taking it to the next level. RLB is doing a magic job but I think Xhaka has been brought in with the long term vision of him taking over in a few years himself if RLB hit's his ceiling in taking us forward. I 1do not want RLB to leave in any way shape or form BTW and if he keeps exceeding expectations like he is ATM then he's going nowhere unless poached by a bigger club, but KLD always seems to have a plan just in case. Ironically this vision was part of Speakmans view but that is the plan for the leadership group of directors.

Thanks for the job done Speakers and good luck in your next job unless you join the Saudi hoop lickers then I hope not
 
I always thought his success stories, which he elucidated about were often obvious (like Jack Clarke in League 1 ffs) but he also did a few good ones. Mind there are a decent list of duffers.
 
Turnip from the Tip said:
You wouldn’t describe KLD’s brief comment or the club statement as terse exactly, but to me it’s lukewarm at best, considering the magnitude of Speakman’s success.
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Yep, agree with this. The tone of the press release felt cold, given how long Speakman has been here. I can only imagine that being in such lofty positions leads to gargantuan egos.
 
Seaham Towny said:
LinkedIn is f***ing gash to be fair to him


I think between them they got to the overall opinion of his tenure.

We can’t just rewrite history now because we’re in the top division.

You had Stephen saying ‘well, he got us up two divisions’ he did do that. He deserves a lot of credit for it. A few of the transfers he oversaw are still playing and performing here.

Then you had Gareth saying ‘he’s a knob, he’s a self protecting prick who got lucky’ not entirely true

The position we’re in is not by luck, but he was an arsehole at times, and he made a lot of mistakes, those mistakes were called out, on here in particular.
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Aye they did because Stephen and the other lad were sensible as Gareth carried on like he did. He come across like he absolutely hated him. It was embarrassing.
 
Mackemansj1 said:
It is funny watching people backtrack on podcasts and socials saying they were always a fan 🤣🤣 give over, after the few dodgy windows in league one then the whole 16th and manager farce your telling me you were always fully behind him 🤣.

He got more right than he got wrong and now looking over his full stint with hindsight he obviously played a pivotal role in our rise. But some saying they were always behind him 🙈 stop rewriting history.

I don’t mind admitting when I was wrong but some fans just can’t. I thought the Beale thing the 16th finish and a host of misses in the transfer window would see the end of him. I’m so glad I was wrong, and proof while we have a decent idea of things seeing we are so far invested in everything with our club you never really know the full story.

Congratulations speakers, you ups here out weigh the downs by some margin, I was wrong back then for thinking you’d taken us as far as you could and thank fuck I wasn’t making the calls back then 🤣 I’m sure you’ll have a huge selection of good jobs to pick from after the job you did here.
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I personally think that if you wanted him out so much in the summer of 2024 you weren't necessarily wrong and that last season and what has happened so far this season is much more down to KLD and RLB than Speakman.

It seems to me like KLD changed the approach after the shambolic 23/24 season and took more control himself and gave more control to the Head Coach.

And he impact of RLB can not be underestimated. He took the same squad plus Browne, Poveda and Isidor that Mike Dodds had stunk the place out with and turned them round to be top of the league.

Speakman did well initially but I think his contribution to the last 18 months success is wildly overestimated on here.
 
Yes I said we might be fooked without him and I still stand by that idea because I firmly believe that he’s been absolutely vital, absolutely critical to our upward trajectory in recent seasons to the point that I don’t know if the dynamic between the Kyrill and those close to him will be the same. But I feel a lot more comfortable about Gisolfi being capable of being a good person for Kristjaan to hand the baton over to.
 
Southern Monkey said:
The sacking is great news. The club makes decisive decisions and having 2 different people in a similar role wasn’t working.

This decisiveness will be needed in selling top value players soon, to ensure we have a chance of reinvesting and staying up, and I also suspect RLB will be gone within a year. People will argue but if the ownership want progression RLB isn’t the man I’m afraid.
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6 past 1 in the morning
Nowt else to do in Byker?
 
ShieldsBlackCat2015 said:
Yes I said we might be fooked without him and I still stand by that idea because I firmly believe that he’s been absolutely vital, absolutely critical to our upward trajectory in recent seasons to the point that I don’t know if the dynamic between the Kyrill and those close to him will be the same. But I feel a lot more comfortable about Gisolfi being capable of being a good person for Kristjaan to hand the baton over to.
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Well you can’t lose cause you’ve said it’s a good idea and a bad idea all in this thread.
 
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