Congrats Sir Bob


Status
Not open for further replies.
The idea that he didn't provide Reidy with funds is a complete fallacy, propogated by those who refuse to see what's in front of their eyes. The fact is Reidy spent a shed load of money. If anything Murray's biggest fault was trusting Reidy implicitly and not keeping an eye on some of the many ridiculous signings he was making in the mid-range transfer market (the likes of Nunez, Medina et al).

Hanging on and only letting the club be sold on to a safe pair of hands with the future best interests of SAFC should also never be underestimated.

Exactly. Just look at the figures. Reid's spending was up there with a lot of clubs. Poor Bob didn't know enough about football. That wasn't his fault. He trusted Reid implicitly and look where it got him.

This will never happen again while our present chairman is in office. He can't be conned - thank goodness.
 
Sell almost a hundred years of history down the pan because i can't find investers,fuck off.
I take it you weren't a regular at Roker Park.

You cant possibly be suggesting we would be better off in Roker Park (albeit re-developed and 20,000 bigger i presume??) ?????????? Really? my word
 
Good post mate. I've highlighted the bit in bold cos I remember the events back then. Cowie oversaw the club gan down the tubes, and then fell out with Barry Batey who wanted to take over the club. Bob Murray was the alternative deal and although he was reluctant and his footy knowledge was limited, he's the only chairman who's realised the potential of the club and increased the capacity of the stadium rather than reduce it in my lifetime.

Post on here from a lad who supposedly knows Murray a few months back, and apparently Murray was more of a 'Wearside man' than a true football man. His passion was for the Wearside area rather than Sunderland AFC per se.

I was only a young 'un at the time of Batey/Murray in 88/89/90 time so I won't comment, but it fits in with what my perception is of Murray.

You cant possibly be suggesting we would be better off in Roker Park (albeit re-developed and 20,000 bigger i presume??) ?????????? Really? my word

As I say earlier on the thread mate, the capcity of 'New Roker Park' would have been limited to 28k due to being crammed in by Victorian housing etc. It would have a logisitcal nightmare also having to knock stands down whilst still playing there. Bearing in mind SAFC average more than 28k and have done in probably 90% of the seasons played since 1997/1998 it'd have been foolish to stay.

Murray was lucky when Wearmouth Colliery closed when it did, it intially wasn't available when the A19/Wembley of the North at TEF crack was first mooted. Ironically, SAFC have the Tory government to thank for the pit closures ;)
 
Sell almost a hundred years of history down the pan because i can't find investers,fuck off.
I take it you weren't a regular at Roker Park.

I was and the best thing we ever did was move to the SOL, I'll always have many happy memories of Roker but that won't blind me to the fact he was right.
 
I was, never regretted the move myself, nostalgia aside.

I was a regular too, I was all for moving at the time and I still am now. Murray played a blinder getting the Stadium for what he did in terms of cost, and getting the EU to foot part of the bill. Murray will always be the 'bogeyman' in some peoples eyes though.
 
Like no premiership club gets compulsory orders on the cheap terraces around them,No premiership club has dropped their pitch and raised their stands.
I went to Roker for years and we should have looked at staying at Roker a lot more, but then he would have had to fund it himself, instead of getting a grant to build over an old mineshaft to make sure it could never be used as a a
mine again.

And be struck by restrictive planning applications? Why would you wanna stay there apart from history? It's a great thing but doesn't maximise revenue and you're always good one for the virtues of chasing the golden dollar
 
As I say earlier on the thread mate, the capcity of 'New Roker Park' would have been limited to 28k due to being crammed in by Victorian housing etc. It would have a logisitcal nightmare also having to knock stands down whilst still playing there. Bearing in mind SAFC average more than 28k and have done in probably 90% of the seasons played since 1997/1998 it'd have been foolish to stay.
Murray was lucky when Wearmouth Colliery closed when it did, it intially wasn't available when the A19/Wembley of the North at TEF crack was first mooted. Ironically, SAFC have the Tory government to thank for the pit closures ;)[/QUOTE]

Totally agree............ thats what i was saying.

The heart said stay at Roker.......When i picture Sunderland games when i'm old and not with it, it will be at Roker........ that is SAFC's true home.

But............ we are so much better off where we are as a club... and Murray is responsible for that.........
 
Not in the slightest,there was a very good plan that showed how we could have stayed there and rebuilt, idiots laughed about dropping the pitch so many feet and then what have other premiership clubs gone and done to make more room......

There was no way in hell the council would have went for it, issues like residents objections and transportation issues would have stopped it and Murray knew this, 45k at roker would have been great but we would have never filled it, part of the attraction was the new ground. Maybe also its close proximity to the town. Bob Murray gave Sunderland fans a new vision and people wanted to be a part of it, hence the 40k+ in the 2nd division.

We also have Sir Bob to thank for keeping that nutter Batey away.

Enjoy the rest of you days Sir Robert Murray, you've earned them.

Oh and MBH, gan shite.
 
Last edited:
Sell almost a hundred years of history down the pan because i can't find investers,fuck off.
I take it you weren't a regular at Roker Park.

I think your wrong, but that's just my opinion,

Everton and Portsmouth are stuck in dilapidated stadiums and desperate to relocate, both with histories as proud as ours, I was a staunch supporter of staying Roker (first game 1975) because the original plan was to move out to the A19 until Nissan blocked it.
Monkwearmouth is was an excellent compromise. Symbolizing the ship yards and the pit.

Like I say; I'm no Murray apologist, but think he got the stadium right; apart from the name.
 
If I remember at the time Bongo there weren't too many people willing to 'Invest' in football clubs as they are notiorously not an investment, I'd be surprised if you could name many people if any who have ever made money from football.

Facts are no one really wanted to invest in football at that time, if I remember correctly there were a mass of top clubs that were vying for more money, in the end the only people interested were the leveraged buy out merchants who came along a couple of years later. And we all saw how that turned out (And will do)

If top clubs ala Man U, Leeds etc... couldnt garnish decent investment at the time, Murray trying to sell an unfashionable, not overly successful or marketable club in a North Eastern backwater ;) Was on a hiding to nothing

I can only think of one Ken 'I'm a santy claus cunt' Bates.

Sell almost a hundred years of history down the pan because i can't find investers,fuck off.
I take it you weren't a regular at Roker Park.

I was, from the late 70s through to when we left. Standing season ticket holder from 1990 too.
Roker had some great ghosts but you can't stand in the way of progress. The only reason Newcastle managed to stay at their ground was because of the land availble around it for developement, there was no way we could have expanded without buying all of Association Road, most of Hampden Road and Sandringham Terrace and a bit of Roker Baths Road too. There's the price of the SOL without even starting to think about developing the ground.

Post on here from a lad who supposedly knows Murray a few months back, and apparently Murray was more of a 'Wearside man' than a true football man. His passion was for the Wearside area rather than Sunderland AFC per se.

Never mind supposedly knows Murray, his nephew gets on here regularly. Sir Bob is Sunderland through and through and your right he was/is a fan of the whole Wearside area.
 
Never mind supposedly knows Murray, his nephew gets on here regularly. Sir Bob is Sunderland through and through and your right he was/is a fan of the whole Wearside area.

Aye, fair play. I couldn't remember the poster, just went from memory.
 
A completely hopeless football chairman, but a very good and genuine man. Congratulations Sir Bob.

I don't really subscribe to this theory about his long term planning for the club is responsible for where we are now, either. He did extremely well to deliver a Stadium of the quality we have for what it cost us, and fair play to him for selling up to Quinny for a very reasonable sum, but lets not forget this club was on its knees when he sold due to his own short-comings. With the opportunities he had to establish us in the top division, it was absolutely shameful that we found ourselves in that position in the first place.
 
A completely hopeless football chairman, but a very good and genuine man. Congratulations Sir Bob.

I don't really subscribe to this theory about his long term planning for the club is responsible for where we are now, either. He did extremely well to deliver a Stadium of the quality we have for what it cost us, and fair play to him for selling up to Quinny for a very reasonable sum, but lets not forget this club was on its knees when he sold due to his own short-comings. With the opportunities he had to establish us in the top division, it was absolutely shameful that we found ourselves in that position in the first place.

Rubbish. RSM turned Sunderland into a proper football club. The worst you can legitimately say is that there were blips along the way, as history has proven them to be.

Have look at the former giants in the lower divisions if you want to see what crap chairmanship does, even for far wealthier clubs.
 
Rubbish. RSM turned Sunderland into a proper football club. The worst you can legitimately say is that there were blips along the way, as history has proven them to be.

Have look at the former giants in the lower divisions if you want to see what crap chairmanship does, even for far wealthier clubs.

Of course he didn't. By the time he left us we were the same old shite as the club he walked into but just in a much nicer Stadium. When he sold up we were a national laughing stock (the second time during his reign), no proper footballers, not even a manager, fans embarrassed and engulfed in apathy, and in all likelihood plumetting down the divisions.

He deserves enourmous credit for what he did with the Stadium. He had enough about him to recognise that Roker Park was a milestone around the club's neck that we needed to be free of. But he built a Stadium, not a football club.
 
Bob Murray got more things right than he got wrong and it would be a mistake to assume that they could all be measured just by the team’s performance although in football that is what preoccupies us most of all. I guess that it is still a case of ‘time will tell’ but the club has never been in a better condition in my 50 years of following it.

Thanks Bob I am sorry that you did not get all of the success on the field that you deserved and wanted to give to us but others can now bring us that because of the foundations that you put in place. You were the right chairman at the right time – a broken organisation had to be fixed before the team could really perform. Its is sad that those who still do not realise that put more emphasis on the setbacks that we had on the field
 
Like no premiership club gets compulsory orders on the cheap terraces around them,No premiership club has dropped their pitch and raised their stands.
I went to Roker for years and we should have looked at staying at Roker a lot more, but then he would have had to fund it himself, instead of getting a grant to build over an old mineshaft to make sure it could never be used as a a
mine again.

Jesus wept that's dim, even by your hitherto impressive standards.

There are many faults that can be laid at the door of RSM, but any sentient person can see that abandoning the much loved but increasingly inadequate RP for a universally admired state of the art stadium just a few miles away clearly is not one of them.

I suspect like the rest of us you are simply guessing when it comes to the financial structure of the stadium project, but if Murray did take advantage of whatever grants were available by developing unwanted industrial land, thus minimising the nett cost to SAFC, and without resorting to compulsory purchase of private properties, then that seems to me to be pretty shrewd business practice.

There are a couple of Merseyside clubs who may now wish that they'd had similar foresight.

If I remember correctly, the man made such a decent fist of the job that he was invited by the FA to act as an advisor on the build of the new Wembley stadium.

On reflection, the last paragraph may be an example of being damned by faint praise.
 
Congratulations Bob; you did a great job for Sunderland; still is, and for SAFC.

Your Knighthood was well earned, more so than most these days in my opinion.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top