Congratulations Stewart Donald



Short spent something like £300m of his own money on us during his time in charge. I think it is his prerogative to decide when to say "Right, that's enough, no more".

Coulda, woulda, shoulda. If Short hadn't bankrolled us for so long in the first place, we may well have been down here faster. If Short had given us just a little bit more we perhaps could have been in Europe. It's his money. If he decided he'd paid enough already, that was his choice to make. "Oh go on, just another £2m on a new keeper, just another £10m on a new striker, just another £15m on a midfielder that would be the envy of the Championship and pretty much guarantee us promotion, just another..."

He came, he invested, we had some great times, he pulled his funding, wiped us clear of debts incurred under him and the previous owners and sold the club. So, when you think of the Short era, try to remember the great times and the fact they all came directly out of his own pocket.

We'll likely never see the likes again. An owner coming in and just spunking money up the wall on players for us for the sake of it. Truly the greatest owner we've had in my lifetime, probably in our entire history.

So, regarding your opinion of Steward Donald, you're saying you have no source, it's pure conjecture, and you're just choosing a worst case scenario to pin your expectations onto and are getting angry at that straw man instead of waiting for actual facts and staying calm in the meantime? It's not the strongest opening argument but I'm intrigued as to where you're planning on going from there. Go on then, what are these things "don has done" that give you the impression he "has no money to invest, no money to spend on a striker in January, and has no scouting network?"

With all due respect, and I don't want to sound didactic or facetious in any way, but it just sounds to me like you're dribbling on yourself ranting about Short despite the time, money and effort he put into the club, and now dribbling on yourself again ranting about Stewart Donald despite having zero facts to back up your point of view again.

Do you not feel that sometimes in life it feels better to wait until you have at least some truthful, noteworthy and verifiable information about a situation before deciding you have a passionate opinion on that subject?

It can't just be me.

Let’s keep it simple, by any measurement Short was a failure.

‘Truly the greatest owner ever’ is a view that can only be held by people who judge their club by how much money they spend.

That it was a waste of the opportunity of a lifetime to become a force on the premiership, a terrible waste in the face of a struggling economic and social environment.

All that money was doing was masking incompetence his failure to build a club with a vision, and with the strategy and leadership to deliver it.
No he played with it like a hobby, and messed it up thinking money would fix everything. Money alone never achieved anything in football.
At least he's brought stability to the club. We are now a well established League 1 club.

It’s ridiculous we aren’t a premiership club yet.... what’s he playing at?
Short had a right old go at it he can’t be faulted for that, I would have thought he’d be able to suss duffers out sadly he didn’t which led to his interest waning and getting out.All credit to him he put millions in.

No man, stop judging him a success because he throw millions around... he could afford. He destroyed our club. It was his responsibility to put the right structure in place and give them the right direction.... he didn’t
This club was ran by that inept woman... not her fault he appointed her.
 
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Let’s keep it simple, by any measurement Short was a failure.

‘Truly the greatest owner ever’ is a view that can only be held by people who judge their club by how much money they spend.

That it was a waste of the opportunity of a lifetime to become a force on the premiership, a terrible waste in the face of a struggling economic and social environment.

All that money was doing was masking incompetence his failure to build a club with a vision, and with the strategy and leadership to deliver it.
No he played with it like a hobby, and messed it up thinking money would fix everything. Money alone never achieved anything in football.


It’s ridiculous we aren’t a premiership club yet.... what’s he playing at?


No man, stop judging him a success because he throw millions around... he could afford. He destroyed our club. It was his responsibility to put the right structure in place and give them the right direction.... he didn’t
This club was ran by that inept woman... not her fault he appointed her.
i agree with all of this escept-ellis short didnt appoint margaret byrne did he?
 
Yes Rix did, he walked back into his old job and had roles elsewhere. Like I said football doesn't have morals at times. Again maybe Hill just isn't very good, if he was he would be working higher up the pyramid, it has nothing to do with an incident 12 years ago, where no police action was taken. Police angle is relevant when others have served custodial sentences and returned to the game.

Wasn't the incident in connection with a large brawl with the then Chinese under 23 team? How are they clients of Hill's employers?
because hill was employed by qpr..and it was a fiendly,..and you know big clubs charge little clubs for friendlies right? qpr didnt play a team that randomn for free..thats not how it worlds..
Good question mate. I know I've mentioned the bloke's name on here a few times and I'm sure he's putting his all into it but, the tangible evidence of his work must surely be results of which, could barely be worse at junior level.
Lower League sides such as ourselves need a healthy Academy set-up and it certainly doesn't appear to be at present, for whatever reason?
duno about the academy..the u23s are losing a lot of games and thats a concern, but they arent really acdemy..the average age of the tema is somehting like 20..so they are academy graduates..questions need to be asked of the outcomes..

first question is: is winning matches the priority or developing players the [riorty..once thats answered move onto next question..which is, is the manager of that team, who isnt richard hill by the way, achieving against those metric.
if the goal is winng matches..he certainly isnt..he has been at the club a long tiome has the manager of that yeam..not a new appointment at all..
 
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Let’s keep it simple, by any measurement Short was a failure.

‘Truly the greatest owner ever’ is a view that can only be held by people who judge their club by how much money they spend.

That it was a waste of the opportunity of a lifetime to become a force on the premiership, a terrible waste in the face of a struggling economic and social environment.

All that money was doing was masking incompetence his failure to build a club with a vision, and with the strategy and leadership to deliver it.
No he played with it like a hobby, and messed it up thinking money would fix everything. Money alone never achieved anything in football.


It’s ridiculous we aren’t a premiership club yet.... what’s he playing at?


No man, stop judging him a success because he throw millions around... he could afford. He destroyed our club. It was his responsibility to put the right structure in place and give them the right direction.... he didn’t
This club was ran by that inept woman... not her fault he appointed her.
He had a chance not only to leave a legacy by building the solid foundations to which you refer but also to make a few bob profit for himself.
He failed miserably on both counts.
 
To those who slagged off SD, should be ashamed of their actions.
Stu came in put a lot of his OWN money into the club, he bought our club and took on outstanding debts not fully paid off by Ellis Short, he DID PUT A HUGE amount of HIS OWN money in, the reports he borrowed to buy are not true, and the reports he has sold us out to make a huge profit are rubbish.
SD loves this club, but the way he and his family have been treated is disgusting,, I have seen some of the tweets and they are unbelievable, coming from Sunderland fans, if indeed they are Sunderland fans.

I believe those who started the poison on here, were mags, infiltrating our forum but those who jumped up and joined in are just as bad.
My grammar may be shite but the words are well meant.

Society has a problem and regrettably it’s infested this social media relating to our clubs.
Hopefully SD can ride it out in the knowledge that 99% of fans are good people even if they don’t necessarily agree with him.
Look at the MPs who have stood down today because of threats. Society needs to stand up to these faceless bullies and weed them out and humiliate them.
MPs should not be resigning over death threats and our chairman snd his family should not be being abused for doing his job to the best of his ability.
one way to start is for people to stop making judgements on things they don’t even know to be fact ...eg funding, debt etc etc .... pure conjecture
 
On overseeing the assembling of the worst squad in the history of SAFC.

Your “do it on the cheap” strategy is destroying our club and I never thought I would see the day that we have a worse owner than Ellis Short.
Congratulations Stewart Donald,

On making our club more sustainable and bringing serious investors into the club. One of the more astute bits of your work may have been lending Madrox 20 million last year allowing it to be reinvested and possibly count towards SCMP or FFP over the next 3 seasons.
 
Let’s keep it simple, by any measurement Short was a failure.

‘Truly the greatest owner ever’ is a view that can only be held by people who judge their club by how much money they spend.

That it was a waste of the opportunity of a lifetime to become a force on the premiership, a terrible waste in the face of a struggling economic and social environment.

All that money was doing was masking incompetence his failure to build a club with a vision, and with the strategy and leadership to deliver it.
No he played with it like a hobby, and messed it up thinking money would fix everything. Money alone never achieved anything in football.

There's certainly no substitute for an owner that knows what they're doing and also has money but as they're rare as rocking horse poop, all else being equal I'll take a clueless sugar daddy over a clueless pauper any day of the week.

Short had the desire to make us a success and also had a massive bank account that for many years he wasn't afraid to dip his hand into.

If someone gives their all and fails, they will still get lauded by me for trying their hardest.

Short tried his hardest and gave us massive sums of money but ultimately failed. Fair enough, fair play to him, thanks for trying, thanks for all the money, all the best in the future Ellis.

Best owner we ever had. Nobody else even comes close.
 
“In recent months, Richard Hill and Tony Coton [Head of Recruitment] have understandably but unfairly taken a lot of flak for having to manage, on their own, a very complex and difficult situation.

“It’s been about taking a step back to try and take two forward and that’s why this investment is important, so we can get on the front foot in these areas.

“I’d ask that people judge the results of Richard and Tony’s work over a 3 year period, not making them take the blame for a structure that simply had to go.“

Hill and Coton are going nowhere, then.
 
There's certainly no substitute for an owner that knows what they're doing and also has money but as they're rare as rocking horse poop, all else being equal I'll take a clueless sugar daddy over a clueless pauper any day of the week.

Short had the desire to make us a success and also had a massive bank account that for many years he wasn't afraid to dip his hand into.

If someone gives their all and fails, they will still get lauded by me for trying their hardest.

Short tried his hardest and gave us massive sums of money but ultimately failed. Fair enough, fair play to him, thanks for trying, thanks for all the money, all the best in the future Ellis.

Best owner we ever had. Nobody else even comes close.

Tried his hardest? If he had applied the same due diligence to running his business empire he would be a cowboy in Texas.
“In recent months, Richard Hill and Tony Coton [Head of Recruitment] have understandably but unfairly taken a lot of flak for having to manage, on their own, a very complex and difficult situation.

“It’s been about taking a step back to try and take two forward and that’s why this investment is important, so we can get on the front foot in these areas.

“I’d ask that people judge the results of Richard and Tony’s work over a 3 year period, not making them take the blame for a structure that simply had to go.“

Hill and Coton are going nowhere, then.

but have we listened to the context of their performance to date ... are we taking any notice of what we are being told?
 
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“In recent months, Richard Hill and Tony Coton [Head of Recruitment] have understandably but unfairly taken a lot of flak for having to manage, on their own, a very complex and difficult situation.

“It’s been about taking a step back to try and take two forward and that’s why this investment is important, so we can get on the front foot in these areas.

“I’d ask that people judge the results of Richard and Tony’s work over a 3 year period, not making them take the blame for a structure that simply had to go.“

Hill and Coton are going nowhere, then.

Lets be honest whilst we've all been critical of them, we knew the scouting had been cut back, but we just weren't sure by how much. Given certain targets have been missed out on like Lyle Taylor which have come down to what was allegedly offered and a few players came in initially in a rush it's likely that whether these guys are good, bad, decent or absolutely shite they've been working with their hands, largely tied behind their backs.

I also think that Hill was correct on what he said regarding Marcus Maddison, even though he'd have added to the side. It's quite obvious though that money simply wasn't available in the summer anyway so whether Hill rated him or like he said didn't represent value at that price it didn't actually matter.
 
On overseeing the assembling of the worst squad in the history of SAFC.

Your “do it on the cheap” strategy is destroying our club and I never thought I would see the day that we have a worse owner than Ellis Short.
Ellis weren’t as bad as you say. Ploughed million’s into the club , also cleared the debt therefore allowing the cockney wide boys to purchase the club. Admittedly ES made some very poor appointments... Congerton and De Fante to name two.
It’s like when people say Murray was bad owner, that’s utter shortsighted garbage too.
 
That last bit is a fairly spectacular bit of spin mind:lol:
People won't criticize Donald because he's a nice bloke who likes a pint with the fans and will wish your granny a happy birthday on Twitter. But let's be honest, he is a poor chairman. He's record at Eastleigh is poor too so we can take it he doesn't know how to run a club. People are praising SD because we got an investment but that investment is to improve a very important section of the club and a section that was neglected by Donald. I'm nearly sure one of the press reports said FPP were concerned by the running of the academy.
 
There's certainly no substitute for an owner that knows what they're doing and also has money but as they're rare as rocking horse poop, all else being equal I'll take a clueless sugar daddy over a clueless pauper any day of the week.

Short had the desire to make us a success and also had a massive bank account that for many years he wasn't afraid to dip his hand into.

If someone gives their all and fails, they will still get lauded by me for trying their hardest.

Short tried his hardest and gave us massive sums of money but ultimately failed. Fair enough, fair play to him, thanks for trying, thanks for all the money, all the best in the future Ellis.

Best owner we ever had. Nobody else even comes close.

You been on the Christmas Sherry mate? Every manager under Short was asked to sell to buy, under the premise of FFP, which every other club seemingly found a way around. Just when we looked like kicking on, our key players were flogged to rivals and replaced with journeymen or loan signings. Jones, Henderson, Bent, Gian, Sessegnon etc etc. The club then went out of their way to fit up the player for the transfer, only later coming out that they wanted to stay.

Bob Murray took over a club heading into the old third division and took it to 7th in the Premier League in 13 years. Drumaville restored us to the PL. Short took over a club in the Premier League and took it to League 1. He was f***ing terrible.
 

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