Dawson @ PaddyPower, Open Letter To Short

[Grumpy Old Man]

That's excluding anything an ambitious owner may be putting in. But set aside that. The premier league money is 100m minimum, we know that, we got it. So I don't know where 50-60 comes from ?

Also I trust your opinion on this, but does it not make you realise that premier league existence let alone success is impossible for a club like our when they are seeking to only live within their means ? And is that ok for you to make up the number down here ?

Our PL income last season was £98m; this season it's £47m. Other income will also have fallen, but could expect to rise back to 2016/17 levels if promoted. That was around £30m then; I'm estimating £20m this. So that's an extra £51m from the TV deal, and £10m from other income. Even if Short was willing to fund spending this year (which he isn't), I'm not really sure he could. Like most ultra-high net worth individuals, most of his wealth is not in liquid funds. He's probably already ploughed in all that he had or could readily turn into it. He's almost certainly at the point where he would need to dispose of other businesses to provide increased funding of any substance. That really means selling an income-producing investment to pour into one that eats cash.

Anyone outside the big 6 is purely there to make up the numbers. the only way you can survive is by, as a minimum, breaking even on your transfer dealings medium to long term. Even then, one day it will be your turn to fall through the trapdoor. It's a totally fixed excuse for a sporting competition, which exists purely to feed the self-perpetuating elite. The sooner more people, and especially the owners, realise that, the better.

 

[Tasman]

Most sensible post I have seen, the rich get richer.

 

[chr1s1973]

What?

What a strange thing to say.

I just can't get my head round the fact that people think just spending more money is the answer, its like they have no idea how we got here in the first place.



We didn't sell any of Kone, Khazri, Rodwell, Cattermole, NDong, Papy to name a few

We have a hell of a wage bill, way beyond our means.

Not having people at the club who could get deals done to sell the likes of those players put us in a terrible position too.

 

[AscotMackem]

Strange how other clubs finished miles ahead of us and spent less. It's almost like the transfer budget wasn't the main problem.

It's all relative... For example, if Crystal Palace spent 100m and Man City spend 10m next season it doesn't mean that palace will finish above City... Then the season after Palace have been relagation, loaned out all their decent players and are left with a below par championship side and spend £1 million they'll end up where we are... Not hating either clubs just used for example.

 

[Mainze]

I wouldn’t trust Coleman with £2.50 he would probably re-sign Nunez.

 

[gipetto]

Strange how other clubs finished miles ahead of us and spent less. It's almost like the transfer budget wasn't the main problem.

Because their teams were already better than ours before we spent a measily £1.2m.

I wouldn’t trust Coleman with £2.50 he would probably re-sign Nunez.

Based on what? He was forced to rely on loans and by the sounds of it we haven't contributed to their wages, or if we have it was minimal.

 

[Mainze]

Because their teams were already better than ours before we spent a measily £1.2m.



Based on what? He was forced to rely on loans and by the sounds of it we haven't contributed to their wages, or if we have it was minimal.

His judgement, loans or not they were awful signings. I just don’t think he’s the right man for this job now.

 

[manamamackem]

I agree with both points

But if people are saying we could have spent 10s of millions this season are just unrealistic

We didn't sell enough players to allow that

And the reason that we didn't sell enough players, is that they are overpaid and lacking in the tools of their trade. Equivalent of going to poundland to buy A long term investment!

 

[FootballFan]

Not mincing words at all:

Andy Dawson: Dear Ellis Short and Sunderland AFC…

"Anyone with half a brain could see that dismantling a failed Premier League relegation squad and trying to rebuild with a transfer spend of just £1.2m would end in tears. You were at best naïve and at worst utterly incompetent."​

Well said.

The problem is and always has been Short himself and the muppets he chose to delegate to.

 

[janey]

We pretty much did drink Covent Garden dry.

 

[Pilot Light]

The simple truth is that we have to deal with a £68m debt by next summer. to have spent heavily last summer would only have made that harder. We'd essentially have spent any financial benefit from promotion getting there; precisely the same mistake as we made 10 years ago under Quinn and Keane. We'd have had nothing left to fund more transfers in 2018/19, and still need to repay or refinance the SBC loan. To do what Villa did last season, spend the money and not be promoted, would have made dealing with the debt impossible, and made administration a certainty. The stark choice was to spend little or nothing and risk a worsening league position, or to spend, and have a very high or a certain prospect of going under. Not a choice I'd have had much joy in making either way.

So the option taken was better for Short but worse for the fans?

 

[steve30000]

The simple truth is that we have to deal with a £68m debt by next summer. to have spent heavily last summer would only have made that harder. We'd essentially have spent any financial benefit from promotion getting there; precisely the same mistake as we made 10 years ago under Quinn and Keane. We'd have had nothing left to fund more transfers in 2018/19, and still need to repay or refinance the SBC loan. To do what Villa did last season, spend the money and not be promoted, would have made dealing with the debt impossible, and made administration a certainty. The stark choice was to spend little or nothing and risk a worsening league position, or to spend, and have a very high or a certain prospect of going under. Not a choice I'd have had much joy in making either way.

You'd think we've got Murray in charge, who hasn't got two pennies to rub together.

 

[Hongkongphooey]

I wouldn’t trust Coleman with £2.50 he would probably re-sign Nunez.

Is he available?

 

[Kid Galahad]

Is he available?

Would be a better goalie than Camp....

 

[poisson]

So your only solution was for us to spend 50 million?

ffs man.



Neither did we, hardly sold anyone

Which is part of the problem

We sold 2 players for money

2!!!!

I must have missed the part where we only lost 2 players from an already poor squad.

Even if it was true then losing pickford and Mannone has seen us relegated again

 

[steve30000]

I must have missed the part where we only lost 2 players from an already poor squad.

Even if it was true then losing pickford and Mannone has seen us relegated again

And losing mcnair will see us relegated again.
I doubt they'll learn though, Coleman will be given 10p to replace him

 

[Crook Mackem]

I agree with both points

But if people are saying we could have spent 10s of millions this season are just unrealistic

We didn't sell enough players to allow that

Ive never known a club so unable to sell players a year or two after shelling out 10 million or similar on them. Its bizarre

 

[martin_s_buckley]

That squad had more than enough talent in it to finish top half. The simple fact is that the senior players have become accustomed to being rewarded handsomely for failure, and don't have the desire to put in 100% effort any more. Their cancerous attitude affects the rest of the squad who see far more talented players effectively downing tools. The young ones cant win games on their own because its 6 or 7 v 11 every week. The fans are used to failure now, and the stadium on match-day is a depressing place to be - Darren Bent said this after last Saturday. You have 5 players who cant be arsed and 6 younger players who need those 5 to support them v 11 bang average, but gutsy footballers. That is why we've been turned over by Barnsley, Burton, Ipswich, Brentford, Preston, Bolton, Birmingham etc, none of whom have players with the talent that some of our squad have, but choose not to display.

Until this cancer is cut from the club totally, there will continue to be a losing mentality.

Every single one of the Allardyce squad bar Watmore needs to be disposed of.

 

[sksk3021]

Ive never known a club so unable to sell players a year or two after shelling out 10 million or similar on them. Its bizarre

It's mainly because they are crap for us and we overpay to get them here especially on wages.

 

[WHD]

No. The main reason is totally starving the managers of funds to being players in bearing in mind the state of the squad at the start of the season.

I totally disagree. At the start of the season our squad was not worse than Burtons team of free transfers, Bolton's team of free transfers or even Millwall's that finished last season 6th in league one. Even if our team was worse than those at the start of the season, which it wasn't, it just proves that getting results isn't all about giving the manager funds.

You need to get over this constant blaming the current manager crap because it ignores everything that led up to our current predicament and makes you sound ignorant.

I'm not ignoring anything else. The situation the club is in, it's unlikely we would have challenged for promotion this season, even with a good manager. The manager is to blame though, for us being 4 points adrift of Burton Albion at the bottom of the league.

Because their teams were already better than ours before we spent a measily £1.2m.

There's absolutely no way Burton, Bolton and Millwall, to name just three clubs, had better teams than us at the start of the season. Some of our fans have been totally hoodwinked by Coleman.

Haway man ? Building an entire squad on half a mill is a problem. Had we spent the coin we would be sorted just like wolves the mags or villa

Villa might not even go up this season. If we had spent what they did and not got promotion, we wouldn't have a club for much longer.

So the option taken was better for Short but worse for the fans?

No, the option was better for the future of the club.

He's like a broken record man. Still hasn't posted what he would have done differently.

Yes I have. I would have made an approach for Warnock at the start of the season. If he turned us down, I would have appointed Alex Neil who was out of work.

Or we just do what we have done this season and fall straight through to the 4th division. Whilst at the sametime having the higherners still on the books.

Why would we do that? Clubs spend next to nowt in league one. A good manager in that division is much more important than transfer budget.

You're spot on. But the only way out is spending our way out. People may not realise it now and think league 1 and the championship are a part time laugh. But in 10 years time we will wish we had taken the chance to get out now, once the price of getting out had rocketed even further. Decent championship players are 10m a pop now.

You are living in a fantasy world. We haven't got money to spend, and even if we did, we would still need a competent manager. Many clubs have tried to spend their way to promotion and failed.