Did Peter Reid get it wrong after 1999 promotion..


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The ground extension of £8m was a bargain and fully justified. We may well have blown that on another over priced Flo type signing.
At the time I believe Reid made serious attempts to bring in quality and move Sunderland forward.
Ray Parlour turned down an excellent package to join us, Robbie Keane was targeted and the giant coveted Jan Koller was on our radar for a while.
Reid was then forced to recruit at short notice without the necessary scouting back up ; for example Stephen Wright came in without any prior consideration the result of his name being dropped into a telephone conversation with Reid by the then Liverpool manager.
I would wager that the sole criteria McAteer, Piper, Flo and Babb were all brought into the club was on the basis that they had been in and around the top flight for a while and therefore must have had something to offer Sunderland. They were probably not closely vetted and therefore their value or otherwise to the club not properly established.
It always has been hard for Sunderland to attract quality once the prolific stream of Scottish talent had dried up back in the nineteen sixties.
It is well documented that during the Ellis Short years Sunderland were forced to pay over the going rate for mediocre Premier League players. ; Anton Ferdinand at £60k a week as an example.
The odds were increasingly stacked against Peter Reid.
Consecutive seventh positions was as good as it was going to get. The rate of decline was rapid but the unravelling would have been inevitable eventually.
 
Arguably the North Stand extension shouldn’t have happened and the nigh on £8M it cost spent on a handful of quality players. Can understand Sir Bob’s thinking, he wanted to leave a legacy and he did but he went the other way and we’d had an extra couple of years at the top end of the table probably competing in Europe even just the once or twice, the North Stand could then have been extended and paid for itself.

One of the worst decisions in my lifetime. It ensured everyone could get a ticket on a random basis thus enabling thousands of non committal fans to not renew or attend on a match by match basis.
As impressive as our match attendance is it would be and would have been higher if people had to buy a season ticket to guarantee getting in.
He thought Laslandes and Flo were Quinny replacements and they weren’t. Laslandes was a super player for Bordeaux but I remember watching him standing hands on hips v Ipswich as another long ball was hoofed over him looking like he was thinking WTF. We know from Chelsea that Flo was sensational, can’t really remember what he did at Rangers but he was wasted here.

Flo didn’t want to be here let’s face it.His attitude stank, massive dislike for him as a consequence
 
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There's a lot of revisionism around Murray and the North Stand extension in recent years. Reid still spent a fair whack, just in dribs and drabs on shite that never really got a look in and fell out with some of our better players - Summerbee, Makin, Bridges, Johnston etc. He built a good team, dismantled it through stubbornness and didn't gave the nous to rebuild without Quinn.
 
His biggest mistake was staying on after the end of the 2001/02 season. It was certainly one of Murray's biggest errors in letting him stay.

A new manager with a summer to start the rebuilding and bring fresh impetus would have seen us alright. We would have still attracted a decent calibre of manager then, selling the near relegation as a blip, and pointing to full houses and 7th place finishes as just a sign of the club's potential.

Instead, we let Reid spunk away £10m or so on another striker who couldn't score, and bring in other clubs cast-offs. Once he'd gone, the season was already falling apart, any half decent manager was with a half decent side by then, so we had Howard Wilkinson, Peter Taylor, or nobody. Given that choice, I'd have gone for the latter.

There's no doubt Reid done some wonderful things for Sunderland, but by the end had more or less undone all his great work.
 
His biggest mistake was staying on after the end of the 2001/02 season. It was certainly one of Murray's biggest errors in letting him stay.

A new manager with a summer to start the rebuilding and bring fresh impetus would have seen us alright. We would have still attracted a decent calibre of manager then, selling the near relegation as a blip, and pointing to full houses and 7th place finishes as just a sign of the club's potential.

Instead, we let Reid spunk away £10m or so on another striker who couldn't score, and bring in other clubs cast-offs. Once he'd gone, the season was already falling apart, any half decent manager was with a half decent side by then, so we had Howard Wilkinson, Peter Taylor, or nobody. Given that choice, I'd have gone for the latter.

There's no doubt Reid done some wonderful things for Sunderland, but by the end had more or less undone all his great work.

This sums it up perfectly.

Yes he gave us great times that’s a given, however he undid a lot of it and that cannot be ignored. Put it this way should all Johnson’s failings be forgiven because he won at Wembley (albeit in the most pointless competitive game we’ve played there)?
 
His biggest mistake was staying on after the end of the 2001/02 season. It was certainly one of Murray's biggest errors in letting him stay.

A new manager with a summer to start the rebuilding and bring fresh impetus would have seen us alright. We would have still attracted a decent calibre of manager then, selling the near relegation as a blip, and pointing to full houses and 7th place finishes as just a sign of the club's potential.

Instead, we let Reid spunk away £10m or so on another striker who couldn't score, and bring in other clubs cast-offs. Once he'd gone, the season was already falling apart, any half decent manager was with a half decent side by then, so we had Howard Wilkinson, Peter Taylor, or nobody. Given that choice, I'd have gone for the latter.

There's no doubt Reid done some wonderful things for Sunderland, but by the end had more or less undone all his great work.
This sums it up perfectly.

Yes he gave us great times that’s a given, however he undid a lot of it and that cannot be ignored. Put it this way should all Johnson’s failings be forgiven because he won at Wembley (albeit in the most pointless competitive game we’ve played there)?
What does it matter? LOL
 
Reid just saw his height and thought 'oooh another Quinn'.

With Quinn on the decline, sure Crouchy went to Villa around the same time. Would’ve been a fantastic replacement.

Actually did form a partnership with Phillips when they both got to Southampton as well.
 
With Quinn on the decline, sure Crouchy went to Villa around the same time. Would’ve been a fantastic replacement.

Actually did form a partnership with Phillips when they both got to Southampton as well.

It’s well known we tried to sign Crouch he’s admitted it himself that he came for talks etc
 
It’s well known we tried to sign Crouch he’s admitted it himself that he came for talks etc

Was under Keane though wasn’t it?

Thought it was well documented that Roy was referring to him with the ‘their wives just want to go shopping in London’ stuff?

Edit: just Googled, was under Bruce.
 
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We were linked with Robbie Keane and Trevor Sinclair loads. Not sure if either were ever close to signing for us

He was great for us but I agree he seemed patchy elsewhere. Didn’t seem to do much for West Ham.
Linked with Di Canio as well when he was at Celtic.

Fell out with Tommy Helmer who came from Bayern and Borussia and 68 German caps to play two games for us and was then loaned back to Hertha Berlin to play Champions League football for the rest of the season because Bobby Saxton tried to tell him he was wrong about defending in training.
 
Imagine getting shot of those two cos they (possibly) got a shot off with her.

I think it was actually because they gave a bit back to Reid at half time. Might have been away to Arsenal.
First I have heard of that.
Linked with Di Canio as well when he was at Celtic.

Fell out with Tommy Helmer who came from Bayern and Borussia and 68 German caps to play two games for us and was then loaned back to Hertha Berlin to play Champions League football for the rest of the season because Bobby Saxton tried to tell him he was wrong about defending in training.
Sunderland all over that.
 
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Phillips form dropped off a cliff alongside being found out. 30 amazing goals first season up in 36 games, 31 goals in 103 games in the next 3 seasons.
He hit double figures in his second and third season so wouldn’t say his form dropped off a cliff at all, amazing that the team went from being exciting to a busted flush and it’s a surprise one player didn’t do as well, possibly something to do with service?
Arguably the North Stand extension shouldn’t have happened and the nigh on £8M it cost spent on a handful of quality players. Can understand Sir Bob’s thinking, he wanted to leave a legacy and he did but he went the other way and we’d had an extra couple of years at the top end of the table probably competing in Europe even just the once or twice, the North Stand could then have been extended and paid for itself.
it’s not about legacy, been done to death on here but he was given the heads up about the swimming pool so it was now or never to do the extension as he wouldn’t have got planning permission once it had been done, I think the new ground and academy were enough for his legacy rather than an extra tier on a stand

obviously Arca came good eventually but were on a downward trend.
He was surprisingly good from the very start
 
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If we’d have strengthened better when Melville, Ball, Clark and Bridges went in 1999/00 then Bould, Summerbee and Makin the following season we would have been better off. We did get Hutchinson, Thome, Schwarz and obviously Arca came good eventually but were on a downward trend. Can’t remember which season it was but went from a week before Christmas to nigh on the end of March before winning.
It was 1999-2000 season.
 
It was a remarkable fall from grace looking back. From 2002 to 2004 we lost 20,000 people off our average gate!

We needed to build on successive 7th placed finishes in 2001. Although we couldn't attract the real top end players I still believe we would have been capable of bringing in suffucient quality to maybe just break into that top 6, baring in mind Ipswich went from 5th place in 2001 to 18th and relegated in 2002. It was there for the taking.

Maybe the funds simply weren't there but it was a massive opportunity lost.
 
At the time I could understand the Flo signing. He was a canny player even though he was well out of form by that point at Rangers. The problem was Reid expected him to be a direct replacement for Quinn. He was never a target man in the same way, he was better with the ball at his feet.
Saw Reid on the telly not long after he'd been sacked, he was asked how he thought his new signings had settled in at Sunderland, referring to Flo and Stewart his reply was they weren't my signing, apparently he didn't want either
 
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