Grayson on 5 live now


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Considering we were bought by a self made billionaire I'd say he doesn't make a bad desision that often. As I business man I bet he is wishing he'd never bothered! Although I guess he has some affiliation the the club and isn't keen on self financing us. He can only employ people in an industry he is not familiar with and trust them on their word and has made mistakes, I don't need to go through them all.

The only evidence I have on our budget being competitive in this league is listening to it come from our manager an hour ago.

And as I said, the proof will be in the pudding. But it's now August, we have our first match on Friday and we've barely invested a penny into the squad despite taking in a record outgoing transfer fee for our club. Based on that and recent transfer windows I'm far from optimistic that there will be anything like the money invested to be considered 'competitive'.
 
He did, but I don't buy it and I think he was speaking more about loans than proper long term deals. It has to be a bit of an issue otherwise we'd have been poking around for some decent bosmans - it looks like we're taking one a keeper from Holland who will be on pennies over there. Unless you have investment and ambition at this level you won't be able to sustain several players like we have who will be on decent wages and then add to them, whilst paying debts and previous transfer fees etc. We're not going to get rid of players like Rodwell on an apparent 60k per week, we may not be looking to offload Catts (or be able to), we've just taken on McGeady on a decent wage and so you're left with others who even after cuts will be on good money like Khazri, Kone, Djilobodji, Gibson, Oviedo.



It's not my approach, it's what's been happening at the club for a year or so now and especially in this season. I'm just understanding what's happening and seeing it for what it is. There is no ambition or investment here, we sell to bring in.

Also Sam Allardyce is seeing it purely from a managers point of view, as he did when he criticised Phil Gartside at Bolton after he ONLY signed him Anelka for big money when Bolton finished fifth and Allardyce expected (I kid you f***ing not) a push for a CL place. Bolton who even then had massive debts.
actually there was also some German pundit on the radio the other day and they asked him what the big difference was between here and there and he said German clubs do their business early and was sceptical that there was much to be gained from hanging on. The problem we have is that any gain is offset by the recurring pattern of churn, extended bedding in period, terrible starts to the season, loss of confidence and this season quite possibly falling gates. Fair enough if you're shelling out megabucks but for a player like Flint (£4 million?) it seems ultimately a risky way of doing it. Plus we'd shift the unwanted anyway. Granted though, Short has lost all interest.

We are run by a business sense not a football sense and we are already relegated so yes we can bank £30m
but football is the business
 
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I agree mate but he has obvious made many other correct business decisions. Business men who think they can make money out of a football club I think are sadly mistaken unless they come up through the leagues. Owning a football club is now the billionaires toy. Not an investment!



Not if you are comparing it to Wolves or Boro

Or Villa or Forest and a few others.

As I also previously said, it comes down what section of the table we want to be competitive in. Does competitive mean promotion race competitive or mid table competitive? Or, do they mean competitive enough to keep us up?
 
And as I said, the proof will be in the pudding. But it's now August, we have our first match on Friday and we've barely invested a penny into the squad despite taking in a record outgoing transfer fee for our club. Based on that and recent transfer windows I'm far from optimistic that there will be anything like the money invested to be considered 'competitive'.

We have made one big sale and that's gone straight into the bank. We will have more players come in. Players have to leave first. Clubs wanting to buy our players are using negotiation tactics the closer it gets. Behind the scenes we will be doing the same to other clubs about their players but will not commmit until we know we have players gone!
 
I must say I've been pretty disappointed with his signings so far. Vaughan is poor, Steele looks crap so far (I thought he'd be ok) and jury is out on the Everton lads.
I hoped he could attract better than washed up League 1 players.
 
I just don't think it's believable that we have a competitive budget based on potential sales. If we need to shift Kone, Khazri and Djilibodgi in order to buy then we seemingly don't have a budget in the first place.

Even if we do manage to sell them, at very best we will merely reinvest the fees. I don't think that will make our budget competitive in today's championship terms

But surely the 'budget' is the budget for wages and fees overall? Competitive could be by retaining the big budget in terms of wages, then adding to it in a few places - it could be interpreted different ways. Even bringing in McGeady - that's something most Championship clubs wouldn't have been able to do permanently because of wages.

If you imagine there's 100k a week in the wages for Lens, Kone, Khazri and Djolobodji (I actually think it''ll still be more even after cuts) that's 5.2m before transfer fees you don't have to spend this season. If that's say £15m for Lens, Khazri, Djilobodji and Kone, then it's another £20m back into your budget and those are conservative figures.

We only get £48m from Tv/parachute payments this season, that would make a massive difference.
 
actually there was also some German pundit on the radio the other day and they asked him what the big difference was between here and there and he said German clubs do their business early and was sceptical that there was much to be gained from hanging on. The problem we have is that any gain is offset by the recurring pattern of churn, extended bedding in period, terrible starts to the season, loss of confidence and this season quite possibly falling gates. Fair enough if you're shelling out megabucks but for a player like Flint (£4 million?) it seems ultimately a risky way of doing it. Plus we'd shift the unwanted anyway. Granted though, Short has lost all interest.


but football is the business

And so is repaying a chunk of debt if you have the chance
 
To be fair I'm no happy clapper but I'm no pissy pants either, I listened to the interview (unlike most who will no doubt comment)

1. He is a positive bloke who wants to and is happy to be at Sunderland

2. He wants players who like him want to be here and if they don't they are free to go.

3. He wants players in with the same mentality.

4. Some players will go in the next few days/weeks.

5. We have a competitive budget in this league.

6. We will bring players in with the right a work ethic and desire

We can't judge him until the transfer window has shut and the season is under way. He didn't make this mess, he is here to improve on it. After hearing that am pleased he is. Even if he wasn't my first choice as manager, given what he has walked into, I'll certainly give him a chance.

We've seen little of this tbf
 
But surely the 'budget' is the budget for wages and fees overall? Competitive could be by retaining the big budget in terms of wages, then adding to it in a few places - it could be interpreted different ways. Even bringing in McGeady - that's something most Championship clubs wouldn't have been able to do permanently because of wages.

If you imagine there's 100k a week in the wages for Lens, Kone, Khazri and Djolobodji (I actually think it''ll still be more even after cuts) that's 5.2m before transfer fees you don't have to spend this season. If that's say £15m for Lens, Khazri, Djilobodji and Kone, then it's another £20m back into your budget and those are conservative figures.

We only get £48m from Tv/parachute payments this season, that would make a massive difference.

If Grayson had said with a bit of wheeling and dealing we can be competitive then I think that would probably be fair enough. To say we have a competitive budget for this division is misleading and not far off being patronising. We clearly have no money to spend without raising further funds for fees and wages.
 
We have made one big sale and that's gone straight into the bank. We will have more players come in. Players have to leave first. Clubs wanting to buy our players are using negotiation tactics the closer it gets. Behind the scenes we will be doing the same to other clubs about their players but will not commmit until we know we have players gone!

So we don't have a current budget. Only a hypothetical one.
 
Steele and Vaughan makes him part of the blame, McGeady in a couple of months too, not to mention Hugill if he signs....

But you keep happy mate! ;)
What do you expect him to sign with 20p?
If he was backed properly by our tight arse lender, we could judge him properly, but we can't, can we?
 
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