WMS JOINT STATEMENT RE: STEWART DONALD’S DECISION TO PLACE SUNDERLAND AFC UP FOR SALE

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jafsafc said:
Regardless of whether they claim to be ‘the voice of the fans’ or not, thousands of people have backed them and written/tweeted support. The ‘Donald In’ camp have done nothing but complain about the fanzines. If you care that much about Donald staying, do something about it.

Also, if the club is in the ‘great shape’ Donald claims it to be, and astute investor would let themselves be put off the opportunity of owing a debt free club this size because of a couple of fanzines
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With the greatest respect that's bollocks. An angry campaign garners support, a campaign to maintain the status quo doesn't get support in the same level as you've already achieved it. The reality is the fans were and are split on Donald, I'd suggest more have moved to the out camp though after his petulant and childish statement. Doesn't change the fact it shouldn't have been made in the first place IMO.
 


Zidane said:
If they are not the voice of the fans they should maybe stop trying to bring down the ownership of football clubs only 18 months in by negatively influencing others.

What if they dont like the next owner because he is not a billionaire, never gives interviews and doesn't get us promoted in his first season?

Will they demand he leaves after 18 months as well?
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Will the next owner be spineless enough to roll over and run away at the first sign of unhappiness (or use it as an excuse for what he was already trying to do)?
 
Zidane said:
If they are not the voice of the fans they should maybe stop trying to bring down the ownership of football clubs only 18 months in by negatively influencing others.

What if they dont like the next owner because he is not a billionaire, never gives interviews and doesn't get us promoted in his first season?

Will they demand he leaves after 18 months as well?
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It’s nothing to do with him not being a billionaire, it’s about the state of the club top to bottom.

They didn’t stabilise a sinking ship. Ellis Short, for all his faults, did that by writing off a lot of money he was owed.

Who is running the club day-to-day? Donald and Fox aren’t in the area. We have two non-executive directors. Methven and Davidson gone. Sartori is a Uruguayan Senator. Hill head of negotiations. Coton the chief scout. Who is running the show?

Why is nothing being done to address the results of the academy sides? The line is it’s all about experience, but what does them getting hammered every week achieve? We’re a Category 1 academy.

Donald/Methven said after sacking Ross that FPP couldn’t agree a takeover and had chosen the investment route on this occasion. Now Donald says there never was a takeover on the table and FPP have chosen to invest in him and his management team and not Sunderland football club, yet that loan is secured against assets owned by the club (worth more than the £10m) borrowed.

If the debt free club is in the great shape Donald says it is, a club of our size won’t be short of suitors
Watmore can I say said:
With the greatest respect that's bollocks. An angry campaign garners support, a campaign to maintain the status quo doesn't get support in the same level as you've already achieved it. The reality is the fans were and are split on Donald, I'd suggest more have moved to the out camp though after his petulant and childish statement. Doesn't change the fact it shouldn't have been made in the first place IMO.
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I respect that and agree with many people that there maybe should have been some communication before releasing the statement.

But I disagree in the sense that if you strongly believe in wanting Donald to stay, you’ll do what you can to make that happen
 
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jafsafc said:
It’s nothing to do with him not being a billionaire, it’s about the state of the club top to bottom.

They didn’t stabilise a sinking ship. Ellis Short, for all his faults, did that by writing off a lot of money he was owed.

Who is running the club day-to-day? Donald and Fox aren’t in the area. We have two non-executive directors. Methven and Davidson gone. Sartori is a Uruguayan Senator. Hill head of negotiations. Coton the chief scout. Who is running the show?

Why is nothing being done to address the results of the academy sides? The line is it’s all about experience, but what does them getting hammered every week achieve? We’re a Category 1 academy.

Donald/Methven said after sacking Ross that FPP couldn’t agree a takeover and had chosen the investment route on this occasion. Now Donald says there never was a takeover on the table and FPP have chosen to invest in him and his management team and not Sunderland football club, yet that loan is secured against assets owned by the club (worth more than the £10m) borrowed.

If the debt free club is in the great shape Donald says it is, a club of our size won’t be short of suitors


I respect that and agree with many people that there maybe should have been some communication before releasing the statement.

But I disagree in the sense that if you strongly believe in wanting Donald to stay, you’ll do what you can to make that happen
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And if you want him to go you'll do the same ergo.
 
jafsafc said:
And they have. The other side haven’t
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Like I said previously, a campaign cant be started around maintaining the status quo, people aren't going to campaign for something they have. Whether you like it or not a lot of people want Donald to stay. He's not perfect but he's not a total c@nt like he's been made out to be in my eyes. I'm not denying he's a childish b@stard by the way.
 
GarethQ said:
In reality we have hit rock bottom in the club’s history.

In reality we’ve had someone buy the club with our own money.

In reality there’s no senior figure at the club on a day to day basis.

In reality everyone got sacked.

In reality our back room set up consists of non-league experience.

In reality our academy is going down the toilet.

In reality we had to get a loan to fix a lift in spite of the fact we’ve got ‘loads of money’.

In reality we’ve been up for sale for the best part of a year.

In reality they thought they’d sold to FPP.

In reality Donald started recruiting for a Bridle office in Sunderland, via twitter, around the time of the proposed FPP takeover.

In reality neither Donald nor Methven moved to the north east for their ‘long term’ project.

Shall I go on? Feel free to add if I’ve missed anything.
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That would have been a better statement!
 
To be fair, they couldn’t really ask for the owner to sell up, them completely ignore a response in which he said he will.
They could’ve easily resorted tit for tat, and went through the club’s statement pulling him for multiple contradictions/fan blaming, but thankfully it was short and to the point.
Hopefully that’s it now for statements though, and everyone pulls together behind the team.
 
Duracel Funny said:
Obviously they’ll now hide behind this week never once claimed to be the voice of the fans’ line but by proxy, releasing that statement does suggest they are. Did they ever gauge opinion on here? I don’t recall if they did. Sheer arrogance on their part, Donald blew enough smoke up their arses that they have started to believe their own hype.

Welcome to the reality of league one. Don’t look at the club through Premier League tinted glasses. Any other owners would’ve made similar cuts and made similar mistakes.
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Hiw would any other owners have made similar mistakes? Would they have employed people with only non-league (and failure at that) experience in two of the most important jobs football-wise? Would they have kept on Coton who co distantly signed poor players? Would they have presided over the junior teams collapsing to rapidly its barely believable?
Wigan went down from Premier League to League One very rapidly yet bought well, appointed the right people and got straight back to The Championship.
TexasMackem said:
They did like. Credit where credits due, there was a lot more work to do than just writing off debts.
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How was it sinking when 100s of millions had been written off? It wasn't ridiculously healthy but wouldn't have been in danger of sinking. It had £30m of parachute payments and the most season tickets ever sold at this level to come.
 
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Ghandi Floss said:
To be fair, they couldn’t really ask for the owner to sell up, them completely ignore a response in which he said he will.
They could’ve easily resorted tit for tat, and went through the club’s statement pulling him for multiple contradictions/fan blaming, but thankfully it was short and to the point.
Hopefully that’s it now for statements though, and everyone pulls together behind the team.
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Agreed.
 
Geronimo said:
Didn't Ellis write off the debts?
Didn't parachute money take care of the rest?
I'm really confused here.
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Eh? How can parachute payments take care of the rest? It was said that we were losing circa £500k a month at the time, parachute payments or not it was completely unsustainable. Imagine how fucked we'd be if NDong, Rodwell etc were here to see out their contracts. They rid us of toxic playing contracts and significantly reduced the number of non playing staff as well as other outgoings. That and engaging the club with its fans are the things they did right. Everything else has been a mess.

My opinion is that SD & Co have acted as an alternative to administrators getting something out of the club for Ellis Short, meanwhile allowing him to sever ties. What I don't understand is why Bain couldn't have done any of it.
 
Any new owners would have had to address the debts and sort the finances out. It would be there job. It’s just competency like. Like Richard hill “saving” the club for being what seems semi competent
 
Christ, the world's most needy football club owner versus groups of fans who think they know best and don't know when to stop digging. This f***ing shite could go on for ages.
 
prehab26 said:
Delete immediately. The only people interested in reading this point scoring nonsense is the folk related to said groups.
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Who are also Sunderland supporters. And have every right to express their collective view publicly as much as you do to do so individually.
 
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