RR: Bob Murray podcast



janey said:
He was responsible for building the SOL, and the AOL, that’s without mentioning the FOL for which he’s still patron and which helps lots and lots of young people, and has been widely acclaimed.
He gave us the best football in my memory.
He gave Peter Reid money and he bought Tor Andre Flo, and Lilian Lascandes (among others).
He sold to Niall Quinn when he could have sold to others for more financial benefit to himself.
Did he make mistakes, obviously, Howard Wilkinson, bloody hell.
But, I don’t doubt for one second that he only ever ever wanted what was best for our football club, and still does.
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That pretty much sums it up.
 
chriswallace85 said:
They'll be the best two seasons in the club's post war history then. A magical cup run aside - which started out as a relegation scrap in Division 2 with sub-10,000 attendances, what was achieved in any other twenty year period since the 50s?

Let's face it, without professionalising the infrastructure of the club, sorting out some proper facilities, and giving us a platform for the 21st century with the stadium, this club would have been finished a long long time ago.


I can't remember who it was but (despite Murray apparently not letting on) one of the players was on the radio around about last season saying they basically knew as well.


Neither will I.


I don't think that's the way I heard it listening to the full interview. For one, he takes responsibility for Wilkinson and admits it was a mistake. Relegation at the turn of the 90s - the club wasn't ready, which is probably right. We probably still weren't quite ready for the Premier League in '97 but went down with 40 points. And all the while he's building a modern a football club to keep what was once the great name of Sunderland alive.

The Reidy thing - to be honest, every player worth listening to from that era has told much the same story. The likes of Phillips, Quinn, Rae, Gray, Ball, have all said the same thing. The wrong players started coming in and we lost what (almost) made us great. And as much as I loved Reidy and have a lot of time for him, the buck stops with him. He'd gotten plenty right up to that point, so why shouldn't Murray have kept faith with him a little longer. I forgot who the player was (mighta been Phillips), but I'm sure there's a story from the Roker days when Reid's stock was sky high whereby he threatened to quit if we didn't sign them. As good as he was that's the character of the bloke as well.

What else negative did he blame on someone else? The 15 point season? He was straight and to the point - we didn't have the money for the Premier League, and what little we did have Mick wasted. Everyone knas that. Him and Fickling put the club back on a solid financial grounding after the disaster of getting relegated with a Premier League squad and unfortunately there wasn't a lot left to work with. And McCarthy cannot manage in the Premier League. Sad but true. And that's what happened. The flack Murray (and even his wife FFS) got around that time was nothing short of disgusting to be honest, and a lot of so called supporters should really hang their heads in shame for that, so if Murray wants to tell a few home truths and give his side of the story like he has in this interview then fair play to him. I can't recall him ever being so candid about it in the years since he left, and I think it was a fair and honest reflection of what he did and didn't achieve here. I look forward to his book.
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The club wasn’t ready, what does that mean? Whose job is it to ensure the club is ready? Was appointing Mick Buxton a step to making us top flight ready? Malcolm Crosby who he ‘had’ to appoint?

If Reidy had lost the dressing room so badly and Murray could see him making mistakes what did he do about it, he cites the nunez signing that was 3 years before Reid left. What did he do in those three years to change things? Why did he allow him to spend so much on afloat for example.
The whole Hutchinson thing wasn’t mentioned at all iirc.

Murray calls Bain worse than shit for the goalkeeping situation last season but replacing Poom and Mhyre with Kelvin Davis is just passed over as it’s all we could do.
If McCarthy can’t manage in the premier league why did he let him?
He wasn’t watching on from a far for these things he was in charge!

Not sure how you can claim we were on solid financial footing either we were in £40m debt when he left and crippled financially.

Murray did a lot of good particularly around the infrastructure, you are maybe right he took too much stick. He clearly cares but I and many others felt he glossed over and apportioned blame for a lot of things he got wrong and there were a fair few. As well as a chunk of good stuff.
 
chriswallace85 said:
They'll be the best two seasons in the club's post war history then. A magical cup run aside - which started out as a relegation scrap in Division 2 with sub-10,000 attendances, what was achieved in any other twenty year period since the 50s?

Let's face it, without professionalising the infrastructure of the club, sorting out some proper facilities, and giving us a platform for the 21st century with the stadium, this club would have been finished a long long time ago.


I can't remember who it was but (despite Murray apparently not letting on) one of the players was on the radio around about last season saying they basically knew as well.


Neither will I.


I don't think that's the way I heard it listening to the full interview. For one, he takes responsibility for Wilkinson and admits it was a mistake. Relegation at the turn of the 90s - the club wasn't ready, which is probably right. We probably still weren't quite ready for the Premier League in '97 but went down with 40 points. And all the while he's building a modern a football club to keep what was once the great name of Sunderland alive.

The Reidy thing - to be honest, every player worth listening to from that era has told much the same story. The likes of Phillips, Quinn, Rae, Gray, Ball, have all said the same thing. The wrong players started coming in and we lost what (almost) made us great. And as much as I loved Reidy and have a lot of time for him, the buck stops with him. He'd gotten plenty right up to that point, so why shouldn't Murray have kept faith with him a little longer. I forgot who the player was (mighta been Phillips), but I'm sure there's a story from the Roker days when Reid's stock was sky high whereby he threatened to quit if we didn't sign them. As good as he was that's the character of the bloke as well.

What else negative did he blame on someone else? The 15 point season? He was straight and to the point - we didn't have the money for the Premier League, and what little we did have Mick wasted. Everyone knas that. Him and Fickling put the club back on a solid financial grounding after the disaster of getting relegated with a Premier League squad and unfortunately there wasn't a lot left to work with. And McCarthy cannot manage in the Premier League. Sad but true. And that's what happened. The flack Murray (and even his wife FFS) got around that time was nothing short of disgusting to be honest, and a lot of so called supporters should really hang their heads in shame for that, so if Murray wants to tell a few home truths and give his side of the story like he has in this interview then fair play to him. I can't recall him ever being so candid about it in the years since he left, and I think it was a fair and honest reflection of what he did and didn't achieve here. I look forward to his book.
Click to expand...
Regarding Quinny let's not forget how much of a state the club was in when he took over. The mood was horrendous. Convinced crowds would have gone sub 20k if Murray had stayed and we were still saddled with a fair chunk of debt.

Quinny allowed us to dream again. It ultimately didnt work with short but I'm not sure he should be viewed negatively for selling to him.

As for saying the supporters treatment of Murray was disgusting; people were rightly pissed off at breaking the lowest point total for the 2nd time in about 3 years. It was embarrassing, it was painful to watch, and understandable a few vented their frustration IMO.
 
Class interview. New owners certainly have a very similar mind set.

I love how much he believes in treating people right, the importance of preparation (pre season) and also how vital infrastructure to enable players and the city to flourish.

He speaks with such passion.

He’s recognised nationally for his expertise yet he has clearly never lost sight of his background (and accent)
 
sick said:
I know 2 people who dealt with Bob Murray back in the day. One was in the council planning department and the other through business and both said that he's an absolute twat of a bloke.
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Perhaps he had to be to get the sol built eh? He didn't get a lot of help from anybody when he was planning the sol.
 
janey said:
He was responsible for building the SOL, and the AOL, that’s without mentioning the FOL for which he’s still patron and which helps lots and lots of young people, and has been widely acclaimed.
He gave us the best football in my memory.
He gave Peter Reid money and he bought Tor Andre Flo, and Lilian Lascandes (among others).
He sold to Niall Quinn when he could have sold to others for more financial benefit to himself.
Did he make mistakes, obviously, Howard Wilkinson, bloody hell.
But, I don’t doubt for one second that he only ever ever wanted what was best for our football club, and still does.
Click to expand...
Zactly
 
sksk3021 said:
The club wasn’t ready, what does that mean? Whose job is it to ensure the club is ready? Was appointing Mick Buxton a step to making us top flight ready? Malcolm Crosby who he ‘had’ to appoint?

If Reidy had lost the dressing room so badly and Murray could see him making mistakes what did he do about it, he cites the nunez signing that was 3 years before Reid left. What did he do in those three years to change things? Why did he allow him to spend so much on afloat for example.
The whole Hutchinson thing wasn’t mentioned at all iirc.

Murray calls Bain worse than shit for the goalkeeping situation last season but replacing Poom and Mhyre with Kelvin Davis is just passed over as it’s all we could do.
If McCarthy can’t manage in the premier league why did he let him?
He wasn’t watching on from a far for these things he was in charge!

Not sure how you can claim we were on solid financial footing either we were in £40m debt when he left and crippled financially.

Murray did a lot of good particularly around the infrastructure, you are maybe right he took too much stick. He clearly cares but I and many others felt he glossed over and apportioned blame for a lot of things he got wrong and there were a fair few. As well as a chunk of good stuff.
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Spot on. I’ve said it already about the 1990 promotion season and his statement that weren’t ready or set up for promotion, we’d been in the top 6 the majority of that season, even as high as 3rd so he’d have know there was a chance of going up so why wasn’t he planning ahead or getting ready for the potential of promotion? Was he hoping we didn’t actually go up?

Wardley Makem said:
Class interview. New owners certainly have a very similar mind set.

I love how much he believes in treating people right, the importance of preparation (pre season) and also how vital infrastructure to enable players and the city to flourish.

He speaks with such passion.

He’s recognised nationally for his expertise yet he has clearly never lost sight of his background (and accent)
Click to expand...
Alright Bob?
 
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Just listened to it, as i have been getting caught up with my podcast list, its a massive list, and to be honest he seems to hate short, and the CEO/Agent, it really interesting to hear, @Cack Stottie you lads are really doing well with these interviews are you planning on doing more interviews.
 
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CissesUnderpants19 said:
Just listened to it, as i have been getting caught up with my podcast list, its a massive list, and to be honest he seems to hate short, and the CEO/Agent, it really interesting to hear, @Cack Stottie you lads are really doing well with these interviews are you planning on doing more interviews.
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Yep. New one on today with Paul Reid and Kevin Ball, and we’ve got Alan Durban coming in on Saturday.

Got an incredibly divisive guest coming next week but he doesn’t want us to announce it til monday.

There are a tonne more before the year is out, our schedule is packed. Methven on in a few weeks, fulwell73, etc.
 
Cack Stottie said:
Yep. New one on today with Paul Reid and Kevin Ball, and we’ve got Alan Durban coming in on Saturday.

Got an incredibly divisive guest coming next week but he doesn’t want us to announce it til monday.

There are a tonne more before the year is out, our schedule is packed. Methven on in a few weeks, fulwell73, etc.
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Its not Short is it, i doubt i could listen to him, no dramas with whoever else comes along, as for the rest sounds interesting.
 
sksk3021 said:
The club wasn’t ready, what does that mean? Whose job is it to ensure the club is ready? Was appointing Mick Buxton a step to making us top flight ready? Malcolm Crosby who he ‘had’ to appoint?

If Reidy had lost the dressing room so badly and Murray could see him making mistakes what did he do about it, he cites the nunez signing that was 3 years before Reid left. What did he do in those three years to change things? Why did he allow him to spend so much on afloat for example.
The whole Hutchinson thing wasn’t mentioned at all iirc.

Murray calls Bain worse than shit for the goalkeeping situation last season but replacing Poom and Mhyre with Kelvin Davis is just passed over as it’s all we could do.
If McCarthy can’t manage in the premier league why did he let him?
He wasn’t watching on from a far for these things he was in charge!

Not sure how you can claim we were on solid financial footing either we were in £40m debt when he left and crippled financially.

Murray did a lot of good particularly around the infrastructure, you are maybe right he took too much stick. He clearly cares but I and many others felt he glossed over and apportioned blame for a lot of things he got wrong and there were a fair few. As well as a chunk of good stuff.
Click to expand...
Excellent post. I wonder why the interviewer never asked if John Hall offered to buy him out. There were rumours that Bob wouldn't sell and Hall took over at Newcastle.
 
North Yorks Mackem said:
Regarding Quinny let's not forget how much of a state the club was in when he took over. The mood was horrendous. Convinced crowds would have gone sub 20k if Murray had stayed and we were still saddled with a fair chunk of debt.

Quinny allowed us to dream again. It ultimately didnt work with short but I'm not sure he should be viewed negatively for selling to him.

As for saying the supporters treatment of Murray was disgusting; people were rightly pissed off at breaking the lowest point total for the 2nd time in about 3 years. It was embarrassing, it was painful to watch, and understandable a few vented their frustration IMO.
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How anybody can criticise Quinn is beyond belief.
 
0321safc said:
Was a fantastic podcast to listen too. Intrigued by the debate on this thread. For me, Sir Bob’s legacy is leaving SAFC with a huge potential, the academy of Light was a masterstroke. Interesting that he thinks the downfall of SAFC began with Reid losing the dressing room, he also singled out Flo as having a stinking attitude. Reid got a lot of signings wrong, given longer I would have liked the podcast to have probed more into the 95/96 promotion and Mick Buxton.
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Aye, disappointed that Butcher/Buxton seasons not discussed.

JonnotheMackem said:
This for me as well - I think it was very revealing and not in the way RR or Bob thought it would be. There's no doubt he left a tremendous legacy, probably better than most other chairmen in our history, but to have the record of that legacy being blatant lies regarding the bids made for players, throwing your best manager under the bus the way that he did - as if they weren't the best of friends while he was here - and insinuating that Wembley would never have been built without his input is all just very sad, to be honest.

It could have been an outstanding oral history of one of the most dramatic periods in our club's recent history, but he tried to turn it into a bit of a whitewash and it didn't come out well at all.
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Didnt know he built St George's Park mind.
 
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