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Speakman gone


The Cabbage said:
I’m not a massive fan of him as a person like. No real rhyme or reason around it but he’s far too involved with the first team for my liking. Team bus every match and high fives outside the changing room shouldn’t be his job. Absolutely cannot argue with the signings in the summer (aside from one or two) but FG has a massive amount to prove when it comes to academy focus and hg players - that we will 100% need to nail if we want to have continued PL success.
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Bizarre take like. The whole club is “this is Sunderland” and the words “connected” and he’s showing along with RLB and KLD he is. You’d much rather have a director of football be involved with the first team and having that type of connection then sitting in a board room or being in a different country.

He’s the next target cos people don’t like the way he talks or interacts with players.

High fiving players and talking to them, embracing them probably isn’t in his job description, but it probably does mean he understands what the squad needs, it helps new signings feel welcomed, what the head coach needs in terms of facilities, structure and players.
 
Black_Cats1879 said:
Tbh I’ve been thinking that privately. What’s the difference between a sporting director and a director of football?? In any case I’ll always have fond memories of speakman. His vision got us Reg, wembo and many of the lads we all love
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Presumably the DoF is in charge of footy while sporting director is in charge of all the other sports. Now that Hjelde’s gone we don’t need someone to oversee the ping pong and Padel side of the club.
 
GipettoCuda said:
Remain to be convinced?!! Hahaha
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If your not convinced by the summer transfers then I don’t know what it would take 🤣 was hoping there would be room for both as there are many aspects to a football club last just transfers it seem speakman had his fingers on here during his time. Reads like the club have decided to move on without him. Thanks speakman been critical at times but you can’t argue with what he did here.
 
Another brutal decision by the club but as sad as it is to see all these people who have contributed to recent success go, it is really encouraging that KLD obviously isn't going to show any sentiment and has big aspirations for the club.
 
GipettoCuda said:
Remain to be convinced?!! Hahaha
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I think it's fair. We need to see how Angulo, Ta Bi and this summer goes first.

Obviously last summer was sensational, but if we have an poor summer this year - which we might not know until deep into the season - then that'll be one hit summer and one miss. There's no guarantee he'll pull out a summer every year like he did summer 2025

We'll have a better idea how consistent he is in about a year's time
 
Fifemackem said:
It feels like Speakmans job since the summer was to trim the squad of the talent that was not going to continue the journey with the club into the premiership. It feels that job was pretty well complete in the Jan transfer window. I do think the Adingra could well have been an almost hangover recruitment from Speakman that has only affirmed KLD's decision to move forward without him.
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Could be a good point, we were heavily linked with Adingra in the championship, including apparently asking to swap Tommy Watson for him.
 
Good Teeth Keith said:
Sounds like he was there to get us some decent lower league signings, whereas now we’re looking at decent European ones he’s out of his zone
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Bit harsh on Jewison Bennette and Nazri Rusyn there like, where would we be without the triple pirouette and the injured pubic bone all stars?
 
Guinness Guzzler said:
Just wouldn't totally surprise me. They seem pretty ruthless in terms of knowing what people's ceiling is and improving. Roberts, Neil and Patterson haven't done anything wrong, but were seen as players with championship ceiling so they're straight out (or not used) with no sentiment. Speakman has been outstanding in his role and we've improved dramatically, but they obviously think for PL progression they need someone else so out he goes.

No reason to think they'll be any more sentimental about the head coach. Maybe they'll see the great work he's done and want him to continue (which most would support). Or maybe they saw him as the best man to get us up, gel the side together and set us up tactically to be hard to beat, which was seen as the best way to survive in this league. But the next step might not need the same, he might not be seen as having the proven ability to take that next step, and we'd now have a much wider pool of head coaches to choose from.

Not saying he should be under any pressure at all. For me he shouldn't. But if we look at how they've operated clinically, without sentiment, bordering on ruthless, it wouldn't be a huge shock.
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Very good post (which is a rarity on here😄)

For us to improve next season the shackles will have to come off and as I see that’s not how RLB operates.

Will be interesting and really hope he adapts as tactically he is brilliant so far.
 
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