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This is why I’ll never be comfortable with the model


Roker Scoreboard said:
If you constantly sell your best players we won't get promoted. That's the reality of this 'model'
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Before this deal (assuming it goes through) which of our "best players" have been constantly sold?? Stewart was obviously our best player at the time but was injured and has only made two appearances as a sub since he was moved. The chances of him banging them in for Southampton the way he banged them in for us are remote. Who have we sold that would walk into the current squad?
hertsmackem said:
The fee mate it makes no sense! We must be desperate for cash there is no other reason to sell at this price. Anderson went from the skunks to Forest? For £35 mil !!!!
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Who knows what's a fair price? Anderson is 21 and had 44 PL appearances when sold. Clarke is 23 and has no PL experience. I don't know enough about Anderson to compare them but that might explain the price difference. Maybe multiple teams were bidding on Anderson but there was a limited demand for Clarke. None of us know.
 
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I get the model in the sense that I realise a big sale is needed every season to improve and sustain the club.

Even in the Premoer league, darlings like Brighton have been doing that. It means you don't have to auction off a whole squad.

The problem Is how it's been reinvested. And the fact there's no one even half ready to step up. And the fee is obviously too low.
 
sofatester said:
We've known it for 3 years. We know they want to be self sustainable and sign young talent for peanuts and sell them for a massive profit

So why are some of you shocked and angry ? Has it come as a surprise ? Wether you agree with it, believe in it, it doesn't really matter as non of us can do anything about it.

The biggest thing I take from selling a player for a massive profit is they must reinvest it in to the squad if it makes us stronger then fair enough

As for jack good luck to the kid he's been absolutely phenomenal in a red and white shirt and single handedly win us many many games.

We moved on we've still got a lot of incredible young talent in the squad. The best young talent most of us have seen in decades.

Let's be honest after the poor campaign last season most of us expected many more of our young talent to move on. The fact that the majority of them are still here means we still have e a good shot at promotion

Jack Clarke will never be replaced as he gives us so much as an attacking threat and there's no one out there who will make as much a difference as he does.

However these young lads are incredibly talented and adding a forward or 2 might just make us stronger. Only time will tell. Let's just see how the window pans out.

I'm still super excited to watch this young exciting energetic squad this season.
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Ditto. As galling as it is it has been this way ever since I first crawled under the turnstile into Roker Park at the fag end of the Bank of England Club days, the reality of our situation has never changed. So many almost times have come and gone, opportunities lost, hopes dashed, some good times, some bad. Maybe one day eh.
 
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If the club doesn't have the same ambitions as it's best players, then it's inevitable that they'll go on to better things whilst we as a club will stand still in the name of sustainability.

This board were willing to write half a season off because it was too costly to get a head coach of ant real worth along with a striker that was proven to score goals.

I guess looking back, we were lucky that they decided not to sell Clarke last summer due to getting the Stewart money or else we would have easily been playing League One football this season.
 
You’re not comfortable with increasing the value and quality of the squad as a whole, that when we do eventually get promoted have a fighting chance of not being cannon fodder?

I’m comfortable with trying it this way
 
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seedysafc said:
It works if you sell for real fees and improve your recruitment year on year. Unfortunately we've accepted a pathetic fee and will end up with 3 or 4 like Ba/Rusyn/Hemir/Hjelde
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Aye, that’s the worry like!

If I was sure they’d replace class, with class I’d be comfortable with it, but it’s leaving a very sour taste. The fee is shite, as is my faith in what they’ll do with the cash.

Every time we all start feeling positive and are happy with the direction we’re heading, they do something like this. A proper kick in the clems.

Sack the board.
 
If he wouldnt sign a contract then the club have done the right thing in selling him. Im as disappointed as anyone but we cant afford to let players run down their contracts. We would be fucked in a matter of years and all the effort we put into developing young players would be wasted. Its not the model as such, but rather the reality of how ownership in football works.
 
Bargain for Ipswich, they knew their customer in the SAFC board... rather than panic about not signing Clarke with their lowball offer, they knew a self-imposed pressure from our board on themselves, and played on them worrying about missing out on a fee.

It's far too low a price..it is a lacking in self-respect as a club, and shows that for all the talk of the model and it's principals, a few quid is paramount to these guys. There'll be executives in the club knowing there was a bit off the top in their bonus payments from this deal, and better that then missing out all together. (Call me cynical...)
 
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Have we accepted Ipswich offer? Have either club confirmed it? Indeed has either club said anything about it? Until it’s announced officially, he’s still our player.
 
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sofatester said:
We've known it for 3 years. We know they want to be self sustainable and sign young talent for peanuts and sell them for a massive profit

So why are some of you shocked and angry ? Has it come as a surprise ? Wether you agree with it, believe in it, it doesn't really matter as non of us can do anything about it.

The biggest thing I take from selling a player for a massive profit is they must reinvest it in to the squad if it makes us stronger then fair enough

As for jack good luck to the kid he's been absolutely phenomenal in a red and white shirt and single handedly win us many many games.

We moved on we've still got a lot of incredible young talent in the squad. The best young talent most of us have seen in decades.

Let's be honest after the poor campaign last season most of us expected many more of our young talent to move on. The fact that the majority of them are still here means we still have e a good shot at promotion

Jack Clarke will never be replaced as he gives us so much as an attacking threat and there's no one out there who will make as much a difference as he does.

However these young lads are incredibly talented and adding a forward or 2 might just make us stronger. Only time will tell. Let's just see how the window pans out.

I'm still super excited to watch this young exciting energetic squad this season.
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Great post this, I have to admit, I would have been happier if this announcement had come Monday. After the Burnley game. Am sure Regis is thinking the same after what he said in yesterday’s press conference. It surely must affect the players , all week they will have been preparing for what will probably be the toughest game of the season with Clarke . Let’s just sayI will be even more nervous than normal at 3.00pm tommorow.
 
As You Were said:
People will point out after years of Jack Rodwell style signings it’s nice to see us making profits on players. First Stewart now Clarke. 2 out of 3 seasons now we have sold our best player. It might look good on the books and be financially good for the club but is this what you really want Sunderland football club to be? A club that sells its best players to clubs half our size. I was gutted when stewart left and i’m gutted clarke is leaving.

If KLD was owner when kevin phillips was here he would have flogged him after his first good season for profit.

Nice to make profit but better to build a team around our best players and keep them and let fans build connection with the players like quinn and phillips etc.

How well we spend the money i guess will tell us just how good the model is.
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No he wouldn't. He'd have sold him after he scored 30 in the premier league. That's when optimal time was. Who knows of that would have been better than what happened afterwards
 
The Hesk said:
Couldn’t have put it better myself. If any Sunderland fan honestly thought Jack Clarke was staying in the championship this season were sadly mistaken he was always going to move on to bigger and better. Probably tripled his wages in the process. Its football players come and go. Chance now to hopefully invest in some of the money and sign 3-4 players to make us a overall better team/squad
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Like we did with the Stewart money.
 
The Beautiful Game said:
Your last sentence sums it up. This is football now. Its not a Sunderland thing.

There’s plenty of teams in the prem who are there off the back of selling their best players. All on the board to use the money wisely now.
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Agreed, Brentford sold Watkins to villa, Brighton constantly flog their best players for profit and they are very well ran prem clubs. Especially Brighton who keep finding class players.

It’s shite Clarke is leaving and i genuinely believe we could have commanded a higher fee for him but if he has told them he wants away then it may be for the best as no one wants an unhappy player around. We’ll just have to hope the money is reinvested to make us stronger. I am gutted that he is leaving however because with him i genuinely believed top 6/promotion was possible.
 
HebburnMackem said:
f***ing hell what? It's just simple fact. Out team is weaker than last season and we spent the last half of it sinking like a stone.
There's no bed wetting. It's just plain and simple.
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I hate to break it to you, but our form is actually decent over our past ten games. We are 4W, 2D, 4L which would equate to a 64pt season, and we've kept six clean sheets. We coughed five goals to Blackburn but conceded only four in the other nine matches. Clarke played in nine of those games and only scored one of our 10 goals. We'll be fine. Disappointed to lose him but we will adjust.
 
Mallard said:
I am all for anything that means we don’t spend multiple seasons in league one. Yes nights like this hurt. But those seasons in league one were much darker days at the club than the day Jack Clarke leaves
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I take your point but apart from the team we are a premier league club in every other way. Not being in league 1 isn’t success. It was scandalous that we ended up in league 1.
 
In the grand scheme of things, 30 million quid for Clarke and Stewart having paid less than 2 million quid is absolutely cracking work.

I just can't understand the timing of the Clarke one. Pretty much the day before a game. And we could have easily gotten more for Clarke.
 
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