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Sunderland Til I Die

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For anyone who saw the first series might like to know that Series 2 was released by Netflix today. It's a fascinating watch with Stewart Donald having just taken over. There's some staggering financial sums involved for a League 1 club.
 

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Keepitgreen":1h6msiif said:
For anyone who saw the first series might like to know that Series 2 was released by Netflix today. It's a fascinating watch with Stewart Donald having just taken over. There's some staggering financial sums involved for a League 1 club.

Yeah, really looking forward to watching this. I watched the first episode last night and it really does show how crazy the game has become in many ways. The shocking statistic that Sunderland's whole income from ticket sales was spent on simply paying the interest on outstanding loans! 7 million quid!

Also, when you see all the corporate stuff behind the scenes it does make you wonder how out of touch some of these people are. The contrast between the regular supporters who have been going for 30+ years with the suits in the boardroom is pretty stark. I wonder how many of those fans miss Roker Park and simpler times, instead of the over the top razzmatazz and sterile, empty atmosphere they seem to have now.
 

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So stuck at home I binged watched this...mainly to see if there was any coverage of our games ( spoiler alert...there is none)

The telling episode is when the Chairman basically gets told by Jack Ross not to spend more than 1.25 million on Will Grigg as that is all he is worth.....but Wigan keep knocking him back and back until he caves and spends 3 rising to 4 million on him at the last minute.....I wonder if at that time we had rung him and said Ladapo for two million if he would have bit :)

I thought to was interesting...they basically walked into a financial sh!t storm and had to slash everything to the ground....there was a fair bit of naievity on show, and the marketing bloke was a Jekyll and Hyde character....but he spoke the truth in the main but you could see the existing staff were not buying what he was selling....plus has anyone ever managed to be taken seriously stating "they need to see what good looks like" whilst wearing wine coloured cords?

At the end it was clear that they needed to sell again....and I suspect that was the play...go in, slash and burn , grab promotion and flog it on.....

Oh well...Plan B it is then :)
 

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It is excellent and showed how good League One was last season and nice to get a football fix.
The Exec Director loves himself and the limelight and there was no need for him to be foul-mouthed in small meetings with women present.

Spoiler ***** the complete lack of dressing room footage spoils it a little bit and Argyle are not in it at all but bizarrely there's a glimpse of a dug-out at Home Park!
 

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Watched episodes 2 and 3 last night and I have to admit my opinion on the owner changed a bit. You can tell he was exasperated by the monumental funds being wasted by the previous regime, and he does seem to 'get' what supporting a football club is all about. His comments on how the 80s and 90s (when he was on the terraces at Oxford) were a purer and generally more 'fun' time resonated.
 

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jespafc":28g1jm2t said:
Watched episodes 2 and 3 last night and I have to admit my opinion on the owner changed a bit. You can tell he was exasperated by the monumental funds being wasted by the previous regime, and he does seem to 'get' what supporting a football club is all about. His comments on how the 80s and 90s (when he was on the terraces at Oxford) were a purer and generally more 'fun' time resonated.
Have you watched the transfer deadline saga yet? :)
 

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Keepitgreen":2o7mj694 said:
jespafc":2o7mj694 said:
Watched episodes 2 and 3 last night and I have to admit my opinion on the owner changed a bit. You can tell he was exasperated by the monumental funds being wasted by the previous regime, and he does seem to 'get' what supporting a football club is all about. His comments on how the 80s and 90s (when he was on the terraces at Oxford) were a purer and generally more 'fun' time resonated.
Have you watched the transfer deadline saga yet? :)

Yeah! Just watched it last night - wow. Fascinating to see just how 'football manager' it can be! Poor guy seemed to be genuinely losing it in that last hour, and it makes you wonder what the Sunderland scouts are doing?? Surely that had known since Oct/Nov that their top striker would likely be off, yet they leave it to the last 5 mins to make a ridiculous panic buy!
 
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jespafc":1ab7bgsy said:
Keepitgreen":1ab7bgsy said:
jespafc":1ab7bgsy said:
Watched episodes 2 and 3 last night and I have to admit my opinion on the owner changed a bit. You can tell he was exasperated by the monumental funds being wasted by the previous regime, and he does seem to 'get' what supporting a football club is all about. His comments on how the 80s and 90s (when he was on the terraces at Oxford) were a purer and generally more 'fun' time resonated.
Have you watched the transfer deadline saga yet? :)

Yeah! Just watched it last night - wow. Fascinating to see just how 'football manager' it can be! Poor guy seemed to be genuinely losing it in that last hour, and it makes you wonder what the Sunderland scouts are doing?? Surely that had known since Oct/Nov that their top striker would likely be off, yet they leave it to the last 5 mins to make a ridiculous panic buy!
It always looked like Maja would reject the contract (It was well known his agent was trying to move him abroad). But Sunderland kept going back to him with increased offers. They thought he'd stay until late in December when they then decided to sell there and then.
 
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Just watched the transfer deadline episode.

It reminded me of that time following Argyle. Sunderland were linked with Ladapo and they bid something like £400,000 for him. We had debates on here about it and were divided on his worth. Sunderland seemed to accept our 'no' and move on to working out a deal for Will Grigg.

Ladapo eventually moves for £600,000 and is currently the joint 5th top scorer in League One. His many appearances off the bench make his 'minutes per goal' column very competitive. Meanwhile Grigg is now a League One bench player with 5 goals in 38 appearances.

Stuart James went with his gut feeling thinking Grigg might score a hat trick in the playoff final. Everyone around him, his advisors, his own football manager, told him not to bother bidding high for Grigg, he wasn't worth it. It is very interesting seeing the pressure on him building as his plans based on Josh Maja folds and crashes. But ultimately, a man with no football experience or judgement made the call on pouring £2 million pounds down the drain (if you were to accept that Grigg is worth £1 million). Also based on only receiving €1.5m for Maja, who he could have kept for the season.

The chairman went on the fans podcast and said that Grigg was Jack Ross's number one transfer target. It certainly didn't seem like it. He told James not to bid more than £1.25m and James ended up settling at £3m with add ons. His advisor was groaning in pain at overhearing him do it.

If Grigg scored the 10 goals in 16 games he planned to it might have worked out as good value, but talk about a transfer fee putting pressure on a new signing.

With the benefit of hindsight it was a financial and footballing catastrophe. I wonder with coronavirus how Sunderland's finances are looking now?
 

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I think you mean Stewart Donald, Knibbs. He's been trying to sell the club for a while as the fans want him gone.
 
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I watched the first series and it brings home the fact that money and large crowds do not guarantee success, look at Newcastle. There is something more that makes a club Champions. It simply has to be focus, determination and total concentration by very good players at all times. I think that is why only a few clubs can be considered Champions material. I know about Leicester and Blackburn, but that does not last long seeing where Blackburn are now. The Premiership is a closed shop and would simply ruin a club like Argyle.
 
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demportdave

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Knibbsworth":1jnwrunz said:
Just watched the transfer deadline episode.

It reminded me of that time following Argyle. Sunderland were linked with Ladapo and they bid something like £400,000 for him. We had debates on here about it and were divided on his worth. Sunderland seemed to accept our 'no' and move on to working out a deal for Will Grigg.

Ladapo eventually moves for £600,000 and is currently the joint 5th top scorer in League One. His many appearances off the bench make his 'minutes per goal' column very competitive. Meanwhile Grigg is now a League One bench player with 5 goals in 38 appearances.

Stuart James went with his gut feeling thinking Grigg might score a hat trick in the playoff final. Everyone around him, his advisors, his own football manager, told him not to bother bidding high for Grigg, he wasn't worth it. It is very interesting seeing the pressure on him building as his plans based on Josh Maja folds and crashes. But ultimately, a man with no football experience or judgement made the call on pouring £2 million pounds down the drain (if you were to accept that Grigg is worth £1 million). Also based on only receiving €1.5m for Maja, who he could have kept for the season.

The chairman went on the fans podcast and said that Grigg was Jack Ross's number one transfer target. It certainly didn't seem like it. He told James not to bid more than £1.25m and James ended up settling at £3m with add ons. His advisor was groaning in pain at overhearing him do it.

If Grigg scored the 10 goals in 16 games he planned to it might have worked out as good value, but talk about a transfer fee putting pressure on a new signing.

With the benefit of hindsight it was a financial and footballing catastrophe. I wonder with coronavirus how Sunderland's finances are looking now?
It’s all history now but the information I was given from a very-placed source at Argyle was that both Sunderland and Portsmouth inquired about Ladapo during the January transfer window but they were only looking to pay £150,000-£175,000 at most.

When he eventually went to Rotherham at the end of the season, the fee was more in the region of £450,000 after add-ons.

The Grigg transfer saga is so typical of Sunderland and goes a long way to explaining why a club with so much potential are such serial under-achievers.

He was badly out of touch and not playing at Wigan who were keen to off-load him. Sunderland end up spending 10 times more than they needed to on a player who has been a flop, whilst the player they could have had for a fraction of that big fee has been a success at the same level.

I used to quite like Sunderland but that changed after their gutless surrender at Southend and I was really pleased when they lost in the Play-offs. I hope they are still in League 1 when we get back.
 

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I see that chairman Stuart Donald has stood down saying the buck stops with him. He also said that the club will have the biggest budget in League 1 next season but yet he is still committed to selling the club. Should be interesting.
 

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I just watched the final episode of series 3 of this documentary, and I have to say it was very emotional watching those final scenes. I think it really captured the essence of what it means to follow your team through thick and thin, good and bad. The human connection, the depth of feeling we have for our club and the community it brings.