Sunderland 'Til I Die II

Why the **** didn't we let Maja run down his contract and play on...

 

Because Donald wanted the coin, no matter how much it was. When you watch back and see the quality Maja had its soul destroying, his ability to turn his man and fire a shot away quickly was a different level in that league. Huge miss.

 

So short sighted. Bringing in 1m euros for arguably a top flight player who's banging them in to pay 3 or 4 times that for an absolute journeyman that no one seems to rate particularly highly prior to him coming.

Madness.

 

Just seen episode 2 and a few things strike me.

Methven seems a bit like David Brent from "The Office" uses all the cliches and buzz words and basically says at the fans "talk in" what the fans wanted to hear... I looked at the staff faces at the first meeting when he was at the flip chart and they were all thinking W anker

Donald was like a rabbit in the headlights when he was discussing Maja, thats when he needed to grow a pair and meet with the lad directly instead of letting him talk with what is primarily a yes man. That said, looking at Maja's body language the decision was already made and he was grinning into the camera that made me want to kick the telly.

 

Watched the first 4 episodes before bed last night...

• The lass who got sacked was symbolic of years of endemic, insipid and accepted failure, I think that Methven dealt with her fairly
• He's doing (so far) exactly what he did with us, which is to come in and sound entirely reasonable and like he's just drilling in some home truths that people need to hear. In context of what we know now, it's hard to escape the feeling that there's only so long you can do that
• Donald and Grigg is bizarre, just an outright failure. I'd have loved to have seen more financial chat about the impact of it.
• The Maja saga doesn't seem well covered. I thought it was telling that they left out the fact that Donald waged a public war against his agent, and in the doc, he and Hill had a conversation about how important getting the agent onside would be. It's presented as if there was no choice and Maja made the decision, which is patently bollocks.
• You can understand Jack Ross feeling a little vindicated by all of this. We had a good chance to get promoted and then all of the above happened.

 

How many episodes did they show yesterday?

 

All of them! I binge watched the whole series, with a brief pause to make a bacon sarnie in the middle.

 

Yeah they airbrushed out the main Maja stance. Trying to force a decision.

If he’d have been forced to stay he’d have continued to perform, he didn’t stop banging them in, I’m sure we were told £4millikn but for £1.5million, scandal.

I hear why you say about Ross but Methven nailed it ‘we defend every game for 90 mins’, we didn’t up to Christmas then Ross dropped his arse.

It was mad watching all in one I genuinely don’t think the magnitude of the blowing it after Wembley had been that clear to me. We ****ed it totally.

 

Sorry Smithy but a decision had to be made.

Maja was always leaving as evidenced by his shady responses and nervous fidgeting. If we'd denied him the move how effective would he have been? No one can answer that question, but history would lead us to believe that he wouldn't have performed as well based on other players who's heads had been turned. Whether it was Bordeaux or anywhere else he was off as his agent saw the opportunity for a fee.

I've just finished watching the whole series and i have to say that it far from paints SD and CM in a bad light. If anything it shows how committed, passionate and determined they have been to turn us around.

Just as an aside, Maja was injured for the majority of the 2nd half of the season at Bordeaux. If that had happened whilst he was with us people would have been saying that we should have sold him when we could. Remember Kone?

 

I hope to got we have a sell on clause with Maja mind.

 

thought we didn't get a fee for Maja just squitted the debt we owed them for Khazri

 

I think it was a combination of both.

Oh, @Nads , I believe that we do

 

I think part of it that we didn't have the amount of bell end players that we had in the first series

 

Episode 4 notes:

Donald says we got 1.5m Euros for Maja but that it's worth nothing compared to promotion. Why not keep him then and lose him for nothing after promotion was gained? I wonder if he'd change that decision if he could do it again.

He also said that he was told this was going to happen, so it begs the question as to why we didn't have a contingency plan in place.

Doncaster asking for £10m for Marquis!!

"One last offer for Grigg, take it or leave it, £1.25m."

Jack Ross stating that Grigg wasn't worth £1.25m. Sounded like he was prepared to finish the season without a replacement so he couldn't really have any complaints if he'd lost his job for not hitting his target.

Donald completely panicked with the signing but in a way I respect his decision. Richard Hill is arguing that he's not worth it which is true, but there was no suggestion of a better plan of action. He was completely useless. Donald gambled and if it paid off, the fans would have loved him for it. He made a decision with his heart rather than his head. It didn't pay off, but I respect him for putting his own money and neck on the line to try.

There's a poor Sunderland fan in the crowd who looks a bit like Mike Ashley - must get a load of stick from his mates.

The change in relationship between Roker Rapport and the board was completely noticeable during the questioning of the Grigg decision.

A lot going on in this episode which is no surprise really as the decisions made in January 19 has shaped the whole of Donald's ownership.

 

I've just finished watching it....really was like watching the last breath of a loved one. Seeing the anticipation of the fans before both Wembley finals only to lose in the way we did was a kick in the nuts. My feeling on Donald has changed a bit, in as much he saw a chance to make a few quid.....quick...then sell the club on as and when we were promoted. The look of despair after the Charlton game was the look of a man who just said cheerio to a nice pay day. The Grigg fiasco was farcical and an utter embarrassment to the club

 

I can guarantee he'd have downed tools and spat his dummy out.

 

I was disappointed that there was no footage of the 8000 fans at Blackpool.

 

Maja had no intention of staying once he started banging the goals in. There's been a lot of ifs and buts since we sold him but it's always a dangerous game when a team relies on one player to carry them. We were at best average in the second half of the season but we bottled Wembley twice. CM had Jack Ross sussed, so to not sack him after the Play offs was nothing short of criminal

 

Unseen clip.

 

Episode 5 Notes:

Donald talking about being financially out of his depth within a month of blowing his load on Grigg.

4-0 against the mags. Forgot that we hammered them again.

Will Grigg again mentioning that he thrives on a big crowd. He must mean over 100,000.

Chris Waters - the man in the room who first suggested the infamous "phase 3".

The players getting a heroes welcome into London on the checkatrade final was brilliant. I wish they'd showed a little more of the fans at Covent Garden.

Ellis Short sat behind Charlie at the final wanting to see us win.

Stewart Donald sat with his sons, got them both suited up and in red and white ties and they are kicking every ball.

Methven fuming at Ross. Openly criticises him.