Beleaguered Sunderland put up for sale — for less than Arsenal spent on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Owner Ellis Short just wants out now and will take £50m to be rid of North-East giants staring at back-to-back relegations BySimon Bird 22:30, 19 FEB 2018 SPORT Coleman's battle on Wearside is a far cry from taking Wales to the Euro 2016 semis (Image: Sunday Sun) Get Football updates directly to your inbox Enter your email + Subscribe Crisis club Sunderland are up for sale for £50million. Manager Chris Coleman admitted on Monday that owner Ellis Short has fallen out of love with football, and appealed for a new tycoon to take charge. Years of bad decisions and poor form on the pitch has left the Wearsiders facing consecutive relegations. MirrorSport has been told that at one point, while they were in the Premier League, Sunderland were GIVING AWAY 9,000 tickets per game. Current MD Martin Bain has scrapped that drain on income, but he also inherited several bad deals, a huge wage bill and spent 18 months cleaning it all up ready for a sale. US-based billionaire Short wants out and has effectively handed over the keys to Bain. Lee Cattermole and co face tumbling straight through the Championship to League One (Image: Sunderland AFC via Getty) A source said: “The club has very good infrastructure and nothing hiding under the bonnet now. The club needs a buyer.” That £50m pricetag is less than Arsenal spent on a single player last month — £56m striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Bain became the “frontman” for crowd abuse during the weekend defeat by Brentford, but has had to slash Short’s subsidy, which at one point ran at £25m a year, and has little leeway to invest in players. Sunderland now have a £35m wage bill and have another season with a £35m parachute payment from the Premier League. One interested German buyer failed to prove that they were serious, but the hunt is one for another. Short's lost heart after season upon season of struggle for Sunderland (Image: Getty) Coleman said: “Ellis wants to sell the club. (The fans) recognise that maybe he doesn’t... his love for the club was maybe yesterday. “Until we get someone that wants to turn a corner and love it, and care for it, and look after it.... hence the negativity. We know the anger and frustration. We take it on the chin until we get a new owner. “Martin Bain is very much the man who has been pushed out in front, and he accepted responsibility. He is a big boy and can handle it. People vent their anger somewhere, and Martin is the frontman for that. For me, 15 years a manager, I have not worked for a better chief exec. “We understand that people will vent their anger. Our supporters need people here who care about the club as much as them.” Cattermole reveals the true emotional toll of repeated relegation scraps which have left him 'in tears' Sunderland face Bolton on Tuesday night, before a derby against Middlesbrough on Saturday. Coleman said: “We are hurting and suffering. You either rise to it or duck it. People have billed this week as do or die for us. “Do other teams have more fight than Sunderland? Over 90 minutes, yes. I can’t get over not competing, not fighting. That keeps me awake at night. “I understand the fear factor at the Stadium of Light and we are on the back of three or four years of negativity. Who could blame our fans for feeling like they do? You couldn’t. “You can’t wish it to happen. You have to make it happen. We have been booed off more times than I can remember. What is the worst that can happen to us now? Let’s go for it.” Written by that Mirror mag rag like so pinch of salt on every detail
Let’s pray this is true cos even in the sorry state we are in that’s going to attract interest. We aren’t a million miles away from that in assets, if it’s a third of his previous ask, then maybe, just maybe someone rides in and ends this ****ing nightmare.
Trouble is even if the club sells for 50 mill,whats the betting they then have to pay another 100 mill or so back to Short to cover so called loans to the club,then there's the 60 mill that needs to be paid to the Guggenheim bank by next year. We don't pay that then they have the stadium to do what they want with
That's bad. Really bad; essentially it means Short wants to eat his cake and still have it. If this can happen to a club of your size and fan base then I fear for the future of English football.
If I win the euros tonight I will buy the club lads, and spend £30m in the summer whether we stay up or not. I will get the money in from concerts and sponsors and take us to greater things, I am not drunk by the way. You will all get free season cards for being great 606's.
Its been happening to big clubs ie Portsmouth who for their size have s great fan base and Leeds who also have good crowds so why can't it happen to us? Football had been on a slippery slope for years and people confuse the huge input of TV money as being helpful to the sport when in fact its killing it. The big clubs get bigger, look at most of the league tables throughout Europe and the team leading are miles ahead of the rest. I fear for where we will end up but feel our situation could be replicated in many other clubs in the near future. Get a poor owner and this is what happens.
Let's hope that this sparks some interest from a major suitor. You won't often get a club of our size with our stadium, training academy, history and potential for that price!
Problem is that he's set the price in the championship with us heading down. People will wait till relegation and offer less or offer less now and be knocked back
That's alomg the lines I fear as Short has made a lot of loans to his own companies and 2019 seems to be a marker for the loans to be repais. I think his successful asset stripping venture capitalist mindset will ensure he comes out of this alright I hope I'm way off the mark here but I wonder if assets like Stadium Park and the Academy are included in these loans Marcus mentioned in an earlier post about a listing in Companiess House which looked incredibly dodgy for us. I recall Coventry owned by a venture capitalist lost their ground and had to play in Northampton through similar type loans.
@richard_conway Exclusive: Sunderland owner Ellis Short prepared to give club away for FREE - so long as any new owner takes on substantial debts. More @BBCSport @bbc5live
Owner Ellis Short is prepared to give Sunderland away for free if a buyer can be found to take on the Championship club's substantial debt. Short has said he is open to offers for the relegation-threatened club, but has failed to find a buyer. Reports had said the American would accept £50m for his shares. But he is now ready to sell for nothing as long as any new owner takes on debts which stood, according to the last published figures in 2016, at £137.3m. It marks a stunning fall in value with Short believed to have set an asking price of £170m as recently as late 2016, when the club was still in the Premier League. Sunderland are club in crisis - Short Around half of the debt, £69m, is owed to the London-based businessman personally and it is thought the billionaire may forego some or all of that figure as part of any deal. The balance of £68m is owed to Security Bank Corporation, which is owned by Guggenheim Partners, while interest payments are currently running at approximately £8m a year. Fresh club accounts are due to be filed in April and the gross debt may have been potentially reduced further in the intervening months, since the last set of figures. It is believed Short - together with Sunderland's American-based board member Per Magnus Anderson - have held talks with several prospective buyers in recent months. Discussions are believed to be continuing but no solid agreement for a sale has yet been reached. He hired an adviser last year to process a takeover of the club, but decided to remain in June as he was unhappy with the potential deal with a German consortium. Sunderland are bottom of the table and winless in five games, with Chris Coleman's team facing the prospect of starting next season in League One. Speaking in November, Short, who took a controlling interest in Sunderland in 2008, said: "I may or may not sell the club in the future, that's not completely out of my control, but mostly it is out of my control. "As long as I own it I'm going to be focused on what is good for the club, and the immediate focus is getting out of the situation we're in now." A spokesman for Sunderland declined to comment.
They say that nothing in life is free. Even we can’t be considered free when any new owner still has to give Rodwell £5m. Or maybe we market it as “ fit again, apparently England standard footballer - only £5m - buy this February and get a free football club”
