Bob Murray

Was on Total Sport last night talking about the failed ESL and the owners of SAFC. Starts just after 30 mins in

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09cy8vt

 

we owe that guy a lot for what he did here, thanks for the link mate will read with interest later

 

@Makemstine Roger No problem but you might have difficulty reading it since it was on the radio!

 

Spot on mate. His vision has given us what we have now....off the pitch! There are many PL clubs who would kill for what we have as a result of Bob Murray's legacy. He's a top man....and from Moorside,I'm very proud to say!

 

I think he still sponsors scholarships for Consett college, top man.

 

Thanks for the heads up on that, marra!

One thing that came over was the total disconnect between that type of chairman, who sees themselves as a custodian of the heart of a community and most of the modern day money is everything, the club works for me owners.

Sir Bob sounds like he would run through brick walls for KLD

I hope that, when Bob goes to the SOL as his guest, the chuckle brothers aren't told and turn up!

Can anyone shed more light on Sir Bob's comment re Ellis Short actively working against the Foundation of Light?

 

I heard the interview and he pulled no punches, and it must take a lot to upset him imo. I have always stuck up for Short and the Oxford boys, but it makes you wonder, as I can't see what any of them would gain by upsetting Bob, who is and always shall be a credit to himself and SAFC.

 

Bob Murray is a credit to this club. He was the sort of owner who had the club and community at heart. The legacy he has left is tremendous and if he thinks we have the right ownership now that will do for me.

 

Let's not rewrite history here folks. At best he's another failed owner. At worst, he had the opportunity to move us to the next level and didn't because of financial cramp over what turned out to be buttons in the grand scheme of things. There's a reason supporters protested in order to shift him.

Would I want him building a stadium? Yes.
Would I want him running the club? No.

 

Fair enough mate. I know where you are coming from. He maybe lacked the financial muscle? But he gave us the stadium and the platform that brings. For that reason he cant be a failed chairman in my book. Add to that the ride under Reid and we had some good times.

 

Massive difference between failure and greed

 

I think it was the promtion under MickMac that was the final straw for a lot of supporters. Ten million quid was a derisory amount to give him and we got exactly what we deserved for penny pinching. Prior to that the season where we were second going into Christmas was the time to gamble, we were on the crest of a wave and could have set ourselves up for decades in the PL with a shrewd spend.

I'll give him the stadium no bother, I'll even give him the Reid appointment (even though it was probably because he was cheap because he'd just been sacked by Man City) as big positives from his tenure, but against that, bloody hell, where do you start? Twenty years of desperately poor decisions and treating the support like idiots (John Feathersone as chairman anyone?)

Then he's got the cheek to have a dig at a bloke who ploughed the thick end of a quarter of a billion quid into the club despite having no initial connection to it and rescuing us from certain bankruptcy under Drumaville.

 

Best description yet at the end and sums it up.

His legacy is the stadium, the rest will always divide opinion

On the field Bob Murray oversaw two relegations when failing to support Dennis Smith in the early 90's and repeated the same mistake later with Mick McCarthy.

Appointed Howard Wilkinson, one of the worst decisions in the history of football, let alone Sunderland.

Along with Peter Reid, failed to build on what they had both earlier achieved. Our big last chance, to date. Reid argues he did not get enough money, others would say he was buying badly in the latter part of his regime end and had lost it. Take your pick. Either way it was Sir Bob who was supposed to be in charge.
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No disrespect but as supporter of over 60 years, Bob Murray will always be remembered as an honest trier with the best of interests of the Club at heart. But this looking back by him with rose coloured specs. is just sentimental nonsense. Our record since Bob Murray ran the Club is moderate, We were an underachieving "sleeping giant," which under him at the helm never really awoke apart from a few glorious years, with mismanagement at the end ironically greatly contributing to our later decline.

But back to the stadium and because he cared about the Club-a big thank you. As for the rest Sir Bob really you should have done much much better

 

Sir Bob's was at least an honest and well meaning failure with the club's best interests at heart.

I feel that if anything, his biggest problems were linked to fear of loading the club with debt coupled with some poor personal judgement linked perhaps to a lack of vision.

Eg, he was asked about what would have happened if he had been offered the ESL during his time in charge and he said it would never have happened because he wouldn't have entertained it. Someone with a bit more vision might have engaged with the what-if side of the question a bit more. Perhaps saying I would have looked at the proposals and tried my best to talk them out of relegation immunity to keep a proper link with the existing european league pyramid structures, a bit like was done when the Premier League was set up.

I don't know whatever happened between Sir Bob and Ellis Short but I'll hazard a guess. I think Bob was very enamoured with Drumaville having made him honorary club president for life and thought Short should have talked to him a bit more and asked for his advise about the running of the club - especially when you compare this with what he said about KLD reaching out to him.

Personally there are only two things I will always hold against Ellis Short. The first was appointing Moyes, then refusing to invest in the squad when we were relegated to the championship, which condemned us to League 1.

I love Sir Bob's wholehearted love for Sunderland and SAFC, but the stadium's name still grates a bit and I haven't forgotten how much the 19 and 15 point seasons hurt.

I'm hoping that KLD is a bit of a mixture of the best parts of Sir Bob, with a touch of Quinnies optimistic flair and Ellis Short's financial backing for the club.

Ha'way The Rebuild, OAU!

 

Well said marra, Bob's a top bloke and great to hear KLD has reached out and had a few long chats about the club and has arranged a meeting

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/spor...s-kyril-louis-dreyfus-set-for-meeting-3210525

@Makemstine Roger you can read the above if your advert filter doesn't block you

 

Was Bob a full time chairman overseeing the day to day running of the club or did he balance it with other business interests?

 

Do you really think that chairmen of football clubs have nothing else to do apart from that, choosing to ignore their 'other business interests' where they, presumably, made their money

What difference does it make ?
Do you just want some attention ?
If it's the latter you could just join in a bit instead of asking nonsensical questions. You never know (seriously) . . . . it might be good

 

You obviously haven't thought of the obvious genius. Dreyfus is with us full time so I wondered if Murray was, but congratulations on the sarcastic comment though, it was very clever son.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure what direct benefit having a full time owner is - after all, wasn't Donald a full timer too?

 

I've never felt more part of the club than when Bob Murray was the owner.
He was Sunderland and left a legacy.
Any mistakes are forgiven.
The man who doesn't make mistakes does fook all.
It's bad enough reading players who put a shift in getting slagged off but Murray put his money where his mouth was and was all for the club.
Anyone slagging him off is a prick in my book.
Rant over.