The pull of the NE ...

I'd love to believe it mate but the NE doesn't even attract that many people who aren't football players.

Most of the people I meet, when I'm up, are local.

And, in all seriousness, the antics of the TOOOOON Army can't be too attractive to foreign players of various religions.

All this dressing up and Messiahs, Bobby's ghost, Cathedral on the hill, etc, must seem very weird and parochial.

Are there any other clubs with such a massive litany of sheer stupidity.

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Agreed. they are a different breed

 

I understand that in Africa big backsides on a lady are attractive to men. I’m in the metro centre at the moment , and I’m thinking they’ll get the African players to come no problem

 

Sadly I have to admit you are right.

The attractions of the Region, well covered on this thread, are not something that is likely to appeal to many Prem Footballers.
Wonderfull beaches. True.
But with the North Sea to swim in.
The glorious moors. True.
But it can get cold and wet out there. Often.

As an area we find it impossible to hang on to many of our most talanted localy born and bred, people.

Even UK born Players are likely to look to the south of the Durham Cumbria line.'

But no doubt some of the 'top players' will come FOR THE RIGHT MONEY.
But even many of those will want to play Champions League.
But to qualify, Top Players will be needed.
It's all a bit 'chicken and egg'.
I THINK that it might take rather longer than many of our Friends to the North expect before they are winning European Cups.

 

Our summer signings have shown that we can attract good young talent with the right kind of attitude.

It's incredible what the club have achieved tbh.

Hopefully the likes of Hoffman, Broadhead, Cirkin, etc, will put the word out that Sunderland is a club with proper facilities, structure, philosophy, etc.

And other clubs will receive good reports, and see progress, from the players they loan us

Thankfully, and hopefully, the days of 32 year old washed out 'top level' mercenaries is over at Sunderland.

 

They could probably attract some decent Germans and the East European players arent bad either. Cannot ever see the top players like Neymar ( I despise that c*nt) or MBappe etc but it would be a fairly good start for them. Maybe not the title or CL but potentially a cup.

Obviously hope I am 100% wrong and the new owners just f*ck off and leave them high n dry.

 

Speaking as somebody who has never lived north of Birmingham, the main issue for the North East is purely just how fecking far it is. Unless you have a reason to go, people just won't. And if they want to drive for 5-6 hours within the UK they can either drive south west to Cornwall, north west to the Lake District, south east to France. And if they really want go up north for some beauty they go to Scotland.

The issue frankly is the north east doesn't really have a well known selling point other than great people. When people do go to the north east they quickly learn that its a stunning place with some of the best coastline and best countryside anywhere in the world. But most people have no reason to go north east. And those that do just picture Byker Grove and coal mines and dilapidation.

In terms of attracting footballers, well we know that money talks. For the right money 95% of players would make the move. And players that have been there and experienced it and loved it are more likely to stay (like McGeady). But attracting players who have similar offers closer to home are always going to be harder to attract.

It's why I 100% think we should be putting a lot of investment into Scottish and Scandinavian markets. Just pure geography.

 

Do you need to live in the north east? I wonder whether you can just have a fleet of helicopters to transfer your superstars to and from London or Manchester as needed. Penthouse suite in a hotel in Newcastle for the odd stop over.

 

People say, oh but it's only 2 hours to London on the train, it's not.

It's a clart on getting to the station, etc so it's 3 hours if it's not cancelled or delayed ...

... and you have to mix with the public

 

The North East has beautiful countryside and beaches, it doesn't have the pull of shops etc that Manchester and London have.

Most decent players want the trappings that come with success and Unfortunatley thr North East doesn't have it. Bizarrely if you pay enough they will come, look at the players that went to China etc Purley for cash

 

I have a family member that married into ours, from that London. They were unsure of where sunderland was and it was like. She came up and fell in love with the place. Said about how there was a bit of everything here. Now has the seafront as a view from the window, something that they once had to trunk to Brighton if they wanted a bit sea air.Also "could never go back and live down there". defends the North to the hilt and won't have a bad word said about the place.

 

Wearwolves there aswell.

 

Brian clough knew what it is like up here, Len shackleton knew, Raich carter a full time fireman. At this moment in time i like Ross stewart, geeds, Flannagan who do care for us money is the root of all evil remember that !

 

Best place in the world imo. But tell no-one they'll all want to be here.

 

Same goes for me mate, I'm not criticising the NE, I love it.

It's simply that, whereas it's great for most of us, top players and their partners don't want what we want.

 

I've sort of been in the position footballers and mgrs find themselves in when deciding whether to move or not. I think the key difference for them is obviously the money, and their contracts are short, so any move is temporary. For a single lad I think location makes hardly any difference at all, but those who are married or have long term partners then I can understand why they don't find the NE attractive if they are used to large city life. Especially if they are from outside the country, where in my experience next to no one I've met knows anything about the NE. They all know London, Manchester and some Birmingham and a few Leeds, next to no one knows Newcastle and a fraction have heard of Sunderland :-(

I'm lucky that my career has taken me to quite a few different countries and I've been asked to relocate on a few occasions. The only time I've been tempted to move from the NE was when Microsoft were interested in me joining them (oooh, look at me), but it would mean we would have to relocate to Boston in the USA. If we moved, and an emergency happened back in the NE with elderly parents I could be home within 24hrs as flights from Boston to UK are daily.

I was very tempted and the only reason I didn't take it up was that I would be busy with work whilst my wife would have to try and make new friends, find a job and all that stuff on her own in a new country. That's not easy with a young family, especially when your husband is going to be working / travelling during the week.

If the location had been somewhere away from Boston or one of the other major east coast cities it wouldn't have been of interest at all, your family / friends are no longer 1 flight away, it's 2 or even 3. You can become very isolated as a family and it will put strain on your relationships.

 

I'm sure the north east has a certain amount to offer the average to fairly wealthy family or young professional but I'm not sure it has the same allure for the mega rich.

Birds of a feather flock together. We don't exactly have much of an "it" crowd social scene up there. Geordie shore doesn't quite cut it.

Not a criticism of the place. More a criticism of their vacuous tastes.

 

I didn't think you were criticising it mate. Just saying it's a hidden gem that's too far away from London for players and wives. However, some command and get London money to live up here, in reality they're quids in.

 

I love the place mate, all of it.

Me and Mrs Smug once spent Christmas on Holy Island, brilliantly wild and windswept.

We walked from Seahouses to Bamburgh Castle along the beach on Christmas morning, it was amazing how many smiling friendly people were there.

I don't remember ever being colder

We went to the match, against Leeds at the SOL, which I thought would be 'round the corner' ...

... in reality it was a 3 hour round trip.

And that's part of the problem for 'visitors', loads of great stuff but really strung out.

 

Wasn't there some discussion a while back, when we were in the PL, around Sunderland buying some land in or around London and building training facilities there, meaning the first team could live near all the fancy shops they're so desperate for and then commute to the SOL for home games. It's not a long flight and the u23s could continue at the academy.

At the time, I thought it seemed like a reasonable solution to attracting players. Thinking about it now though, I wonder if it would just prolong the cycle of attracting mercenaries that we're hopefully moving away from under KLD.