Well said marra, if we get promotion I'd be happy for him to stay so long as he keeps away from the microphone
If it happens it happens, but I for one would not be celebrating until I know more about their intentions..They will not be buying us out of love that's for sure..
I doubt we'll celebrate anyone's intentions mate, we've heard them all before ... ... we can only really celebrate achievement, the first of which would be promotion. Having said that, being taken over by wealthy people would be a good start.
I always live in hope, but always wary of foreign investors, particularly American ones who do not have the best record with football clubs.
I'd be happy for him to stay as well, but I don't think he is capable of running the club, he'd need a director of football or similar and he'd have to give him free reign (even if it meant the bloke wanted his mates sacked). If we can get a rich consortium like FPP with serious business people behind it though, I'd hope Donald would step aside, he doesn't have the finances to push us forward like they could and he doesn't have the footballing intelligence to run the club for them. There's plenty worse owners than him though, that Mark Campbell sounds like a bullet dodged for a start
If SD can stay quiet I'll be happy. He's done as much as he can here and no amount of flannel can change that. Personally I hope FPP can take over and continue to steadily improve the club.
I honestly dont believe he has any redeeming features or qualities to run an organisation of safc's size, history or culture. Anybody believing his ambitions were for other than financial gain must believe in the tooth fairy. He has no past affiliation/connection whatsoever and by football owner standards he is as poor as a church mouse. His 'jumpers for goalposts' football expert hill is manifestly incapable and unfit to hold the position he has held in terms of his so called football expertise. The sooner all ties are cut with this man and his hangers on, the better
I agree with a lot of your post but I don't think financial gain was his sole ambition. If all he cared about was money he wouldn't have bought Eastleigh, a club at a level where pretty much every owner loses money. I think he enjoys being a football club owner, and if that's what you like, I'd expect that the chance to do it at a club the size of Sunderland, that normally you'd never be able to afford, would be appealing even aside from the potential financial upside. Of course he'll have known that if he gets it right he'd make a lot of money, but that won't have been his only consideration. People like him are generally ambitious, confident and risk taking. He'll have thought that he could do it and enjoy the football and the eventual financial windfall because he likely has a hugely overinflated opinion of his, and his cronies, abilities
I have to be honest, I'll take whoever we get and hope for the best. We're not going to get a local owner with football knowledge, they just don't exist. It's a minefield for owners and supporters. Ashley is one of the best owners, in certain ways, but is despised.
When all this started I had two direct links to the FPP lads including a personal friend and someone using the same 'accountants'. I 'lost' the first and the second is back home in Switzerland having concluded his business deal in the States. However, during the time I was posting info from them I was contacted by all kinds of people who obviously had vested interests. I was also warned with legal action, for posting certain things, but that's a different matter. One of these people is a financial journalist who isn't directly connected to either the buyers or sellers but knows someone acting on behalf of the buyers. Another is someone who stands to make a substantial sum, by his standards, if FPP become the new owners. He's obviously keen for that to happen so gets a bit excited as we all do. So I've lost two great sources that, in fairness, fell into my lap by chance, but still have someone to go to whereby I can confirm whether FPP have baled out on the idea of a takeover or not. The latest news I've had, and I know I'm repeating myself, is that their stance hasn't altered since September. I know this post will be met with claims of bullshit, etc, by the usual suspects, but I'm posting for people who know me, or trust me or even both, such as those I met up with on Saturday. The problem is that we're in a mad rush to have this deal done whereas it's on a 'to do' list of 100 things for the Americans. They can sit back and let their solicitors and advisors watch the situation while they run their empires ... ... thankfully we now have a bit of decent football to take our minds of all this shyte.
We did mate, we're just arriving in Dieppe and will be at the French place on Tuesday ... ... pop down anytime http://www.lafraissinede.com/gallery/
Not having a dig but which investors are you talking about? Obviously Short wasn't great in the end but he tried very hard to succeed and we had our longest sustained period in the premier league under his stewardship so I would say he was relatively successful. Yes, Randy Lerner was a bit **** at Villa but they did have three 6th place finishes, I'd love that! The Glazers, well they're still at Man Utd who still compete and when Fergie left, he left them with an aging team that needed wholesale changes in a period where teams like City etc. were pumping millions and millions in to their clubs so, like Liverpool in the 80's, they have fallen away slightly. Then, mentioning Liverpool.... Well what can we say about their American owners other than that Liverpool are running away with the league atm, were extremely unlucky not to win it last season but did win the Champions League and just won the World Club Cup. I personally think Americans in English football haven't done too bad really?
It's only since Fenway Sports Group have come in that Liverpool have started looking like title contenders again. The previous lot of American owners (?Gillet and Hicks?) didn't do a great job.