MOWBRAY ON STEWART CONTRACT As a Head Coach Tony Mowbray is not involved in contract negotiations, but believes Sunderland is an 'amazing vehicle' for Ross Stewart going forward... NO INFLUENCE "I'm not really privy to it. There are things I can influence and there are things I don't influence." KEEP ROSS “I’m sure they are. I think it’s only right that this football club tries to keep its best players, and yet there has to be a middle ground somewhere." AGENT CRAIC I don’t know Ross’ agent and have never spoken to Ross’ agent so I don’t know who he is. I’m sure he thinks he has Mbappe on his hands. Whether we can get to a number that makes Ross feel warm in his stomach that we really want him and want him to stay, if we can get there fantastic and sign a new deal." FINANCIAL STRUCTURE “If we can’t get there because it breaks all the structures and is going to cause carnage behind the scenes with six other players who think ‘hang on a minute why is he earning that much and I’m earning this’ the club has to make those decisions, and sometimes it’s a really hard decision. If you have to sell an asset, you have to sell an asset." HONESTY “That’s why I believe you have to have honesty really because the fans deserve honesty. The fans just want the best players but sometimes you can’t have the best players because otherwise three years down the line your club is in financial difficulty. You're going into administration, you get docked 20 points, because you've broken the rules on finance trying to stretch yourself too far." AMAZING VEHICLE "That’s how I see it but I hope we can get something sorted out. I believe he’s got an amazing vehicle to progress his football career, a team that creates chances, lots of technical players that can put the ball in the box in the right areas.” DEALS “If he scores 20 goals, 25 goals the phone is going to ring off the hook, and all he has to do is knock on the manager’s door or Sporting Director’s door and say: “I know so and so has been asking about me, I’d like to go.’ and we’ll go: ‘right as long as it’s £30million we can do it.’ They’ll phone up and say ‘we’ll give you £28million and if we win the league we’ll give you another five’ and we go; ‘deal done, let’s get on with it'." PLAYER VALUATION "I don’t really know what conversations are going on but I’m pretty sure having been doing this job for 20 years the cogs are turning, the conversations are being had. The agent is probably saying he’s worth 50-grand a week and the gap is too big. It’s just whether you can get to a point where they think that’s the best deal you are going to get off that club, or we think we can’t pay anymore than that. When you get past that you either sell him or get the deal done.” HEAD COACH VS MANAGER "I knew what I was coming into. I'm the head coach - it's the first time I've ever been head coach, I think. I remember leaving West Brom in 2009 and I'd left something in my office, I went back the next day to pick it up and the word 'manager' had been burned off my car parking space and the words 'head coach' were getting painted on. I was thinking 'head coach? What's this?'" PHONE CALLS "I love footballers, I love working with them, trying to get inside their heads and helping them work at their game and see how far they can get in their careers. It's great for me when I get all these calls from agents. My phone never stops ringing, agents saying 'transfer window is coming Tony, what do you want? What do you need?' There are a million agents out there and they've all got the best players for you. I just pass them Stuart Harvey's number now, I don't even need to talk to them! It's great." STUART HARVEY "They try to develop relationships with you and become your pal but you know they're not your pal, they are just hoping they can do a deal that's going to be beneficial to them. I pass them to Stuart and then somewhere along the line, Stuart will have a list of £1m players, £500,000 players, £100,000 players, and free transfers, and we'll look at where we think the best value is for the football club. If I can give advice and thoughts of what we need and what will improve us, I do that in the meetings."
As long as we are not penny pinching and Ross ends up leaving for the proverbial, h'penth of tar. Or is Speakman being stubborn about how strikers are brought into the club and retained by the club? Hence Broadhead not returning and no replacement. Its all conjecture of course, but dear old Eeyore will throw his toys out of the pram if we have a lack of strikers after January. His jobs on the line.
I don't think he will tbh. reading the comments, and TM strikes me as being straight as a die and consistent with it, but you never know in football.
I like Mowbray and I enjoy listening to him, but I think some things it's just better to stay quiet about. If he's not privy to the discussions don't talk about the agent thinking he has Mbappe and wanting £50k a week - even if it is just for emphasis, it will be taken as gospel by some and may create an issue if this continues to drag out.
Stewart will go, hopefully in the summer rather than January and I'm sure the club have a replacement lined up. Probably some kid from France or Africa that we've never heard of As long as we get a good wedge and that wedge is reinvested into the team then I'm happy enough
I would say he is as good as any striker in this division barring Diaz at Blackburn. The injury might mean he isnt a massive draw in January for prem clubs. I do think he deserves to play prem football at some point though, he is good enough in my opinion. Maybe we get him to sign on imptoved terms, but with a sensible release clause come the summer. At least it would avoid low ball offers when he was in his last year. Either way, the club know they need strikers in January, maybe a chance to get his replacement in then so whoever it is has time to settle.
Reading between the lines I am not holding my breath on him signing a new contract. Mowbray seems to be easing us into disappointing news
Honestly not arsed if he leaves or not, it’s going to happen with the model we have! They will be a player that wants to do better and we’ll love him too is what it is.
"I'm not really privy to it. There are things I can influence and there are things I don't influence." that should have been the end of the interview the rest was just ****e from a ****e manager who's lucky to have a job here which he wouldn't have if he wasn't unemployed and cheap
Yeah I hate to say it but that was my feeling too. Sounded like Mowbray knows he's going and has been asked to subtly put it out there. Obviously hope I'm wrong.
i told you lot 3 month ago Rangers turned his head, now Everton are all over this, using Simms as a px