Sunderland

It's hard to believe the 2 separate paths we've been on as clubs, since narrowly losing in the plays to them, in 2022.

They have had their tough times lately, but I think moving to their current ground gave them the opportunity to be a much bigger club than they used to seem and bounce back better from hard times

Hopefully we can tap into the same potential. I've noticed that Hillsborough has a lot of the same old faces sat around me, for many years.

We need to tap into the possibilities to attract new fans and even football tourists. That can only be done through improved facilities and a winning team.

At the moment we have neither.....

7 minutes ago, Southie_Owl said:

One main reason Sunderland did better than us is their league 1 team was largely players under 25,  either from their academy or snapped up from elsewhere like Ballard and O’Nien.   Once they got to the championship those young players continued to get better whilst our over 30’s then struggled.  
 

Hopefully our new owners will realise that we need a younger squad that will develop whilst the club climbs the pyramid 

 

absolutely. 

Sunderland actually have an infrastructure and brought in players that met a certain criteria, hence why they beat us in the play offs. 
 

They’ve done really well and hopefully one day we’ll get to see similar success.

9 minutes ago, WimJunk said:

I've noticed that Hillsborough has a lot of the same old faces sat around me, for many years.

We need to tap into the possibilities to attract new fans and even football tourists. 

Why on earth would you want to attract  football tourists here ?.....

15 minutes ago, Southie_Owl said:

One main reason Sunderland did better than us is their league 1 team was largely players under 25,  either from their academy or snapped up from elsewhere like Ballard and O’Nien.   Once they got to the championship those young players continued to get better whilst our over 30’s then struggled.  
 

Hopefully our new owners will realise that we need a younger squad that will develop whilst the club climbs the pyramid 

 

Good point but I’m afraid if we want to be promoted from League 1 next season, we will have to go the old route again. We can only bring in free transfers and can’t spend money so we have no choice 

They didn't really spend a huge amount of money either in net terms to get out of the Championship iirc. 

6 minutes ago, Owlabroad2001 said:

Good point but I’m afraid if we want to be promoted from League 1 next season, we will have to go the old route again. We can only bring in free transfers and can’t spend money so we have no choice 

Brunt and whelan were free transfers 

And so were Bannan, Lee and Bernard in the championship. 
There will be plenty of players available for free aged under 25 come the summer, who fancy the challenge of first team football at a big club no matter in league 1.  
 

Added to our players like Charles, Weaver,  Thornton, Fusire, Brown etc.  I think we have an opportunity to build a squad mostly of under 25 players rather than over 30’s

And please let's not go for players looking at their last payday! 

I always compare us to a arsenal 1993, little to seperate us at the time but a very different 32 years after that.

7 minutes ago, darklord said:

I always compare us to an arsenal 1993, little to seperate us at the time but a very different 32 years after that.

We’ve been poorly managed since the mid 90’s. 

18 minutes ago, Owlabroad2001 said:

Good point but I’m afraid if we want to be promoted from League 1 next season, we will have to go the old route again. We can only bring in free transfers and can’t spend money so we have no choice 

Also, just my personal opinion but I don’t believe people are willing to spend £30-40 million to own a club that can’t spend money on players for another 2 years.  My hunch is there’s been talk with the EFL and deals to be done to improve the embargo situation 

6 minutes ago, Southie_Owl said:

Also, just my personal opinion but I don’t believe people are willing to spend £30-40 million to own a club that can’t spend money on players for another 2 years.  My hunch is there’s been talk with the EFL and deals to be done to improve the embargo situation 

I thought the same our the last few days.

theres no way that will be the final offer, probably why the likes of Mike Ashley are in for us 

40 minutes ago, Southie_Owl said:

Also, just my personal opinion but I don’t believe people are willing to spend £30-40 million to own a club that can’t spend money on players for another 2 years.  My hunch is there’s been talk with the EFL and deals to be done to improve the embargo situation 

On that, I hope you are right.

1 hour ago, Southie_Owl said:

One main reason Sunderland did better than us is their league 1 team was largely players under 25,  either from their academy or snapped up from elsewhere like Ballard and O’Nien.   Once they got to the championship those young players continued to get better whilst our over 30’s then struggled.  
 

Hopefully our new owners will realise that we need a younger squad that will develop whilst the club climbs the pyramid 

 

A younger squad is what we all aspire to. That's  not the reason they have done better than us though. They didn't  have Chansiri as an owner , we did. 

That's  the only reason for the big difference. We had older players because Chansiri decided they were the cheaper option. After a year or 2 they were worthless.

Other clubs bought younger players who cost more but Sunderland got their money back and more besides when they sold them. DC thought he was astute. I'll  not say what I think he was, the swear filter would have a fit.