Post by Les on Apr 27, 2019 10:32:56 GMT
www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/year-stewart-donald-sunderland-edging-16187744
A year of Stewart Donald: Sunderland are edging forward but Jack Ross still hasn't got foundations in
With the anniversary of Stewart Donald agreeing to buy Sunderland approaching, his right-hand man Charlie Methven could see, feel and hear signs of real progress on Good Friday.
Whether the Black Cats achieve their goal of promotion is up in the air. Victory at home to Portsmouth on Saturday will be important, but still leave them hoping for a Barnsley slip-up, either at home to Blackpool that afternoon, or at Bristol Rovers seven days later. The title has become a pipe dream.
But to measure the progress made only on the field is to underestimate the scale of the mess Donald and Methven signed up for when, a year ago on Monday, they shook hands on buying a club which had just suffered back-to-back relegations. As far as manager Jack Ross is concerned, he has not even put foundations in yet.
In other respects, though, progress is more tangible.
“During the Doncaster game (Sunderland’s last at home), it felt like the place was really coming together,” executive director Methven reflects. “The Roker End looked and sounded great, there was a real buzz. I thought, as a club, ‘Crikey, we’re getting there.’”
The Roker End does not just feel far more positive, it looks very different too.
Until Boxing Day it was the unimaginatively named South Stand. The nod to Sunderland’s heritage did not end there. A mural was painted below the stands and recently a mock-up of Roker Park’s Archibald Leitch-designed lattice work was added between the banks of seats, between historic Sunderland crests. The faded seats – symbolic of the neglect under previous owner Ellis Short – have been replaced by fans and in the last two home matches, the Roker End has been awash with flags and banners they created and paid for.
Alan Mardghum was at the Stadium of Light on Friday in his capacity as president and secretary of Durham Miners’ Association (DMA), but as a season ticket-holder he could also speak eloquently about the physical transformation above the pit he used to mine.
“I came in at the beginning of this season and it was marvellous to see it red and white rather than pink and a shade of light grey,” he smiles. “They (Donald and Methven) have done a tremendous job and it’s a massive job. They’ve certainly started off with the right motives and they’re making massive progress.
“It might be a little bit slow, and that’s to be expected. I just think there’s massive days ahead with this type of ownership and the commitment they’ve shown.”
That Mardghum and his DMA colleagues will parade their banners before the match underlines how Donald and Methven have brought the club back to a community disenfranchised under absentee landlord Short.
“There had been a breakdown in trust,” Methven acknowledges. “It was a deeply broken, deeply hurt organisation. All I would ask is that people look back over the last 12 months and ask are we in a substantially better position? And make that judgement every year.”
Not that the problems were only psychological and footballing. Short cleared around £120m of debt before handing over custody, yet financial problems remained.
Thursday was an important milestone, the point where the debt to Short was officially wiped.
“We’re debt-free as of this week and when we get to the point where we’re sustainable and in a position where every penny the fans spend goes straight where it matters – not on interest payments, not on paying off transfer fees for players bought on the tick five years ago and you don’t even remember their names now – it will be a wonderful moment,” says Methven.
If the team are fourth, not top, there are reasons.
“I remember looking out of my office window in late June/July when the players came back, we barely had enough players for five-a-side,” Methven recalls. “How many clubs in that situation go on to compete in the next season? It hardly ever happens.
“I think the players and management have done a hell of a job given that they were thrown together at very short notice to actually compete against teams who have been together for two, three years, whose managers have been able to gradually build a dressing-room culture – all the things that people who really know about football know are important. At Luton, Portsmouth and Barnsley, they’ve been doing that for some time. Sunderland were starting at ground zero.”
Ross argues: “Because we’ve been in and around the top two or three positions in the league all season it maybe distorts what it was like here. There’s a very false perception that we should have run away with the league.
“People will say I’m deflecting (criticism) away, I’m not. I could walk away tomorrow and know I’ve done the job properly.
Sunderland vs Portsmouth
“It’s about trying to convince people there is a longer-term progression but the nature of football means longer term’s not often either appreciated or enabled.
“If I think back to the end of May when Stewart, myself, Charlie and Tony Coton (Sunderland’s new head of recruitment) sat down and had dinner it was almost like being handed the keys to a restaurant and there you go. You’ve got customers arriving in an hour’s time. It maybe sounds a bit crass but it was a bit like that.”
When it is put to Ross that at least, at last, Sunderland have solid foundations, he is cautious.
“I’m not even sure in some parts if we’ve got to putting the foundations in,” he replies. “All we’ve done is make the ground safe. We had to make it solid enough to even put them in. How you put the right structure in place to carry it forward is still a work in progress.
“When you say it like that, it makes you understand how much hard work we’ve got ahead of us.”
Methven’s self-assessment is more realistic than glowing.
“Given all the challenges, I’m reasonably proud of where we’ve got to,” he says. “I wouldn’t put it more strongly than that. If we get promoted then I would.
“If we don’t, it will be gutting for a few weeks but then we’ll look back and think, ‘Well, that’s not entirely surprising.’”
Some hoped and others expected more, but Sunderland are undoubtedly stronger for a year of Donald, Methven and Ross. There is, though, an awful long way to go to return the Black Cats to where they ought to be.
A year of Stewart Donald: Sunderland are edging forward but Jack Ross still hasn't got foundations in
With the anniversary of Stewart Donald agreeing to buy Sunderland approaching, his right-hand man Charlie Methven could see, feel and hear signs of real progress on Good Friday.
Whether the Black Cats achieve their goal of promotion is up in the air. Victory at home to Portsmouth on Saturday will be important, but still leave them hoping for a Barnsley slip-up, either at home to Blackpool that afternoon, or at Bristol Rovers seven days later. The title has become a pipe dream.
But to measure the progress made only on the field is to underestimate the scale of the mess Donald and Methven signed up for when, a year ago on Monday, they shook hands on buying a club which had just suffered back-to-back relegations. As far as manager Jack Ross is concerned, he has not even put foundations in yet.
In other respects, though, progress is more tangible.
“During the Doncaster game (Sunderland’s last at home), it felt like the place was really coming together,” executive director Methven reflects. “The Roker End looked and sounded great, there was a real buzz. I thought, as a club, ‘Crikey, we’re getting there.’”
The Roker End does not just feel far more positive, it looks very different too.
Until Boxing Day it was the unimaginatively named South Stand. The nod to Sunderland’s heritage did not end there. A mural was painted below the stands and recently a mock-up of Roker Park’s Archibald Leitch-designed lattice work was added between the banks of seats, between historic Sunderland crests. The faded seats – symbolic of the neglect under previous owner Ellis Short – have been replaced by fans and in the last two home matches, the Roker End has been awash with flags and banners they created and paid for.
Alan Mardghum was at the Stadium of Light on Friday in his capacity as president and secretary of Durham Miners’ Association (DMA), but as a season ticket-holder he could also speak eloquently about the physical transformation above the pit he used to mine.
“I came in at the beginning of this season and it was marvellous to see it red and white rather than pink and a shade of light grey,” he smiles. “They (Donald and Methven) have done a tremendous job and it’s a massive job. They’ve certainly started off with the right motives and they’re making massive progress.
“It might be a little bit slow, and that’s to be expected. I just think there’s massive days ahead with this type of ownership and the commitment they’ve shown.”
That Mardghum and his DMA colleagues will parade their banners before the match underlines how Donald and Methven have brought the club back to a community disenfranchised under absentee landlord Short.
“There had been a breakdown in trust,” Methven acknowledges. “It was a deeply broken, deeply hurt organisation. All I would ask is that people look back over the last 12 months and ask are we in a substantially better position? And make that judgement every year.”
Not that the problems were only psychological and footballing. Short cleared around £120m of debt before handing over custody, yet financial problems remained.
Thursday was an important milestone, the point where the debt to Short was officially wiped.
“We’re debt-free as of this week and when we get to the point where we’re sustainable and in a position where every penny the fans spend goes straight where it matters – not on interest payments, not on paying off transfer fees for players bought on the tick five years ago and you don’t even remember their names now – it will be a wonderful moment,” says Methven.
If the team are fourth, not top, there are reasons.
“I remember looking out of my office window in late June/July when the players came back, we barely had enough players for five-a-side,” Methven recalls. “How many clubs in that situation go on to compete in the next season? It hardly ever happens.
“I think the players and management have done a hell of a job given that they were thrown together at very short notice to actually compete against teams who have been together for two, three years, whose managers have been able to gradually build a dressing-room culture – all the things that people who really know about football know are important. At Luton, Portsmouth and Barnsley, they’ve been doing that for some time. Sunderland were starting at ground zero.”
Ross argues: “Because we’ve been in and around the top two or three positions in the league all season it maybe distorts what it was like here. There’s a very false perception that we should have run away with the league.
“People will say I’m deflecting (criticism) away, I’m not. I could walk away tomorrow and know I’ve done the job properly.
Sunderland vs Portsmouth
“It’s about trying to convince people there is a longer-term progression but the nature of football means longer term’s not often either appreciated or enabled.
“If I think back to the end of May when Stewart, myself, Charlie and Tony Coton (Sunderland’s new head of recruitment) sat down and had dinner it was almost like being handed the keys to a restaurant and there you go. You’ve got customers arriving in an hour’s time. It maybe sounds a bit crass but it was a bit like that.”
When it is put to Ross that at least, at last, Sunderland have solid foundations, he is cautious.
“I’m not even sure in some parts if we’ve got to putting the foundations in,” he replies. “All we’ve done is make the ground safe. We had to make it solid enough to even put them in. How you put the right structure in place to carry it forward is still a work in progress.
“When you say it like that, it makes you understand how much hard work we’ve got ahead of us.”
Methven’s self-assessment is more realistic than glowing.
“Given all the challenges, I’m reasonably proud of where we’ve got to,” he says. “I wouldn’t put it more strongly than that. If we get promoted then I would.
“If we don’t, it will be gutting for a few weeks but then we’ll look back and think, ‘Well, that’s not entirely surprising.’”
Some hoped and others expected more, but Sunderland are undoubtedly stronger for a year of Donald, Methven and Ross. There is, though, an awful long way to go to return the Black Cats to where they ought to be.
