Fan Letters: Why do pundits mouth off without considering the facts?

Dear Roker Report,

I’m responding to an article by Simon Jordan due to the derogatory comments he made about our chairman and the supporters of Sunderland AFC.

Although the owner of our football club has made a couple of bad decisions recently, such as the dreadful timing of Tony Mowbray’s departure and the crazy appointment of Michael Beale, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has also overseen plenty of positives since he took over our beloved club.

Therefore, when someone such as Jordan insults our chairman by referring to him as a ‘twelve year old who goes to school’ and also accuses our supporters of having delusions of grandeur, that got my blood pressure rising.

If he’s looking for a bit of banter, he’s come to the right place because if anyone has a false impression of one’s own importance, Simon Jordan must be very close to the top of the list, if not at the top.

He also criticised Kristjaan Speakman for hiring Beale and then sacking him shortly afterwards. Using his words, the appointment was a ‘surprising decision’, as he wasn’t a natural fit.

These were choice words from him, as he’s the original hirer-and-firer.

At Crystal Palace between 2000 and 2003, he hired and dismissed Steve Coppell, Alan Smith, Steve Bruce, Trevor Francis and Steve Kember.

He’s obviously envious of the fantastic Sunderland support, as during ten years as Palace chairman, he only ever achieved an average of more than half of our average attendances during one season.

Also, I think he may be a little upset after losing his ‘youngest chairman’s crown’ to Dreyfus.

Finally, to be chairman of your childhood team only for Palace to go into administration in 2010 must’ve been a very sad time, so I do have some sympathy for him, but only a little.

Robert Hall

Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Robert. Thank you for your letter.

We all know that Simon Jordan is never shy about expressing his opinions, which isn’t a bad thing in itself, but on this occasion, he was definitely wrong.

I’d love to know how much he actually knows about the inner workings of Sunderland and our supporters from the comfort of his air conditioned talkSport studio.

As you say, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has done plenty of good for our club, and he’s also made some mistakes as well.

The Michael Beale experiment was a failure, but the hope would be that Dreyfus and his team learn from the mistake and ensure that a more thorough process is followed when we appoint his successor. It’s a big call and they need to get it right.

Dear Roker Report,

In your most recent podcast episode, you said that Sunderland got Michael Beale’s appointment badly wrong and then talked yourself out of the statement because you couldn’t pinpoint exactly why they got it so wrong.

I agree that they got it badly wrong and I think it’s quite clear why: they fell for a complete chancer.

We’ve all worked with someone who’s worked themselves into a position of responsibility and power because they spend so much of their energy telling people how great they are when the reality is they’re great storytellers.

Beale’s background and accent had nothing to do with why the fans didn’t take to him.

Instead, it was because they very quickly saw through him, realising that he was a charlatan, a snake oil salesman, and completely out of his depth. From what I could tell, the players saw through him just as quickly.

Hopefully the next appointment is made with a bit more thought and I also hope that the club doesn’t listen to those who want to go back to Roy Keane or Sam Allardyce.

I can understand why some fans would like to see them return as it felt as though they both had unfinished business here but we all need to move on. I don’t think either of those managers would fit the current model anyway and would probably do more harm than good.

Thanks for the great work you guys do reporting on Sunderland.

David M

Ed’s Note [Gav]: Cheers David for getting in touch — I wouldn’t say I talked myself out of it, more that the conclusion I’ve came to goes against how I generally feel about the direction of travel at SAFC, in that the wrong way to run the club is to do a trial by fanbase. Really, the negativity around Beale arriving at Sunderland wasn’t just generated by our fans, but fans of other clubs, so this made it a very unique situation I’m still struggling to put my finger on it, really. I wanted it to work for Beale and remained generally supportive throughout, but the truth is he should never have been appointed in the first place. Would things have been different had his appointment been met with more warmth? Perhaps, but there were a series of events after he was appointed that only added to the negativity, and it’s that coupled with the results, performances and Beale’s personal life which led to him leaving.

It was a massive mess and I’m just glad we can start to move on from here.

Oh, and thanks for listening to the Podcast!