“Nobody wants the Sunderland job because ‘the model’ is too restrictive” Fan Letters

Colin Childs

Nobody wants the Sunderland job because based on this model of signing young players and then selling them off, you can’t win promotion.

We can’t find a manager who has no ambitions, and it’s simple as that.

Even Tony Mowbray, who likes working with youngsters, eventually got very frustrated with the club management (the ‘centre forward’ syndrome).

Ian Hold

I’m fed up with excuses for coaches rejecting us, with gossip saying ‘they need to talk to other clubs’.

When will we realise that if our offer was good enough, they wouldn’t need to talk to other people?

G Thompson

Whilst there’s a plethora of journalists falling over themselves to tell us how badly run our club is and how the ‘model’ is putting off prospective managers and head coaches, it’s fair that we wait until the process is over before judging the management team on their decisions.

There weren’t many people happy about the length of time it took them to appoint Alex Neil, and he wasn’t a fans’ favourite to be fair. However, come 5:00pm at Wembley, there wasn’t a dissenting voice to be heard; in fact, they received all the praise that was rightly due.

That said, I can’t help but feel that Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has undermined his own credibility with the use of the word ‘imminently’ in last week’s press release, and once credibility is lost, it’s gone forever.

No amount of good work undoes the damage, and players and fans alike will look upon him with a lack of trust and confidence, which I believe will ultimately lead to a change of ownership down the line, sooner rather than later.

One question that needs to be raised is if the model is to buy cheaply and sell for profit, why has the money from the sales of Ross Stewart and Isaac Lihadji not been reinvested?

That would’ve been the perfect opportunity to highlight the purchase of a £5-7 million young, exciting player (God forbid I should mention the word ‘striker’) to show the fans that the plan had started to work.

Dreyfus maintains that he’s learned from past mistakes, but I fear he’s creating new ones from which he will not recover.

Michael Fox

115 days and still no manager. What the hell are the owners and the board doing?

Pre-season is nearly upon us and we deserve better. Clearly, coaches don’t want to come to Sunderland with the present model/setup.

It’s just not working. Please sort it out.

T Young

Could it be that a large majority of the 31,000 season tickets sold are via direct debit and a lot of those fans are still trying to cancel?

Stephen Jameson

‘Disturbing’, ‘inept’, ‘unbelievable’, ‘arrogant’ and ‘thoughtless’ are just a few words that come to mind when discussing the Sunderland debacle, but when it’s over and when we have a head coach in place, brace yourselves, because it’s going to start all over again in the club’s attempt to acquire a goalscoring centre forward.

Then there’s the small matter of trying to persuade our current stars that Sunderland is the club at which to progress their careers. Then the season kicks off and where do we find ourselves?

At the start of another very long and very winding road, that leads us to…

George Leblond

Paul Heckingbottom – why would anyone not want him?

He did a great job at Sheffield United and would be the best manager we’ve had for years.

We’d be crazy not to go for him. I would’ve made him the first contender, but I don’t think he’s a ‘yes man’.

Ian Frame

Sunderland will have to dramatically change their stance on the coaching side and transfers if they’re to attract a decent manager.

They need to swallow their pride before we end up in the lower divisions again.

Alan Metcalfe

This regime is destroying the club day by day.

The club won’t spend any money and was happy to play without a centre forward for a season and a half. Kristjaan Speakman has too much power and control, with Kyril Louis-Dreyfus being brainwashed that this is the way forward.

It looks like Mike Dodds will continue as head coach, with Speakman picking the team. I can’t think of another club that operates as badly as us; from ticketing and club shop issues, the list goes on.

No wonder any manager turns us down, working with these clowns. Patience is at an end.