Charlie Methven is gone. Stewart Donald has 19%. The ownership situation has been resolved. Pre-season is nearly underway. The fixture list comes out tomorrow. The feeling of four weeks ago is quickly returning.
Now that the summer sideshow has finished, it’s very much back to business. Outspoken CEO’s of notoriously understocked energy drink stocks will acquire no part of SAFC and neither will blinkered crypto lunatics.
Whilst many will have reservations about Donald’s continued involvement, this morning’s news is undoubtedly good. Wearside breathed a collective sigh of relief as we said cheerio to Charlie. Kyril’s statement was succinct and concise – ‘we can now move forward as one unified football club’.
As the players return to training today, we can begin to focus on the football aspect of supporting Sunderland. Fans who claim to be ‘in the know’ were left embarrassed and those that have been distracted by the roadside attraction of the ownership saga can concentrate on the asphalt up ahead. We have most of those lingering doubts assuaged by this morning’s statement.
Maybe Sartori’s role remains a mystery to many and perhaps Donald should have sold up entirely, but now we have a clear stance on the ownership group moving forward. A positive is that Charlie Methven has relinquished any ability to affect change in our football club ever again. He can take his suitcase full of Michael Portillo-style chinos and head back to Oxford a Z list celebrity for his role in Sunderland Till I Die and, if clubs are wise, he will never be involved in any football venture ever again due to how visibly he was out of his depth.
Methven is gone, but now the impetus is on his mate to stump up the money this summer. A lot of investment is needed, on, off and in the immediate vicinity of the pitch. On the pitch, we need a few more quality additions to compete this season and ensure we don’t slip into the third tier again. Off the pitch, we need to restore jobs for some of the workers attached the club who were made redundant in the austerity measures and belt tightening ushered in by Madrox and around the pitch, some of the infrastructure around the pitch needs a revamp or entire facelift. Whatever KLD puts in, Sartori must match to his corresponding percentage and the same is true for Donald.
I suppose what remains for us, as fans, is to get excited. We go into this season with a bounce, an energy unlike anything for years. KLD has made a big step forward just as pre-season starts, as if to give us that lift before the summer gets fully underway. Today is a scorching day in Sunderland and the season feels so close it’s palpable.
The last two weeks have been a wilderness of speculation and fear. Fear that the wrong people would get a hold of the stakes in the club and that SAFC, a proud club with an illustrious heritage, would be taken over by even more moronic chancers who want to transform the fans link to the club irreparably. The Fans Together, IF they were ever really serious about taking over (let’s face it, it wasn’t going to happen), would’ve severed fans connection to our club through increasing financialisation, digitisation and alienation of what it means to be a supporter.
Instead, this season, we need to demonstrate that the fans really are together and pack the SOL out. Much of the ownership baggage is lifted and we go into a season where anything could happen. It’s time to get new players in and look forward to an exciting campaign back in the second tier, closer to where we belong. We can now move forward as one unified football club.
