“At the moment…” – Sunderland fan pundit shares opinion on club’s ownership and hierarchy | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Picking up 11 points from their opening eight games of this Championship campaign, it has been a strong enough start for Sunderland.

The Black Cats have shown some positive signs early on in this season and will be eager to continue this rate of progression.

If adapting to the higher division was not enough of a strenuous task, the Wearside club have also had to deal with losing Alex Neil to Stoke City, however, they have seen a very capable replacement in Tony Mowbray coming in.

Asked if he was happy with the current ownership in place at The Stadium of Light, FLW’s Sunderland fan pundit Jack Austwicke said: “At the moment, I’m quite happy.

“There were question marks about it with everything that happened with Alex Neil but Kristjaan Speakman has come out, and in his defence, has been very open about what that was and how they did offer him money, numerous times, but it wasn’t enough.

“I’m personally a big fan of the model he has brought in, compared to what Sunderland previously had of bringing in loans, free agents, players always over the age of 29, 30. It was awful to watch.

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“But this new model of bringing in youth players, nurturing them, building them up to be the best they can be and eventually, obviously getting sell-on value. Similar to the likes of what Brighton and Brentford have done in recent years and now they are very stabilised clubs.

“He has made mistakes along the way, him and Kyril (Louis-Dreyfus) but that’s second nature.”

The verdict

As Jack alludes to, Neil’s departure may have caused some noise about the ownership, however, it is clear to see why he is generally optimistic about the club’s hierarchy.

There seems to be a shift in their recruitment and how the club is run, and whilst these positive changes are likely to generate their rewards in the future, there are noticeable improvements in the here and now.

Mowbray has walked into a good situation at Sunderland and he has every chance of being a success with the Black Cats.

It will be interesting to see how the Black Cats do on the pitch this season, with the off-the-pitch stability something they have over some other Championship clubs.