Fan Letters: Speakman’s mistakes this season are unforgivable.

Dear Roker, Alan Jackson wrote;

I find it difficult to accept that one of your editors believes he can defend Kristjaan Speakman, given that the club’s current situation is all his fault.

He has Kyril Louis-Dreyfus in his pocket and looks to have complete control over ‘the model’, player recruitment, and head coach hiring.

He fired Tony Mowbray because he appeared to be saying something most supporters viewed as obvious, followed by statements about quality, advancement, greater standards, and so on.

Speakman sat next to Michael Beale after his appointment and showered him with adulation before a ball was kicked. Then he went completely crazy after Beale’s first training session, and twelve matches later, he fired him!

Excellence? Progression? Higher standards?

Speakman is known for bringing in bright young players, but how many of them have been loaned out to lower-level clubs because they aren’t quite ready? How many of them stand next to the corner flag during games, ostensibly warming up but never onto the pitch?

Are we paying them £3000 or £4000 every week to stay fit? They appear to be as interested in or dedicated to our club as a collection of shady characters standing on a street corner.

Remove Jobe and Dan Ballard, as well as Dennis Cirkin, Aji Alese, and Niall Huggins, who are constantly injured, and the other players are less than impressive.

I wonder whether Spurs, West Ham and Leeds were aware of the long term fitness prospects of Cirkin, Alese and Huggins and that’s why we’ve got them? At least eight of the players the man has recruited during the last three transfer windows could leave the club tomorrow and no one would know that they’d been and gone.

He’s either a joke or a blooming good con artist.

 

Ed’s Note : Hello, Alan. Thank you for your letter.

I don’t think there’s any way to sugarcoat it: Kristjaan Speakman has had an absolutely dreadful past six months, and since Tony Mowbray’s dismissal was announced, there’s been a litany of errors in various departments that have contributed to what was once a promising season turning increasingly sour.

I believe it is important to remember that Speakman has done some impressive work as our sporting director, and the signings of players such as Jack Clarke, Alex Pritchard, Danny Batth, and Trai Hume were hugely successful, but what has happened recently has undoubtedly damaged his standing in the eyes of many fans, and it is not unreasonable to believe that.

Simply put, he needs to pull an ace out of his sleeve with our new head coach, which should be followed by much better transfer business this summer.

Personally, I don’t think he’ll be going anywhere anytime soon, but I can certainly understand why he’s past the point of no return in many fans’ eyes.

 

Dear Roker Report,

With five games remaining, ideally we can pick up a few more points to make things look more decent, otherwise season ticket sales for 2024/2025 will plummet.

Remember Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn’s great partnership? I may have an answer for whoever drafts the team: why not start Chris Rigg up front alongside Dan Neil?

That way, Kristjaan Speakman won’t have to go looking for another bad centre forward, and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus won’t have to spend money he doesn’t have, which will make him happy.

Either get rid of the unsuccessful forwards Speakman brought in, or get rid of Speakman. Starting the new season with a full roster of fit players, we can beat anyone in this league -“Bill Calvert”

Ed’s Note : Hello, Bill. Thank you for getting in contact.

The prospect of a Chris Rigg and Dan Neil strike team is surely one of the most interesting concepts we’ve heard recently! I assume they’ll be kept in their current positions, but I agree that the striker situation should be addressed as a major priority this summer.
To be absolutely honest, I don’t see us concluding on a high note for the remainder of the season, and I believe we’ll continue to limp through to the end of the campaign, when the inquest will undoubtedly commence.

 

Dear Roker Report,

I wish I could address the author of the article about International Fans Day by name, but they are clearly a member of the ‘Bilbao Black Cats’ branch.

First and foremost, thank you for mentioning our branch, the German Black Cats, as we had assumed our visit went unnoticed.

Although I understand that it is much easier to cater for a large number of fans coming over at the same time on IFD (which we attended last year, and thank you to Cath Reid and Joanne Youngson for organising it), we were unable to come over this year due to prior commitments such as birthdays and weddings, so we decided to come over on March 6th for the QPR game.

Our chairman, Martin Steffner, attempted to contact the club through Chris Waters before Christmas, but Chris has yet to respond to any of Martin’s letters.

I know he’s on his own and everything appears to drop on his desk, but I felt he might at least have the civility to respond to us, if only to say, ‘Sorry, but I’m snowed under and won’t be able to help’.

As vice chairman, I phoned Cath Reid because she was the only other person I could think of who was affiliated with the club in any way, and she at least responded politely, saying she would meet Chris and ask him to contact us.

As I previously stated, we have yet to hear from Chris, and as our friend from Bilbao mentioned in his piece, we are receiving a lot of interest as a result of Sunderland ‘Til I Die, but it is extremely difficult to further promote the interest without the club’s assistance.

We brought two new guys this time, and it would have been good to show them more of the Stadium of Light than just the outside and the reception area, so thank you to the guy who let us in for a look around.

While I understand that there are no stadium tours during match weekends, I heard a whisper that one will be held on IFD, with many more supporters than the five we had.

Surely, an exception might have been made for fans traveling from abroad, but we need to find someone ready to speak with us. Fortunately, we’d been over three times before, and I’m a native of Seaham who has lived in Germany for thirty-five years, so we knew the lay of the land.

We managed to put together a half-decent programme for the weekend, but it could have been so much better if the club had shown even a hint of interest in us.

Luckily, one of the lads is married to Steve Cram’s cousin, so Steve was able to join us for a couple of pints in the Dun Cow on Friday night, after dinner with Sir Bob Murray and spending the day with Rishi Sunak, who was in Sunderland to open the new film studios. He was a mine of information about the city and the club, and was great craic.

On Saturday, we visited the Fans Museum and then went up to the Beacon of Light to meet up with Cath.

Unfortunately, the Beacon was really busy with everything related to the Foundation of Light day, so we only had five minutes with her before I was dragged away for an interview on racism on the terraces. By the time it was over, the guys wanted to get into the stadium and soak up the vibe.

Unfortunately, that’s when the day began to go south.

As always, we had tickets to the Black Cats Bar, which provided fast access to the bar, free food, and warmth, but either I’m growing old or the stadium is getting cold.

The first surprise was that we were given our armbands and free programme before entering the lift, rather than being greeted at the bar by the charming ladies who appeared to have been laid off. We were then told that we would have to pay more if we wanted to eat.

Are they taking p**s?

We paid £15 more than last season (£60), £30 more than a seat three rows in front of us, and then had to pay an additional fee to eat, which consisted of a steak pie large enough to build a house and a few chips with gravy.

Then came the game.

I’ve seen some trash in my six decades of following the Lads, but this was close to the worst (thank goodness I didn’t see the Blackburn game), and it appears that the club is doing everything possible to turn people away.

We’re spoiled in Germany because clubs go out of their way to accommodate supporters, and because to the ’50+1 rule’, there’s a fans’ representative on the board who reminds the club that without fans, the club is nothing.

Also, teams actively support fan displays that are at least a couple of times larger than anything the ‘Spirit of ’37’ has been able to lay on, despite the club’s best efforts to prevent anything from happening.

Returning to our stay, Sunday morning was saved by Nick Barnes of BBC Radio Newcastle and Phil Smith of The Sunderland Echo, who entertained us for several hours with anecdotes and information on Sunderland AFC. Thanks a lot, lads. It was really appreciated!

To finish, I’d like to go back to the article from our friend in Bilbao, and especially how difficult it was for Ding from China.

We experienced the same difficulties as he did (away tickets are an absolute impossibility for foreign fans) and to receive no help from the club doesn’t make it any easier to promote or hold the interest of new fans who contact us.

I hope all the fans who attended International Fans Day had a great time.

I know we did last year, and maybe we’ll see you all next year, when hopefully fan liaison has been improved- “Ian McNee”

Ed’s Note : Hello, Ian. Thank you for contacting us and sharing your experience planning a trip to Sunderland to watch the Lads in action.

The numerous issues you’ve raised in your letter regarding communication between the club and its fans point to a long-standing problem: the connection between the club and its fan base simply isn’t as strong as it should be, and as harsh as it may sound, we’re frequently taken for granted.

The club likes to brag about our global support and the fact that we’re fortunate to have supporters from South America to Germany, but based on your experience and the article written by our friends in Bilbao, it doesn’t appear that they’re truly showing due respect and courtesy when it comes to making things easier for overseas supporters.

To be honest, the club has to make a much greater effort to communicate with Sunderland fans at home and abroad, and to guarantee that their dedication and commitment to the red and white cause is not neglected.

They must listen, consider comments (no matter how severe), and take concrete actions to bridge the gap between supporters. With everyone on board, our club has immense potential, but until that happens, we won’t be able to hold serious hopes for future success.

 

Ein perfekter Abschluss für unser Comeover: vielen Dank an @Phil__Smith und @Tweed_Barnesy für den netten Plausch über den SAFC

A perfect end for our Comeover: thank you to Phil Smith and Nick Barnes for the nice talk about SAFC#SAFC #HawayTheLads #Comeover2024 pic.twitter.com/VnvcWvCZQx

— German Black Cats (@GermanBlackCats) March 17, 2024