04-02-2020, 08:40 AM
I loved the first series of this on Netflix and the second one dropped yesterday. It's fantastic - not just for football fans, but for anyone in business, marketing etc. I've watched the first four episodes so far and it's fascinating to see the inside workings of a football club I feel is not dissimilar to our own albeit they have the benefit of being a one-city club and therefore can attract 46,000 fans to a Boxing Game day in the third tier! That's almost as many Wolves fans who went to Chorley.
If you want to watch it 'cold', don't read the comments below but there are some interesting insights into manager/chairman relationships as well as agents and the transfer window. Josh Maja's transfer to Bordeaux happened because of a failure to put the right contract in place when he signed initially. As a young player who broke through into the first team and became an integral part of the side, the club rightly believed he owed them something but there was no clause in the club's favour that would allow them to keep him. His agent did his job - he secured his client a move to a major club in the top flight of French football, improved his wages considerably and put his career on a promising trajectory. The fact the player kept saying he was leaving it to his agent and just wanted to focus on his football was a bit of a cop out, in my opinion. It's modern football I suppose but I do think Maja owed Sunderland and the fans something and it's a bit galling to see him using them in the way he did.
The race to replace him was really interesting. Steward Donald comes across well in the programme, but I felt he made a mistake when signing Will Grigg, albeit an understandable one. Donald is not used to backing down, which is why he's a multi-millionaire, and I think this is what cost him in the negotiations with Wigan. The telling point is when he rings Jack Ross who tells him the player is not worth more than £1.25 million and to pull out if that bid is rejected. So here we have a man who is hired as an expert in his field clearly telling the man who hired him, who is not an expert but an enthusiast, how to approach the transfer. Donald then unilaterally decides to ignore that advice and goes to £3 million rising to £4 million to buy a player whose stock is possibly only as high as it is because he has a decent song/chant. You can see it from Donald's viewpoint: he is desperate for strikers at the end of the January transfer window and knows what reaction he'll get from the fans if he fails to sign anyone. He also thinks Grigg may be the difference between promotion and another season in League One. Unfortunately, Grigg stunk the place out. This must be galling from Jack Ross's perspective: his owner's decision to reject his advice on transfer deadline day heaps pressure on him and Grigg and ultimately makes his job much more difficult than it would have been. It can also be seen another way: Grigg apparently didn't fit into Ross's style of play so either he shouldn't have been on the radar in the first place or Ross should've changed his approach if he was going to play him every week.
So the most expensive player ever in League One proves to be a flop (Grigg rejected a move to Salford in the last transfer window and Sunderland wouldn't sell to another League One club). Who's to blame: the manager, the chairman, the player, the player who left after saying he'd stay? As I said, fascinating.
If the programme is nothing else, it's also a reminder that our club gets more right than it gets wrong. It's easy for the keyboard warriors to start pointing fingers and knowing better, but it's a difficult environment and no matter how big you are and how much money you have, the foundations can easily come crashing down.
If you want to watch it 'cold', don't read the comments below but there are some interesting insights into manager/chairman relationships as well as agents and the transfer window. Josh Maja's transfer to Bordeaux happened because of a failure to put the right contract in place when he signed initially. As a young player who broke through into the first team and became an integral part of the side, the club rightly believed he owed them something but there was no clause in the club's favour that would allow them to keep him. His agent did his job - he secured his client a move to a major club in the top flight of French football, improved his wages considerably and put his career on a promising trajectory. The fact the player kept saying he was leaving it to his agent and just wanted to focus on his football was a bit of a cop out, in my opinion. It's modern football I suppose but I do think Maja owed Sunderland and the fans something and it's a bit galling to see him using them in the way he did.
The race to replace him was really interesting. Steward Donald comes across well in the programme, but I felt he made a mistake when signing Will Grigg, albeit an understandable one. Donald is not used to backing down, which is why he's a multi-millionaire, and I think this is what cost him in the negotiations with Wigan. The telling point is when he rings Jack Ross who tells him the player is not worth more than £1.25 million and to pull out if that bid is rejected. So here we have a man who is hired as an expert in his field clearly telling the man who hired him, who is not an expert but an enthusiast, how to approach the transfer. Donald then unilaterally decides to ignore that advice and goes to £3 million rising to £4 million to buy a player whose stock is possibly only as high as it is because he has a decent song/chant. You can see it from Donald's viewpoint: he is desperate for strikers at the end of the January transfer window and knows what reaction he'll get from the fans if he fails to sign anyone. He also thinks Grigg may be the difference between promotion and another season in League One. Unfortunately, Grigg stunk the place out. This must be galling from Jack Ross's perspective: his owner's decision to reject his advice on transfer deadline day heaps pressure on him and Grigg and ultimately makes his job much more difficult than it would have been. It can also be seen another way: Grigg apparently didn't fit into Ross's style of play so either he shouldn't have been on the radar in the first place or Ross should've changed his approach if he was going to play him every week.
So the most expensive player ever in League One proves to be a flop (Grigg rejected a move to Salford in the last transfer window and Sunderland wouldn't sell to another League One club). Who's to blame: the manager, the chairman, the player, the player who left after saying he'd stay? As I said, fascinating.
If the programme is nothing else, it's also a reminder that our club gets more right than it gets wrong. It's easy for the keyboard warriors to start pointing fingers and knowing better, but it's a difficult environment and no matter how big you are and how much money you have, the foundations can easily come crashing down.
