Sunderland Netflix documentary

[Tom]

Josh Maja is by far the best player in Netflix history 

[EgyptianPete]

16 hours ago, Tom said:

Josh Maja is by far the best player in Netflix history 

Had they paid Maja what his agent wanted or somewhere near, his goals would have got them promoted, instead being bullish as in they're not dictating to us, he gets 1million Euros, then spends £3million on Grigg who couldn't hit a barn door. Also disrupted the team, you could see some players were not happy, They lost several games drew when probably Maja's goals would have won games, instead they got to the play offs and lose, this season in 7th or 8th i think, looking like another season in L1, very sad as they have good supporters. Money must be a big big issue right now for them as the owner is not mega rich.

[EgyptianPete]

16 hours ago, Tom said:

Josh Maja is by far the best player in Netflix history 

Had they paid him something like what his agent wanted he would have probably stayed and got them promoted, as soon as he left the goals dried up, instead being bullish as he or his agent is not telling us what to do, he gets 1mill euro, then spends £3m on Grigg

I will add i watched the lot in 2 days, really good, Charlie and Stuart do come across as passionate, if a little arrogant in Charlies case, but crikey the staff must have been on easy street for years.

[Mattyblue]

13 minutes ago, EgyptianPete said:

crikey the staff must have been on easy street for years.

The Ellis Short era had many parallels to here. An ever rising debt, absentee, overseas owner just paying bills and a revolving door of execs and hangers on.

No wonder the club itself rots away.

Edited April 10, 2020 by Mattyblue

[tomphil]

So many parallels and had they not got rid of Kean i'd suggest we'd be where they are now only in worse shape. Bowyer shares some of the credit of keeping us out of that mess as well. If Singh had his way it would've ended up as bad as anything Kean had to offer just for slightly different reasons.

[chaddyrovers]

I watched the Sunderland documentary series and I was impressed with Charlie. Pushing staff to reach targets. 

Donald, I was impress with his drive and wanting to the best for the Sunderland. I thought it was good to see the insight into transfers negotiating. Maja was never going to sign a new contract there. You could tell by his body language in the 2nd episode. Plus as Richard Hill said in the series the Maja's agent has history in taking players overseas and clubs getting very low fees for players

Why the over paid for Grigg? simple cos they were desperate  

[K-Hod]

Charlie was a bit of a bully, whilst there were definitely faults with the club prior to his arrival, he could have handled people there a lot better.

[Claytons Left Boot]

For the first twenty years of my working life, I worked in the finance industry. There were plenty like Charlie. Bullying, bullsh!ting, back stabbing b*stards that were full of themselves. No one stood up to them. Or if you did, you were on your way.

Where I worked for the next twenty years of my working life, any one of a dozen of our blokes would have sparked him out flat.

[Claytons Left Boot]

Just finished watching the final two episodes. To be fair to Charlie, I’m pretty sure he has Sunderland’s best wishes at heart. I’m also sure that the stresses and strains of that last campaign will have got to him. Even more so, they will have got to the owner, Stewart Donald, who has seemed on the verge of a heart attack on more than one occasion. Who would run a football club? I’m almost starting to feel sorry for the Sunderland supporters as well. Almost.

[Vinjay]

Haven't watched it. Feel some slight sympathy for their fans who must be embarrassed by it. 

At least if you're gonna be a trainwreck make it entertaining rather than bleak. I would approach the people who made the "Maradona in Mexico" documentary (Netflix) and attempt to bring him to Sunderland. Why not take the risk? At worst it's likely to be a sustainable trainwreck (risking one poor season or relegation wouldn't kill a club and what if it actually worked?) you can't deny people would want to play for him. You might as well look for gimmicks and other ways of earning revenue/publicity. The people behind the Mexico documentary and other investors could pay part of his salary. Imagine Di Canio on acid and you have Maradona. That's probably an understated way of putting it.

Those documentary makers should be doing everything they can to bring him to England. They just need a facilitator.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Vinjay

[Tom]

Charlie came across as odious and pompous, the only time I actually warmed to him was the first loss at Wembley when his passion came out. The way he spoke to the girl was awful but not wholly unwarranted, she was half assing it but obviously had no time for his brand of bullshit, it’s hard working for folk like that 

Not many came out looking good from inside the club, the young lad O’Nien came across really well though.

Also the taxi driver and lad with the beard are gems, they deserve to see some success.

[Hasta]

Just finished it and had the same opinions as most on Stewart and Charlie. 

In hindsight, they'd have been better letting Maja's contract expire. 

I felt the players and manager were more wary and less open than in season 1.

Jutst looked at Griggs record for them and its awful - 5 goals including that penalty in 14 months.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Hasta

[Mattyblue]

I noticed it was nearly all filmed with fans and Exec staff, very little with the players this time...

[AspRover]

I kind of suspect that in reality football players are pretty boring. I don't think they actually do much other than football and I don't think many are great philosophers. They probably filmed a load of stuff with the players (there's no way that at the beginning of the season they knew Maja would score a bunch of goals and then get embroiled in a protracted contract saga) and then in the end picked out a couple of 'stories' - ie. young lad making his breakthrough in O'Nien (the equivalent of how they portrayed Honeyman in the first series), and all the Maja stuff.

On the whole I enjoyed it, I think it came across as pretty fair - the owner(s) were pretty flawed in their own ways but at least they actually seemed to care a bit and understand the situation and want to get the Fans on side and involved outside of purely money and football, the fans featured were proper fans - the sort you'd happily spend an evening in the pub with talking football. 

[Hasta]

A few pieces of news from this season that act as a follow up to season 2, for those who don't normally give a damn about other clubs so may be unaware (like me)

Charlie quit in December 2019

Charlie-methven-hits-back-stewart-donald-financial-claims-after-sunderland-til-i-die-revelations

Edited April 16, 2020 by Hasta

[JacknOry]

Only just watched the second season. My thoughts align with most on here. Charlie certainly loves himself a bit too much but underneath you can tell he really wanted it to work out. The owner seems a nice chap but well out of his depth - i was cringing as he kept upping the offer for Grigg. Crazy money for a L1 signing - makes Dack look even more of a masterstoke. They wanted the record for the highest attended L1 match but also got one for the biggest transfer dud. 

 

[DeeCee]

Not long had Netflix so only just finished the first season, enjoying it very much ?

[Amo]

On 10/04/2020 at 19:23, chaddyrovers said:

I watched the Sunderland documentary series and I was impressed with Charlie. Pushing staff to reach targets. 

Do me a favour. He was a complete spiv. Swearing, overacting on matchday, and always being seen with a pint in his hand to endear himself to the common folk. Bullying the marketing staff, who admittedly were on easy street, but he still came across as a knob. Not surprised he pulled the wool over your eyes.

Series 2 was okay, not as enjoyable as last season's car crash. I was shocked that they bet everything on signing Will Grigg. I know January is a ballache to buy players but they didn't have Plan B and ended up getting ripped off because of it. Shambolic. 

[Inglorious basturk]

10 hours ago, Amo said:

Do me a favour. He was a complete spiv. Swearing, overacting on matchday, and always being seen with a pint in his hand to endear himself to the common folk. Bullying the marketing staff, who admittedly were on easy street, but he still came across as a knob. Not surprised he pulled the wool over your eyes.

Series 2 was okay, not as enjoyable as last season's car crash. I was shocked that they bet everything on signing Will Grigg. I know January is a ballache to buy players but they didn't have Plan B and ended up getting ripped off because of it. Shambolic. 

Nobody in the world surely could be impressed with Charlie 

[Vinjay]

11 hours ago, Amo said:

Do me a favour. He was a complete spiv. Swearing, overacting on matchday, and always being seen with a pint in his hand to endear himself to the common folk. Bullying the marketing staff, who admittedly were on easy street, but he still came across as a knob. Not surprised he pulled the wool over your eyes.

However evident other faults may have been it's hard not to view people like that with contempt. I guarantee there's people like that at Ewood and nobody gives them less than an easy ride. Forget placing staff on furlough it's a good opportunity to get rid of some of them permanently. I would have just fired those types of people at Sunderland rather than bullied them.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Vinjay

[cesus]

Looks like Sunderland may have been bought off the back of future parachute payments. It sums up the absolute mess that football is in at the moment. Clubs need people to lose money to sustain them, how much longer can people expect owners to fund the huge losses with personal wealth (I'm not defend Donald btw).

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/huge-repercussions-sunderland-sale-accounts-18225749.amp

[Gav]

I binge watched both series a couple of weeks ago and found it nowhere near as good as the Salford City documentary.

Couple of things I took away, the southerners were never going to win over the fans, anyone living south of The Angel of the North is on a hiding to nothing. But what I will say is i felt sorry for the fans, absolutely fanatical, massive numbers, they live for the football club, you couldn't help but feel for them. 

Jack Rodwell - Typical footballer, doesn't live in the real world, no self respect, its all about the money.

Josh Maja - Lying swine, just be honest, be a grown up, typical footballer.

A proud city, love their football club and nothing but respect for the fans.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Gav

[Mattyblue]

Not sure I agree that Stewart Donald never stood a chance with their fans, he came across as quite a personable West Country type and the fans seems desperate for it to work out. Methven on the other hand...

The main issue they have with them is they have no brass (and never did), they planned it as a stabilise then flip for a quick and tidy profit job. Alas, the madcap world of English football never quite works out that nicely.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Mattyblue

[AllRoverAsia]

So Donald is just another not so wiseass conman, buying the Club with its own money and now appearing to be removing repayment responsibility.

The present situation will really feck him up so that's a positive.

I echo Gavs comments on the Sunderland fans, as usual it's fans that suffer.

[DanielMB]

You really are beginning to feel for Sunderland. 1 point off playoffs and the seasons cancelled.