Every club owner has to cover the cost of running their club. Venky's are not special in that respect. The difference is other club owners understand what they are doing and accept that is what they bought into and actually take an interest.

Why didn't they do that when we were still in the Prem ?

A concerted alliance of assorted supporter groups bolstered by a social media campaign has urged Donald to quit Wearside and, in a statement on Tuesday, Sunderland outlined his plans to grant their wish. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jan/07/sunderland-fans-ire-owner-stewart-donald-sell-club Maybe we should give this a go.

All stems from the owners lack of interest and understanding- No pressure on Mowbray from above, no pressure from Mowbray on the players. Truely going through the motions. We want our Rovers back!

I guess this is a good opportunity to ask some searching questions but the last couple of meetings have been derailed by Tony Mowbray telling tales of working class life in 1970s Middlebrough. I enjoy listening to Mowbray but it's not really the point of these meetings. Perhaps people sending in the questions could try and be very specific with the wording so they require a simple answer and can't be avoided by waffle. I'd like to know if the plan to avoid the threat FFP was to sell Dack in January. If not then what is the plan?

Kamy, just out of interest, if you believe there are still outside influences that can affect Venky's decisions, how do you know that Mowbray has full control of recruitment ? I'm not so sure. I believe he is able to sign freebies and loan players himself but maybe he has act on 'advice' when it comes to spending big money ( young, British, 'potential', investment etc ).

I believe we had a decent GK lined up in the summer and he was ready to sign but eventually the a decision was made to spend the kitty on Gallagher. Who's decision that was is another question.

Given those figures how did all the clubs in the top bunch ( other than Brum ) avoid points deductions for FFP on the basis of one season alone ? Why were Birmingham singled out ?

But this time it was avoidable and self inflicted!

Shows what a hash they have made of everything. The policy to spend big on young British players to sell on at a profit has totally backfired and we are stuck with expensive flops. The risk of that policy has been highlighted by the only saleable asset being injured and may potentially be worth nothing in 18 months. They are treating the club as some sort of hedge fund without really understanding anything about the football side. Problems all of their own making.

I did notice this and so did a few people around us. Mowbray stood there with his hands in his pockets and our players all stood apart on the pitch looking at their boots!. While Huddersdfield were talking and planning our players didn't even communicate with each other. I think it sums up the whole problem at Rovers at the moment. No leadership or desire on the pitch, no direction from the manager, no pressure on the manager from within the club which, in turn, translates to a general lackadaisical attitude all round. It also feels like there is no real rapport between this team and the fans or between the manager and the fans. As always, it comes down to how the club is run by the current owners - no interest, no pressure, lack of desire, awful performances. Today, I think the atmosphere generated by the home fans helped their team enormously and, despite a poor season, the club had the 'all in it together' approach - manager, players, fans. All sadly missing from our club at the moment. @ColtSeavers has said similar on this thread already and that incident today summed it up for me. I don't dislike Mowbray and the situation is not entirely his fault but He, Venus and Waggott have the running of the club to themselves and I don't think its a healthy situation. We should be showing far more appitite than we did today - nobody looked particularly bothered about anything.

After today?? - He had 10 minutes ! The rest of the team were as bad if not worse for the whole game.

Or someone told Balaji he was a good investment!

Depends what he offered. He could have offered a pittance. Means nothing if we don't know what it was they turned down. They will sell one day. Even the richest fools don't like losing money continually

1) Help Venky's fend off the threat of FFP - Every penny from your half season ticket purchase goes straight into their pockets! 2) Buy your half season ticket - perfectly timed for the highly anticipated return of Ben Gladwin

This is a good point. I am not totally up on all the facts but I think FFP is calculated on a rolling 3 year period with a £39 million overspend allowance. We had a 'good' financial year in 16-17 due to selling Rhodes ( £4 mill loss ). 17 -18 was £16 mill loss and 18-19 probably something similar ( not yet recorded ). That means we only have maybe £6 or £7 mill to play with this year which we may be sailing very close to. So the answer - to avoid a Brum type points deduction - would have been to sell Dack and NOT reinvest it in players. Something we may have to do every 3 years or so. With that plan now gone, I can't see any investment in January or in the summer and we still may fail FFP. I'm sure some of you know the situation better than me but it doesn't look good really.

I agree that Johnson is a better footballer and should have started but he's not the annoying, wind up merchant, hard man type that get stuck in every match. We need one. Bring back Robbie Savage

Morsy did a job on us last night and was very effective. He also nearly curled one in the top corner late on ( good save by Walton). Many successful teams have a hard man in middle. We are too soft.

After Bristol I read a comment in a newspaper that we were starting to look like the team most likely to break out of the chasing pack into the playoffs. Last night in front of a decent crowd, on TV, at home to the bottom club we put the record straight. No chance of the playoffs if we have many more performances like that. I think we can all see the problems. We have no leaders, no fight and little imagination. No real goal threat. Wigan nullified us and were probably better overall. Morsy is one of those players everyone loves to hate but I'd have him in our team tomorrow. Their left back would walk into our team and probably their centre half. Windass wasn't great but he seemed to find space a lot better than any of our forwards. And Wigan are bottom with 1 away win in about 30 games or so! Occasionally we can look quite good ( Bristol, Brentford ) but often we look terrible. Averaged out over the season mid table is probably our realistic position. Good to see Walton have a good game and Holtby was decent but overall very disappointing team performance.

I remember reading a Sunderland fanzine many years ago that contained a readers vote on all time best Sunderland 11 and all time worst Sunderland 11. Howard Gayle made both teams!

He definitely ran out in a curly wig once.

Saying something if he is almost first name in team shit! Will he ever make it to team average or team 'not too bad' ?

I didn't go last night so can't give an opinion but it's interesting that a number of people that attended said Travis did OK or was even very good. However, Radio Lancs ( Bayes and Gallacher ) criticised him from start to finish because he was taking far too many touches, giving the ball away and constantly slowing down play. They said it was his worst game for a long time. Which view is correct ?

I didn't say he was a good businessman! My point was he doesn't seem know much about the football side of things. Wouldn't want him leading the search for a new manager

I've been trying to change mine to say I am boycotting but can't work out how to do it either.