Not an appointment that I would be particularly excited by if I were a Sunderland fan. Ross seems to be another one like Paul Heckingbottom - getting linked to every job going despite not having really done anything of significance.

I think it is good that a young British manager is getting a job higher up the levels but it is one heck of a gamble for Sunderland on a bloke who has never managed above the Scottish 2nd tier at small clubs.

Don't think things are as rosy at Sunderland as some would believe.

Conway shouldn't be a starter any more. But as a last 20-30 minute senior player to come on and use his experience in games it could be valuable. I'd be in favour if it was a reasonable wage on a 12 month deal with him being a sub not a starter.

6 hours ago, barry_ said:

the quality of the UMBRO kits has been poor, last few seasons. 

Tops don't last a season without bobbling/pulls in the material. (with minimal wear) 

I have older UMBRO tops from the last time they were our suppliers and they ate still going. 

I'd like us to move to a different manufacturer. Adidas, Puma, Kappa, Macron all superior to Umbro in quality in my opinion.

1 hour ago, roversfan2001 said:

Don't think we had a shirt sponsor in 2012/13 until Christmas time; barring the Dafabet deal the shirt sponsor has been a farce since Venky's took over.

Which makes the regular complaints about FFP and a lack of income/revenue all the more laughable. Selling a few more season tickets or handing over the full DE to away fans pales into insignificance compared to attracting a well paying shirt sponsor, yet as you say with the exception of Dafabet whatever efforts they have made on that front have been futile. 

Still never got to the bottom of that deal with Zebra Claims but something didn't add up there.

Surely billionaires with 40 years of being one of the biggest poultry/pharmaceutical firms on the Indian subcontinent could use their vast network of contacts to find a large global company interested in having some exposure?

36 minutes ago, philipl said:

VLL has £149m paid and allotted.

That is undoubtedly cash ploughed in.

In addition, there is the lending by the State Bank of India which is totally secured by Rao-owned assets which I would forecast the likelihood of being repaid without recourse to the Raos as being all but zero. Even though the bank provide the cash, in effect the Raos are denied the use of that money or assets for any other purpose.

So I am sticking with my quarter billion figure.

   

How does £149 million become £250 million just by adding the debt they've had with the Bank of India?

The Dafabet deal was apparently quite lucrative as they have been on an expansion programme in recent years adding Sunderland and Dingles along with some at Everton. It was signed back in the day when we had Dave Biggar in place as Commercial Director before he left to go abroad.

I wonder who is responsible for trying to lure in new sponsors. Given complaints about our revenue streams I would hope this is an area that is going to bring the club a lot of money.

It really wouldn't surprise me to see us end up with something like the Community Trust as shirt sponsors. They seem to be heavily involved in almost everything that happens these days (even taking over the matchday lottery and family stand).

Not expecting a major well known company. Of course Venkys could do what Chansiri at Wednesday or Evans at Ipswich have done and sponsor it themselves as a back door to additional funding without FFP issues.

When Dafabet was confirmed as the new sponsor in 2015 it was announced by Rovers as a 'multi-year' deal. One other website at the time suggested it was an initial 3 year deal, so if that was the case then it will have expired, unless it has been extended without announcement.

The interview with Mowbray was just about as positive as it could be. Mowbray clearly conducting the interview remotely, sounds like he's away on holiday with his family, but also sounded very excited about things. Short of announcing exact figures of money available he can't go any further than he has.

Sounds like one or two of the Venky bunch have got carried away with the success of last season which Mowbray has tapered by bringing things back to a steady building job. That's fine so long as the Indians understand that it might take several years of spending and losing millions before we're ready to do anything and even then there's no guarantee of success and they don't start selling everyone as soon as they get bored.

Just now, Mike E said:

Well Lenihan is practically begging for a new contract, and Mulgrew is unlikely to get better money at this level of competition at his age.

Only ? is over Dack and that's only because of his Mrs. He's untested at this level and adored here, I just hope he doesn't do a Bentley and squirm an opportunity with us.

The London factor - he isn't going to Palace, West Ham, Arsenal, Spurs or Chelsea in the near future. QPR, Millwall, Brentford are smaller clubs with as tight if not tighter finances. Where else in the SE to attract him?

2 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Bingo!

Sadly, I don't think we've too many to hang on to - after Charlie, Lenihan and Dack, you are left scratching your head.

If I was Mowbray's agent, unless he was going to get significant backing from Venky's, I would be advising him to move on whilst his stock is still pretty high.

With a couple of frees and a couple of loans, think it's going to be one helluva an upward battle (ala Bolton).  And therein lies a problem, do our 'big' three fancy staying around for that !?!?

 

 

Move on where? What bigger or better club is Mowbray going to get than Rovers? He was getting rejected by Chesterfield shortly before turning up here. 

Mowbray has it good at Rovers. He's getting what he wants from the owners in terms of some support and being left to run it how he wants, the fans love him, the players clearly enjoy playing for him.

There will be money to spend, but it will be limited as it is for most clubs in the Championship. They could spend millions if they wanted but clearly don't want to.

I doubt Mowbray even has an agent.

Mowbray himself was quoted as saying our wage bill was £8 million or £8.5 million, I can't remember which but recall him saying it. Not clear whether that applies to the playing staff, all staff or includes the academy etc.

Just now, West Yorks Rover said:

Give it a couple of weeks, and I reckon the Bradley Dack thread will be the busiest on this board.

Nixon will be revving himself up for that one. One thing he loves is touting our best players with transfers away.

Just now, West Yorks Rover said:

As of a day or two ago,  Sunderland have a new owner, and as you must have missed in my post, I said if they are top of the league they

will have massive crowds for league 1, I reckon well in excess of 30,000 probably even in the 40k's towards the end of the season.

They'll all be back to watch a winning team, they've forgotten what it's like to do that up there and it's a football mad city.

 

Their previous owner sacked Chris Coleman and his assistant to 'clear the decks' before passing the club on. These new owners only came on the scene when the goalposts moved after relegation and Short wiped away his debts.

They've been linked with Alex Rae and Jack Ross. With due respect to those individuals from the outside looking in that tells me that money is going to be tight and hence why they are looking like gambling on young unproven managers from Scotland used to working with no money.

No question they've got potential and will get large crowds whatever the weather but that hasn't helped them at all in the last few years. Didn't stop little Burton finishing above them, just as it didn't stop them finishing above us the year before. That club is a graveyard - O'Neill, Poyet, Grayson, Coleman - all managers with good reputations damaged massively through short spells there.

Sunderland are a club with problems, as are we. A new name over the door won't instantly change that, just like a good season and promotion won't instantly change it here.

Could do what West Ham have done and told everyone that Pellegrini is going to have a record transfer budget to work with this summer. That should increase asking prices a fair bit.

Why would anyone think Mowbray would even be remotely interested in going to Sunderland? He's spent the last 3 years of his managerial career trying to get out of League One.

If Sunderland are appointing someone like Jack Ross coupled with getting rid of Coleman purely to save on overheads it tells me that perhaps they aren't as flush as some people seem to think they are.

9 minutes ago, dinglebasher said:

Slightly off topic but does anyone know how you can find out your Club Cash balance? I can't find it anywhere on the Roverstore or eticketing websites and it doesn't seem to appear when I try to pay for something from the shop online.

All assistance welcome.

http://www.my-rovers.co.uk/

It should be on this website, quite confusing that there are now 3 websites to use for Rovers.

33 minutes ago, 47er said:

No way will Venkys fund transfers to gain us promotion or even get us in the hunt. If TM was asking for that he'd have been sacked already!

He's said he wants us to strengthen here and there, to sign young players from lower leagues with the potential to develop,( like Bell I assume) and for us to get better bit by bit, season by season.

It makes sense on 2 fronts---its the only way forward Venkys will support, and, in the case of Burnley, it has been shown to work.

Whether the fans are willing to hang on and age further while we go through this process I'm not sure!

I'm guessing 1.5 million might well be it. It just sounds right.

That process doesn't bother me. Nor does waiting for a few years for things to develop. What bothers me is the last time we embarked upon such a process under Gary Bowyer after 2 seasons they decided they'd had enough of waiting so sacked him and sold all our best players and got us relegated to League One.

What's to say they won't do the same with Mowbray if he spends a couple of seasons in mid-table or bottom half of the Championship?

7 hours ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

 

So you think when Sharpe says he has heard "positive things" he is lying? 

I'm not suggesting anyone is lying, only that 'hearing' things are 'positive' doesn't mean very much in the scheme of things.

The Telegraph will always adopt a non-committal approach, it has been their routine for years.

'Understood not to be at this stage', 'possibly outside of the budget', 'positive talks' - all can be interpreted as one thing or another but actually don't mean anything concrete.

Telegraph always adopt the non-committal approach of avoiding saying anything unless the club has first authorised it. Hence Rich Sharpe and his predecessors regularly coming out with the 'let me check that one' or 'understood not to be on the radar at the moment' or 'probably not within the budget' etc.

Derby have confirmed that Rowett has sought permission to speak to Stoke. Sounds like he's off then as clubs don't usually release these sort of things unless the manager has told them he wants to go.

So much for 'the Derby way'.

Armstrong should be number 1 on the hit list.

I'd have half an eye on Gallagher from Southampton. A presence up front would be useful. Another one who isn't going to get a look in at his parent club under a manager who doesn't tend to go with youth.

These are the sort of players we should be all over - young, room to improve - and like it or not they cost money.

Just now, longsiders1882 said:

I've heard a rumour that our wage bill for the season just gone will be a staggering (IMO) 60 Million. So when people were touting Benitez as a challenger to Guardiola and Dyche for manager of the season what planet were they on exactly? 112 million in the championship? That is mental.

The irony of it all is that FFP rules were supposedly introduced in order to encourage sustainable spending and discourage clubs from gambling on promotion, however from what I can see the opposite has occurred. Clubs can still spend their way to promotion if they want, only they are under more pressure time wise. So nothing stopping Wolves from going and spending £40 million and getting promoted, on the contrary they have won all sorts of plaudits for doing it. Nothing stopping Newcastle coming down and blowing the division away with their £100 million+ wage bill and £50 million transfer spend, on the contrary Benitez is hailed as a genius and has everyone feeling sorry for him that he hasn't been allowed countless more millions in the Premier League.

Aston Villa get relegated yet go and spend fortunes in a bid to go straight back up. This is their 2nd crack of the whip having brought in people like John Terry on astronomical sums. Middlesbrough try to go straight back up so spend £50 million last summer and miss out on promotion. We can fully expect Stoke to do similar.

In years gone by the consequences of missing out on promotion after heavy spending were massive losses that would need to be plugged once parachute money ran out. These days the added pressure comes from potential FFP sanctions (as unlikely as they are given only half a dozen teams have received punishments). So rather than not spending as much clubs instead go and spend but perhaps even more to try and guarantee promotion. For those that it works for happy days as the worst they get is a fine which QPR have shown can be delayed and dragged along for several years, in the meantime they can have another few hits at promotion.

11 minutes ago, arbitro said:

He's only been a manager since May 2012 and this would be his fourth job. He was unlucky at Birmingham to be sacked but he left the others of his own volition. He has had one promotion with Burton from League Two via the playoffs. I really don't get why his stock is so high.

 

I've never got over his comments after we played them on a Tuesday night at their place and he had the brass neck afterwards to comment on Rovers turning up and putting loads of men behind the ball and not attacking them. His Birmingham side was one of the most defensive and negative teams we came up against over the last few years and for him to even think about criticising others for putting men behind the ball given his approach at home was bizarre.

A quick glance at some Derby forums and it seems a lot of their supporters aren't too keen on his approach either.

His highest finish in his career was last season with Derby in the play-offs and he's never won promotion. Yet he's hailed as some up and coming genius whilst Lambert is slated despite having won several promotions and managed at the top level for several years. Interesting.

Mowbray is bound to say that the focus of his attention is on players in the early 20s age range. Realistically that's the only way he's going to be able to persuade the Indians to part with transfer funds for players if he can convince them that it is an investment that will have return in a few years. See Dack and Samuel. It was also the only way Bowyer was able to extract funds from them for Conway, Marshall, Cairney and Gestede.

Fortunately, down to good management more than anything, almost all the players we've spent cash on in the last 4-5 years (not many I admit) have turned out alright. Some said Rhodes was a waste of money that we'd never get back because nobody in the top flight would buy him but we turned a profit on him, since Gary Bowyer took over virtually everyone we've paid out cash for has turned a profit - Steele, Marshall, Duffy, Cairney, Gestede - and then more recently I'd expect Williams' valuation will be on the rise given his recent inclusion in the Republic of Ireland squad, Dack's value will be way higher than what we paid for him and an impressive start to life in the Championship and he'll go up even more. The only real exceptions are Samuel and Bell who are too early to say really, but overall with the Dack success Mowbray will be able to say money well spent last season.

Nothing at all wrong with that strategy so long as it isn't the sole ambition. Nothing wrong with recruiting those sort of players so they carry value in the event they are sold, but when the sole aim in spending money is with a view to selling for a profit in a couple of years irrespective of who that might be to and irrespective of the impact it might have then it becomes a problem.

Football and results first, individuals and valuations second. Sadly I think it was the other way around for a while.

Telegraph reporting that Stoke want Rowett as their new manager and are discussing compensation with Derby.