Fan Letters: “Could Luke O’Nien help to shore up Sunderland’s misfiring midfield?”

I’m getting a bit tired of the club, the ‘happy clapper’ brigade, and various journalists banging on about it all being OK if we stick to the plan.

What plan would that be? The one the club would like us all to believe, or something else?

Let’s consider two alternative plans, both of which start the same way.

Stabilise the club, implement the ‘director of football model’, bring in young players to develop, build the infrastructure, secure the assets (players), achieve promotion to the Championship, then sell some of those assets.

They then diverge and ‘Plan A’ continues, with most of the player sales’ revenue reinvested into significantly strengthening the team in the short term, with some of it spent on the infrastructure, therefore achieving promotion to the Premier League within a two to five-year timescale.

In ‘Plan B’, the aim isn’t continuity but to sell the club for a significant profit in perhaps one or two years’ time.

Player sales revenue is reinvested mostly into infrastructure and also into low cost assets to develop. The aim is not promotion but if we happen to fluke it, a quick sale will deliver an even higher profit.

‘Plan A’ is the plan the club promotes, and most supporters seem to buy into it, but might they support the alternative?

The first point concerns Juan Sartori.

Is he really prepared to hold his significant investment until we reach the promised land, or does he plan to cash out within a shorter timeframe?

The second point is that getting into the Premier League and making a decent fist of it when we get there will require significant investment in players. Maybe the current regime isn’t willing or capable of making that investment.

Key decisions taken by the club seem to be based on the cheapest option rather than the best available. That’s not how a well-financed club behaves.

There’s also no evidence that most of the money generated through sales will be reinvested in players that significantly strengthen the squad in the short term. It’s true that the only major asset sold to date is Ross Stewart, and that wasn’t for a huge sum so we’ll have to wait and see.

The focus on infrastructure makes sense within ‘Plan A’ but it’s particularly important for ‘Plan B’. If the club is to be sold, the bean counters will get involved and they love tangible assets and structure.

Personally, I’d like to believe in ‘Plan A’, but I’m starting to believe it’s ‘Plan B’.

The only argument I can present against it is the state of the commercial off-field activities. Any purchaser would be interested in that income stream and currently, it’s a disaster area.

To finish on a positive note, the club is in a far better place than three years ago, and for that, I’m grateful.

If the club is sold, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, although high risk for those left behind (you guessed it – the supporters). It’ll soon become clear, and actions speak louder than words.

GET MORE CONTENT FROM SPORTEP.CO.UK