Grayson: Give me time to build a side
CATS’ BOSS BELIEVES HE HAS WHAT IT TAKES
SUNDERLAND manager Simon Grayson has pleaded for time to get things right at the club.
The Black Cats’ boss is under pressure after just one league win from his opening ten games, the club currently second bottom in the Championship table.
Many Sunderland supporters have already started questioning whether Grayson is the right man for the job, that number increasing after Tuesday night’s humiliating 5-2 defeat to Ipswich Town.
Grayson believes he can turn it around at the Stadium of Light, however, with players still settling in after a major squad overhaul in the summer.
He said: “Since I hve been at the club, I have tried to stress we want to win promotion.
“However, we have not spent the money other clubs have but also we do not have a God-given right to go up.
“We have to have a sense that it is a work in progress.
“I don’t really like using that term too much but it is because of the turnaround of players who have gone out the club and everybody knows there are not the finances available.
“There is a hangover from the Premiership days, no doubt.
“What we wanted to do is try and create some positivity, get the players playing for the shirt and get an affiliation back with the supporters and that will not happen overnight.
“You need to get the team to gel and working like you want it to work.
“It took me two or three years to do that at Preston, you have to build slowly.
“You have to build transfer window to transfer window and be given time to allow that to happen.”
In total ten new players arrived in the summer, despite Grayson spending less than £2m.
Meanwhile, 13 first-team players departed over the same period with the funds being used to help sustain the day-to-day running of the club.
With a two-week break for internationals coming up after Sunderland’s next game tomorrow against Grayson’s former side Preston who have been excellent under new boss Alex Neil and sit fourth in the table - there is a feeling it could be a big game for the Sunderland boss.