Donald: Cats will back boss Parkinson
STEWART Donald says Sunderland will back Phil Parkinson to strengthen the playing squad in the January transfer window.
The club received fresh investment earlier this month via a loan to holding company Madrox from FPP Sunderland Limited.
While a large portion of that will be invested into various off-field matters such as repairing and maintaining infrastructure around the club, chairman Donald says performances on the pitch make it necessary to offer financial help to the Black Cats boss on the pitch too.
He told BBC Newcastle: “We’re three points off third with a game in hand and still a lot of the season left.
“But there’s clearly going to have to be some investment in January.
“It’s a work in progress. People talk about the 100-point target I set in the summer. People say that was silly. The reality is, fans expect promotion, and so do I.
Why? Because it’s
Sunderland, because of the volume of money spent – and not much of that is inherited in the current team, we spent a lot of money on that squad. So we should expect that, and that’s why fans are disappointed and that’s why I’m disappointed.
“And if everything on the pitch is right then everything else seems better, so we’ve got to get it right. Yes, there’s worrying signs, but it’s vital we get it right and no one is working harder than this board of directors to do so.”
Former Black Cats striker Marco Gabbiadini pressed him further on the January transfer window, and the budget Parkinson might have to add to the squad he recently inherited.
“The biggest single priority is getting out of this league and so if we need to spend then we will spend,” Donald said. “Having spoken to the manager and got his initial assessments of the squad I think there’s no doubt he is going to want to strengthen.
“He sees some positives in the squad, but also some things that he needs to address. “I was always realistic that every time you get a new manager it always costs a lot of money because generally they always want to have their own team around them, and they’ll have their eyes on a few players, so we’ll do what needs to be done.
“Last January I tried to do what was needed it just didn’t work, but I still maintain that any Sunderland fan put in my shoes then would have done the same.
“It ultimately didn’t work and it hasn’t worked, so the reality of the situation is we need to have a better January than we had last January.”
The club’s recruitment and transfer policy has come in for a lot of criticism recently, with a lot of the players signed not currently reaching the standards expected – with Sunderland’s league position way off target as a consequence.
And another thing this new money in the club will help towards is rebuilding Sunderland’s scouting network, with new scouts across the UK and Ireland and well as mainland Europe hired.
Donald said: “We didn’t rip it back to just one scout. There were three or four. But we now have scouts in Scandinavia, Germany, France, all over the UK and Ireland. And they’re scouts from big clubs with good reputations who other people wanted.”
He added: “This money is to invest in everything. In our scouting, in our squad, in our academy, in our infrastructure, and I don’t mean the lift which Charlie’s got a bit of stick over.
“I’m talking £500,000 on a new roof and a refurb and buying a new club shop and ticket office all in one. Those sorts of things.
“We’ve got to get it right though, so we can go to the Americans and say look at what we’ve done, we’ve got this sustainable model, so let’s not just push the football club, let’s push the whole area.
“They’re well up for that because they believe in us, and I understand that not everyone does, but the good news is that the ones are do are some very wealthy people and have facts to back that up, as opposed to some people who maybe don’t know all the facts.”