Sunderland Supporter Here - Mawson

Alright lads. Firstly congratulations on last seasons promotion and your decent start to this season, secondly apologies for a supporter of a different club invading the board

We have been heavily linked with Alfie Mawson recently and I'm after your take on the situation. I've only seen him play a couple of times and that's not enough to form a proper opinion. He reminded me a bit of Michael Dawson, that fair or not?

Fee I've seen quoted is 3m with possible add ons but I think the fee isn't the most important thing as that will be the wages, we are in a mess financially so we are needing players who can perform but aren't on as much as the likes of Kaboul who we have just sold

Anyway, thanks in advance and best of luck for the rest of the season. Think you will stay up without much trouble in all honesty as you have some really good players. Hopefully you take 6 points off the scum and finish above them un the league

 

If it's 3m plus add ons you won't get him

 

He's part of a defensive unit that's conceding 2 goals a game....

Stats eh ? In all seriousness he was Rolls Royce last season and looks to be coping with the step up comfortably. How he'd cope at your level with better pace & movement of strikers I don't know but his reading of the game is improving. He can pass, can bring the ball out and wins his headers mostly. He benefited greatly last season playing alongside Kevin Long who was also a step above League 1 - so I would imagine that he would benefit from playing amongst better quality players at Prem level.

Not the finished article by any stretch, but imho well worth a punt for developing. If it's not Sunderland then I reckon another Prem club will have him. Or whichever side gets promoted from Championship this year.

Cheers

 

He's a class act mate. Good in the air, superb on the floor. Not sure a direct comparison to Dawson is the best one. He's more of a Bobby Moore. Never seems hurried, always comfortable and can ping a hell of a pass. He just has that air of class about him. He can throw the odd mistake, for sure, and maybe sometimes tries to be a bit too cocky on the ball. He could get away with it last year whereas this year a mistake leads to quickly being harrassed by a better quality forward.
He has been one of our better investments in recent years. Our policy of buying players to develop seems to work, and he bit into that culture admirably (he had 'better' offers before signing for us). He is young and hungry.
In recent years we have seen Stones develop and move on, the rest is history. Then we developed and sold young Mason Holgate who is now getting rave reviews in a decent Everton team. Alfie has the potential, the attributes and the attitude to do every bit as well as both of them.

Needless to say, I'd like him to complete a season in the championship with us before joining you or anyone. However, with some of the prices being banded about for lesser players at other clubs, I think £3m is a damned liberty. If he goes for that price, then I hope we are strong with the sell-ons.

Good luck for your season.

 

The goals are coming from the weakness we have a full back

We have a winger atone full back and a Very good but veryyoung full back learning his trade.

 

Cheers for the opinions lads, sounds a good prospect

I'd usually be quite happy with this type of signing but it's going to depend on who else we bring in because at the moment we are a bit short and are using some our youth lads in and around the first team. I'm hoping we can get a decent enough squad together before the window shuts, at the moment we need a few experienced players to come in as well as a couple of younger lads

Again, best of luck for the season. It's good to see Hourihane doing so well, he was very highly rated with us and I'm not sure why it didn't work out for him here

 

Hourihane's another that is adapting well. He'll go next summer imho.

What you reckon to Moyes' 'straight talking' ? Expectations management or his unique motivation attempt ?

Cheers pal, all the best

 

I thought Mawson wanted a move back down south?


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Leave it out.

You didn't even go on Saturday. White played well and played even better against Derby and QPR.

Why are you ignoring all the people who said he played well?

 

I like Moyes despite how he comes across in the media although he does say some things that I would prefer he wouldn't, we all know we are going to be in ANOTHER relegation battle but I don't see the point in saying it 2 games into the season with the window still open

Moyes has been appointed and given a 4 year contract as we need to start to work on a proper budget, the amount of money we have wasted in the decade we have been up here is shocking and we have barely moved on. We've barely moved any players on for profit and keep having to plug holes short term

We've been spending what we don't have for years trying to kick on and it hasn't worked, not only that but we are in a financial mess with high wages for players who don't contribute enough. We have removed quite a bit off the wage bill this season and are approaching the transfer market differently trying to get more value for money. I'm all for it but I hope we don't go with it too much and don't get in some experience that we desperately need. At the moment we are probably one of the three favourites to go down, the next 7 days will see if we still are come Sep 1st

Recruitment is something you lot have seemed to do really well in recent seasons as well as developing and selling on players. This part of the game is essential now so hopefully you keep it up. If you were to establish yourselves and push for promotion in the coming seasons I hope you keep your current recruitment as it is as it is easy to lose site of things with all the money in the premier league. In our case more money has mainly meant more to waste

 

Alfie can distribute the ball well out of defence - a la John Stones (but not quite that good). He also bagged seven goals last season. So he has attributes in addition to his defending, which has improved enormously with us. By all accounts Sunderland are vying with Newcastle and Wolves for his signature.

You'll not like this, but in my view his best bet would be to go to your local rivals. Money will not be an issue, and he could get a year learning further in the Championship before playing in the Prem with Newcastle next year. No doubt Rafa the Gaffer has a prodigious team of coaches up there, and the expectations on him might be more manageable in the Championship this season. If Sunderland struggle early on (as Moyes has hinted they might) then there might be pressure on Alfie's game.

Saying all that though, I wish you well this season. But you just might be better going for more experience with the stage your club are at.

 

Can I ask how a club with 40k crowds and Prem income be in financial trouble?

 

Pressure to do well instantly can scupper long term recruitment - I just hope we stick to our 'plan' if we struggle - there was a bit of re writing history last season as we only picked up once Long, White, Brownhill, Isgrove, Fletcher & Hammill came in - all loannees (White and Hammill signed on for a short contract after) from higher leagues. The romantic notion we did it all with stoic lads from Sunday football and other clubs rejects seems to have taken hold a bit. That said, the nucleus of our squad has to be the players ignored/rejected by other clubs purely due to finances - if we can mix that with a bit of better quality then who knows ?

The Premiership though will eat itself - clubs can't keep on chasing survival by getting in massive debt forever. I can see why Sunderland (and others) do what they do with some players - wanting an immediate fix - hopefully Moyes will be allowed his 4 years to correct that - but the media will be on him if it falters in the short term. All the best anyway

 

Welcome aboard. Don't act like a complete lovely person, like that idiot from Bristol City and you'll be fine on here

 

Mainly wages mate, we unbelievably are in the top 10 for in the league for wages paid. Or at least we were until this pre-season when we've gotten rid of quite a lot of dead wood. We also barely ever sell player on for profit, most of the time they leave for nowhere near what we paid for them having contributed bot all

We are one of the worst at recruiting players in the league and have moved from one 'strategy' to the next without seeing any results at all. Countless manager / back room staff sackings haven't helped either although if the owner hadn't of made those decisions we'd of gone down by now

In summary the owner has tried his best and has put enough money into us to see us established in the PL without having to perform great escapes every year to stay up. The other has allowed us to spend what we don't have and we are roughly 150m in debt through various loans etc and running at a 25m loss each season. The new TV money will cover the losses from this season onwards and we have gotten a bit off the wage bill during season. It's essential we stay in the league for the next few years whilst getting the costs down do our debt is more manageable

It's why this transfer window is so important, we need to get the right balance in

 

We are also members of that same poverty club. Apparently after our JPT win at Wembley, promotion play off win at Wembley, tv appearances, success, success, success, our owner told us we'd lost over a million pounds ! And there we were thinking money was flowing in like milk and honey.
We all need a reality check, probably a good slap across the face, for us all to realise that football at our level and your level is totally screwed.

 

Sunderland's recruitment has been shocking over recent years. Always seems to be players who've not made the grade at bigger clubs, O'Shea, Brown, Rodwell, Mannone, Van Aanholt, Etc. I'd be worried it doesn't seem to be changing with the signings of Januzaj, Love & McNair.

It's like there's not a scouting system in place. Kone & Kirshoff been recent exceptions

 

Better than wes brown.

 

Don't rate Mawson as highly as many on here as I feel he's a bit error prone. For example on Saturday he was stood several yards off of Hogg & couldn't attempt to put a block in for the winning goal but like others have said he's classy on the ball & he does contribute more than most defenders do with the goals he scores.

He's also really improved his left foot & is almost at the stage where you'd describe him as two footed.

Good tackler as well. It's not often he'll give a foul away in a dangerous area

 

I just want to point out that I don't usually slag opposing fans off, particularly ones we don't have a rivalry with. And this isn't aimed at you (unless it was you). But I read a Sunderland forum last week regarding Alfie Mawson, and to say 95% had never head of him, the slating he was getting was incredible, all because he was coming from poor little Barnsley. It was the sort of thing I'd fully expect from our neighbours down at Swillsbrough, Bumhole lane or Bellend Road, but didn't expect it from you lads who I thought were better than that. I suppose every club has a blinkered few but I was staggered by the volume on this particular forum.

Anyway, as for Alfie. Cracking player; ball playing centre half in the mould of the two lads we let go to Everton. Bit older than them, but every inch as composed and effective. On the evidence of your game on Sunday, he'd walk into the team which considering your injury woes, probably isn't saying much. I'd be surprised if you weren't interested in signing him to be fair because he appears to be improving constantly.

I just can't see him leaving this window however. We've allegedly turned 3.5m down already from Wolves as we simply don't have to sell after the Stones deal. We can't really afford to sell either, not without a backup lined up as we'd have 2 senior centre halves, one of which has never played in the Football league.
I'm not sure Alfie would want to go to Sunderland either. He is allegedly after a move back down South.

Best of luck for the season, I genuinely hope you do well.

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