Have to say our play-off winning side looked so much better than what we have now. Nearly wept when I saw Aribo do one of his jerky turns on the ball and Bielik and BFG in full flow.
I think we all knew then we were witnessing a final high. That's why it felt so good.
Haven’t finished it yet but I thought the stuff with Sophie the marketing woman was extremely poorly handled. I’m a TV producer who has made several documentaries over the years and the way this was edited, and the focus on her as a dud, insolent employee, was appalling.
Remember this is a single mum who presumably lives in the area and will be looking for another job, not a £50k a week footballer (Maja) that the series should be about. It feels like it was cut like this because the source material was so thin.
This and the Tiger King, where Carole Baskin claims the show was edited to sex up the ‘she killed her husband’ allegations, is not showing Netflix in a great light. Yes give film makers freedom but Netflix has a responsibility to hold those film makers to account before broadcast.
Can we be careful dropping spoilers of shows into random threads. Some people (like myself) haven't watched Tiger King yet. Can use the spoiler tool above.
For those having a crack at young Maja ask yourself what you would do in his position....commit your future to the hands of a pair of dodgy chancers or cash out and get a great move elsewhere that sets you up for life?
Sunderland didn’t have to sell him, they could have kept him and used him to get an auto spot and then let him go.....but they chose to take the cash.
He did look very smug though when asked what was happening and he smirked when saying he didn't know because he was concentrating on playing football. Given all the effort they made to keep him and the lack of respect from his Agent, the Chairman should have made him serve his contract out- they only got 1.5m euros for him and wasted more than twice that on Will Grieg.
Maja and/or his agent didn’t choose to leave - Sunderland chose to sell him.
How do you get to that conclusion?
Because if Sunderland hadn’t chosen to sell him he couldn’t have signed for Bordeaux in January - simple conclusion really. Obviously it would have meant losing him for nothing in the summer, as it was they ended up even worse off than that as they were £1.5M down (£1.5M in for Maja and £3M out on Grigg), a much worse team and blowing promotion.
The documentary completely glossed over Sunderland accepting an offer for Maja - which is the most significant thing that happened all season - and made it out like he just turned up in Bordeaux and signed for them without Sunderland’s knowledge.
Well I agree (with several people here) that the way the prog. dealt with this left far too many questions unanswered, but "choosing to sell him" is surely a bit harsh, based on all we know. RD "chose" to sell Grant to Huddersfield. I don't think you can find a chairman as far removed from RD as Donald. Unlike RD (re Aribo and Taylor, as well as Grant), they tried to offer Maja a new contract. It probably would be asking too much for the programme to explore the figures, but it could have asked Maja more about why he was moving, and especially why to Bordeaux. "Do you speak French, Josh? Won't you miss family and friends?" etc. And now we learn he might be returning to England after just a few months. As usual the real culprit -the agent - evades all public scrutiny. That is one thing all those scumbags are good at, knowing how to operate completely in the shadows.
That’s quite funny. I didn’t know they did humour at the Guardian
That cartoonist is David Squires, an English ex-pat/Australian Swindon fan. Every Tuesday he does a good take on the weekend's premiership action in a series of panels usually with a topical theme running thrugh them.
For those having a crack at young Maja ask yourself what you would do in his position....commit your future to the hands of a pair of dodgy chancers or cash out and get a great move elsewhere that sets you up for life?
Sunderland didn’t have to sell him, they could have kept him and used him to get an auto spot and then let him go.....but they chose to take the cash.
He did look very smug though when asked what was happening and he smirked when saying he didn't know because he was concentrating on playing football. Given all the effort they made to keep him and the lack of respect from his Agent, the Chairman should have made him serve his contract out- they only got 1.5m euros for him and wasted more than twice that on Will Grieg.
Maja and/or his agent didn’t choose to leave - Sunderland chose to sell him.
Not how it came across. The Agent was being deliberately obstructive and had form for moving players abroad where the Agent picks up a huge bonus. If they sold him it was because they would have got zip I six months but with hindsight that's what they should have done.
I understand that it is the same agent for Joe Aribo and for each transfer the agent picked up £1million for his troubles.
Earlier on in the series one of the Sunderland guys even says his main fear is that Maja's agent has a history of moving his young players abroad so the transfer fee is less and he therefore gets a bigger cut of the deal.
One thing is clear though, Sunderland letting him go in January definitely cost them promotion. I personally think they'd have won the league comfortably if he'd stayed.
Madness how much the owner let himself get shafted on deadline day for Grigg. From a final 1.25m offer the day before to ending up paying 3m plus 1m in add ons.
For those having a crack at young Maja ask yourself what you would do in his position....commit your future to the hands of a pair of dodgy chancers or cash out and get a great move elsewhere that sets you up for life?
Sunderland didn’t have to sell him, they could have kept him and used him to get an auto spot and then let him go.....but they chose to take the cash.
He did look very smug though when asked what was happening and he smirked when saying he didn't know because he was concentrating on playing football. Given all the effort they made to keep him and the lack of respect from his Agent, the Chairman should have made him serve his contract out- they only got 1.5m euros for him and wasted more than twice that on Will Grieg.
Maja and/or his agent didn’t choose to leave - Sunderland chose to sell him.
How do you get to that conclusion?
Because if Sunderland hadn’t chosen to sell him he couldn’t have signed for Bordeaux in January - simple conclusion really. Obviously it would have meant losing him for nothing in the summer, as it was they ended up even worse off than that as they were £1.5M down (£1.5M in for Maja and £3M out on Grigg), a much worse team and blowing promotion.
The documentary completely glossed over Sunderland accepting an offer for Maja - which is the most significant thing that happened all season - and made it out like he just turned up in Bordeaux and signed for them without Sunderland’s knowledge.
Well I agree (with several people here) that the way the prog. dealt with this left far too many questions unanswered, but "choosing to sell him" is surely a bit harsh, based on all we know. RD "chose" to sell Grant to Huddersfield. I don't think you can find a chairman as far removed from RD as Donald. Unlike RD (re Aribo and Taylor, as well as Grant), they tried to offer Maja a new contract. It probably would be asking too much for the programme to explore the figures, but it could have asked Maja more about why he was moving, and especially why to Bordeaux. "Do you speak French, Josh? Won't you miss family and friends?" etc. And now we learn he might be returning to England after just a few months. As usual the real culprit -the agent - evades all public scrutiny. That is one thing all those scumbags are good at, knowing how to operate completely in the shadows.
Ah, forgot you see everything through the lens of your contempt for agents!
Sunderland May well have offered Maja a new contract but he didn’t have to sign, that’s his right, and he owes Sunderland no more loyalty than Sunderland owe to the 20 or so players that came through their youth academy with Maja that were released because they didn’t make the cut. This isn’t a one way thing, it isn’t slavery, players have contractual rights and an imperative to fulfil their career goals (whether that be financial or otherwise) in the short timeframe available to them.
The simple fact is that Sunderland were faced with the choice of £1.5M for Maja now or keep him for six months but get nothing, a difficult one but it was a choice nonetheless. They chose the wrong one and just because you’ve fallen for Donald’s cuddly charm doesn’t change the facts. Don’t you think them making that terrible choice - given that it (IMO) was the most significant factor in deciding Sunderland’s season - should have been covered?
Oh, and to be fair, he’s lasted circa 18 months in Bordeaux, I’m sure he’s fluent in French and has amazing cooking skills now!
@se9addick "fallen for Donald's cuddly charm"? Come on. Overall re Donald, I agree with whoever wrote above that he was out of his depth, taking on a club like Sunderland, and maybe they should have moved more quickly to secure Maja on a new deal. But the comparison with RD was, he too of course failed to secure players, because he really didn't want to. And how many club chairmen go to away games and sit with their travelling fans? Do you think that was made up?
I'm not arguing with you about the faults of the programme. I agree. And looking at Maja's record in Bordeaux, it isn't a disaster, he even scored a hat-trick in one game, but now it seems he is returning to England. Again, a failing of the prog. that it did not seem to ask him, why Bordeaux? I am all for English players playing abroad more, but this one stands out for being a bit unlikely, and we didnt learn anything from Maja about why. As for the agent, i won't repeat myself. But they are never seen on TV, unless Panorama are on their case. They are smart enough to know that if they were more in the public eye, intelligent fans like you might start to see where I'm coming from on them.
@se9addick "fallen for Donald's cuddly charm"? Come on. Overall re Donald, I agree with whoever wrote above that he was out of his depth, taking on a club like Sunderland, and maybe they should have moved more quickly to secure Maja on a new deal. But the comparison with RD was, he too of course failed to secure players, because he really didn't want to. And how many club chairmen go to away games and sit with their travelling fans? Do you think that was made up?
I'm not arguing with you about the faults of the programme. I agree. And looking at Maja's record in Bordeaux, it isn't a disaster, he even scored a hat-trick in one game, but now it seems he is returning to England. Again, a failing of the prog. that it did not seem to ask him, why Bordeaux? I am all for English players playing abroad more, but this one stands out for being a bit unlikely, and we didnt learn anything from Maja about why. As for the agent, i won't repeat myself. But they are never seen on TV, unless Panorama are on their case. They are smart enough to know that if they were more in the public eye, intelligent fans like you might start to see where I'm coming from on them.
I think the answer to “Why Bordeaux?” Is simple!
They were the only club willing to drop €1.5 million on a 19 year old kid from League One with six months left on his contract....plus, of course, the large sum to the agent.
I don’t know why they were so desperate for him but they clearly were!
I was just thinking this morning that if Maja had a different agent, who wasn't quite so greedy, he might have been directed towards a FAPL club willing to take a gamble on a young lower league striker. Namely Huddersfield...and I wondered how things might have panned out. But I concluded that RD would just have flogged Taylor instead, and we would still be in the third tier.
For those having a crack at young Maja ask yourself what you would do in his position....commit your future to the hands of a pair of dodgy chancers or cash out and get a great move elsewhere that sets you up for life?
Sunderland didn’t have to sell him, they could have kept him and used him to get an auto spot and then let him go.....but they chose to take the cash.
He did look very smug though when asked what was happening and he smirked when saying he didn't know because he was concentrating on playing football. Given all the effort they made to keep him and the lack of respect from his Agent, the Chairman should have made him serve his contract out- they only got 1.5m euros for him and wasted more than twice that on Will Grieg.
Maja and/or his agent didn’t choose to leave - Sunderland chose to sell him.
Not how it came across. The Agent was being deliberately obstructive and had form for moving players abroad where the Agent picks up a huge bonus. If they sold him it was because they would have got zip I six months but with hindsight that's what they should have done.
I understand that it is the same agent for Joe Aribo and for each transfer the agent picked up £1million for his troubles.
Wouldn’t it be nice to regulate agents, and cap their fees to, say, £50k, which is a decent whack for making some phone calls and attending a few meetings.
Of course there’s no legal way of doing this, unfortunately.
Apparently after filming relegation, losing a cup final and play off final in L1, followed by not filming the last 2 seasons, when Sunderland managed to get promoted, the Netflix cameras returned on Friday just as Alex Neil sacked them off and went to Stoke.
Comments
Have to say our play-off winning side looked so much better than what we have now. Nearly wept when I saw Aribo do one of his jerky turns on the ball and Bielik and BFG in full flow.
I think we all knew then we were witnessing a final high. That's why it felt so good.
One thing is clear though, Sunderland letting him go in January definitely cost them promotion. I personally think they'd have won the league comfortably if he'd stayed.
Oh, and to be fair, he’s lasted circa 18 months in Bordeaux, I’m sure he’s fluent in French and has amazing cooking skills now!
I'm not arguing with you about the faults of the programme. I agree. And looking at Maja's record in Bordeaux, it isn't a disaster, he even scored a hat-trick in one game, but now it seems he is returning to England. Again, a failing of the prog. that it did not seem to ask him, why Bordeaux? I am all for English players playing abroad more, but this one stands out for being a bit unlikely, and we didnt learn anything from Maja about why. As for the agent, i won't repeat myself. But they are never seen on TV, unless Panorama are on their case. They are smart enough to know that if they were more in the public eye, intelligent fans like you might start to see where I'm coming from on them.
They were the only club willing to drop €1.5 million on a 19 year old kid from League One with six months left on his contract....plus, of course, the large sum to the agent.
Sunderland fans seem to hate Stewart Donald, but I think he comes accross as a decent guy.
Charlie Methven though.....What a tosser!!
Think they are a bit of a jinx on Sunderland!