I am now living in Florida and have lived in Canada and the USA for 52 years. But I was born and bred in the Liverpool area and still support Everton. Growing up, I became a fan of Sunderland because one of my uncles was a friend of Ivor Broadis, who played for Sunderland and Carlisle, among others. Consequently, he took me to games in Bolton, Manchester and other nearby teams to watch Sunderland. Only one omission – I never went to Liverpool’s ground and never will.
I went to the Cup Final against Leeds, a memorable day out. Left Liverpool on a coach early on match day. Watched some great players, Len Shackleton being the best, and met Ray Daniels in a South Wales pub. Once met Wilf Mannion, the Middlesbrough great, who told me to watch Raich Carter. Later we had Stan Anderson, Charlie Hurley, Kevin Phillips, Niall Quinn and the greatest goalie, Jimmy Montgomery.
Today’s team has done well, but it’s sad to see so few home-grown players. My daughter made me a Sunderland shirt and I still proudly wear it.
Neil RotheryEd’s note [Martin]: Great memories Neil – it is a bit sad to see homegrown players like Neil, Patterson etc leave but there’s a good crop of youngsters coming through, who I think we’ll see play more this season. Keep flying the flag stateside!
Dear Roker Report,I love listening to the daily podcast on the cycle in to work and have been really piqued by the commentary on the last few episodes around the SAFC membership programme. As was mentioned the other day, we are getting very little out of such membership, and the comparison against Man City’s membership scheme showed how far behind we are with other clubs.
I realise that we are new to this Premier League malarkey and the club needs to make revenue to compete at this highest level, BUT Tom Burwell needs to explain the sheer ineptitude of not managing to secure a front-of-shirt sponsor for 2026/2027.
There are rumours of Visit Ghana being lined up as a sponsor for the away and third shirt, but this doesn’t equate to a premium partner. We have had two years to find a sponsor that would value Sunderland as a brand; however, this has been (in my view) a failure by the commercial team.
Now the club have rushed this membership scheme in part (it feels like) to mitigate the commercial loss in shirt sponsorship.
Is this a commercial misstep by the club? (Although, as a fan, I’m quite happy with the home kit not having a front-of-shirt sponsor!).
Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Graeme (Season Ticket holder and proud Irish Branch Member)Ed’s note [Martin]: Thanks for the email and the kind comments on the podcast, Graeme. Glad we keep you company on your commute! While the football side of the club is in good shape, the off field stuff has long been poor, verging on the shambolic. I thought we’d got it sorted in the last couple of years when it seemed to finally be getting smoother, albeit not without some significant missteps, but this summer the club has been really poor off the field. The membership scheme looks like a straightforward cash grab, with the club taking advantage of the feel good factor among the fans, and playing on the fear of missing out, rather than offering something of value in exhcange. The discrepancy in shirt sizes for the home kit seems to be a manufacturing issue – however, someone at the club should be responsible for that too, it’s not something you can abdicate – and changing over ticketing platforms less than two weeks before the start of the season is just illogical – or incredibly naive. Throw into that the lack of announcement on a shirt sponsor, and it’s been a very, very ordinary summer indeed for the club’s suits. Whether Tom Burwell is directly responsible for these things or not, as the CEO, the buck lies with him, and it’s not been a good start to his tenure at the club. He does need to come out and explain what’s gone wrong and how it’s going to be fixed. The concern I have is that this is the easiest time to run the club off the field – the profile’s never been higher, the team has not been as good for 50+ years, and the fans are desperate to support. Yes, that brings new challenges, but if we can’t get it right off the field now, when can we?
Dear Roker Report,I can imagine that us being linked with Jadon Sancho will be a bit of a divisive one, with a lot of people mentioning his attitude, form or whatever. These would be valid points if we were Real Madrid looking at signing him, but we’re Sunderland. As amazing as we are, and definitely were last season, we’re still Sunderland and have to take into account that poor form for Man Utd can be a little different to us here. Look at starboy Diallo; could be the wrong time, wrong place, but we all know what both those lads are capable of.
You could also say look at how he has bounced around so many clubs in such little time. I’d also point at the trophies he has collected along the way. I’d then go on to mention that Pritchard, Roberts and Jack Clarke all went ground-hopping very quickly. What then happened was this great football club and the fellas running it gave them a home and got them settled. For which I’m very thankful, because all three were a pleasure to watch.
Then you take into account Granit Xhaka. Could you imagine him allowing any of those players to let their standards slip? They’ve all been in clubs challenging, Sancho has been since day one in the professional game and will have some great experience in our title charge this season.
Probably never happen with his wages and likely other potential suitors, but I got to see Ronaldinho play football at the Stadium of Light the other week, so you never know!
Jake TaylorEd’s note [Martin]: I can’t see it happening myself, Jake – but I do know this: if Sancho actually wants to be a decent footballer, he couldn’t join a better club than us. Under Regis Le Bris, Granit Xhaka and Luke O’Nien, he could learn everything he needs to about the mental side of the game, get some genuine motivation and tactical understanding. However, I think the demands the club would place on him would make him run a mile. Looking from the outside, he’s one of those who I don’t think really wants to be a footballer, he just likes all the trimmings. But, if he decided he’d take a reduced wage at Regis’ Rehab Clinic For Failing Footballers, the potential upside is massive.
Dear Roker Report,Lads, hope all’s well.
I haven’t had a chance to listen to your pod yet on ticketing issues at the club, but feel really strongly and passionately about this issue, as this has been a major problem at the club for more than a decade now. It’s just not good enough, which, at a time when there genuinely is so much right with the club, is a real shame.
For me, it’s a time where SCR is now in, so football revenue really has to be important for the club to press on with. I feel that if it wasn’t for the shambles that is happening at the ticket office, which, like I say, has been going on for over a decade now, then things like this Saturday’s friendly would be and should be a sell-out. This creates football revenue, and I know it won’t be because people won’t want to go through the hassle of dealing with the ticket office, so won’t bother purchasing a ticket to go.
It’s also the same with empty seats at sell-outs (which I’m sick to the back teeth of those lot up the road pointing out to me). For me, the reason we have empty seats at games when it’s a sell-out is because of the hassle to transfer tickets to people. When you have an issue, the ticket department at the club is a nightmare to get in touch with, which will mean people won’t be arsed with the hassle and just leave the seats empty. That reflects badly on us as not just a fan base, but the club in general, as they are giving it off as being a sell-out, but it’s not really.
The current issue at the club, to me, just shows everything that’s wrong with the ticketing department. We as Mackems are built on hard work. Our foundations are simple – we work hard and, if we do come across issues, we work even harder to fix those problems. Can we say that is happening at the ticket department at the moment? For me, no, we can’t.
The ticket office has had no phone lines open, they now have no email address, and the opening hours are 10am – 5pm, with people stopped from queuing at 3:30pm so the ticket office can close at 5pm. It’s not good enough, and I know there’s people working hard at the ticket office, but for me, if you’re privileged enough to work at the club and, in particular, run the ticket department, which, as I’ve alluded to, in this current SCR climate is a vital role, you should be working your backside off to sort the issues out.
Is the head of our ticketing department working their arse off to do that? For me, they aren’t. They are sending out correspondence through the club with no apology, saying the issues have been resolved, yet still fans can’t get logged into accounts to sort out cup schemes for Europa and get tickets for Saturday’s friendly.
It’s beyond a shambles and I want to have a voice to make this point to the club. If you could help with that, that would be great lads. I understand you might not be able to, and that’s fine – I just wanted to try something.
Keep up the great work. The pods are great and I always enjoy listening.
Thanks.
David TaylorEd’s note [Martin]: Thanks for the email David, and glad you enjoy the pods! Yep, I’m in complete agreement with you about this, and it’s pathetic really that the club cannot get something so relatively simple wrong, time and time again. The club are putting barriers and restrictions in the way of people actually getting to games. They are making it virtually impossible to pass on your ticket if you can’t go to a game, and the way the tickets have been sold for the friendly on Saturday is once more a disgrace. I guarantee there’ll be a whole load of social media accounts taking the piss out of ‘Europa League Sunderland not able to get more than 8000 for the last pre-season friendly’ – however, this is purely and simply down to the club’s ineptitude. I understand the need for more control over away tickets – that needed to be sorted out – however, the rest of it is horrendously bad. It’s something Tom Burwell needs to sort ASAP – because it’s the biggest public-facing mess, and it’s all of the club’s making.
A long queue has been outside the ticket office all day as people continue to struggle to access the new club accounts.
A staff member has been placed at the back of the queue for the last hour or so telling people who are about to join that they will likely not get seen to.… pic.twitter.com/eidFNnvLVH
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