Phil Smith's Sunderland AFC Q&A: The inside track on contract talks, transfer developments and Madrox's pledge to sell the club

From ongoing uncertainty over the club’s ownership to concerns over the academy, supporters have plenty of questions about the current state of play at Sunderland AFC.

Here, our Sunderland AFC writer Phil Smith answers your burning questions – which supporters submitted via our breaking news WhatsApp service and social media:

Q: Are Madrox genuinely trying to sell the club, or are they just placating us by saying so?

Personally, I think there is a genuine willingness to sell.

I also think everything we have seen from the last two months suggests that there is nothing imminent in terms of a sale.

It is always going to be a question of valuations.

That is even more complex now when you consider we have no idea when fans will be paying to get back into grounds (the parachute repayment is another factor to consider).

Like everybody else, my hope above all else is that when the club does change hands, it leads to a proper period of stability.

I find it hard to see the club progressing as it should until we have that.

Q: Will the club be leaving new signings until government and EFL advice is clearer on when we can play again? It could perhaps mean our rivals get the better signings, leaving us wanting for another year.

I don’t think it’s necessarily quite that straightforward.

I think knowing when the season will return and how many (if any) fans will be allowed in the stadiums is going to be really important for all clubs.

Once you have that information, you can have a proper budget in place.

Jim Rodwell has said that will be key and Phil Parkinson has also said his view is that patience might be key.

His view is that there will be good players dropping out of the Premier League and the Championship, but mainly when their seasons end in late July.

He wants to be in a position to move then.

Having said that, there will be some excellent players from the lower divisions becoming available already and a club of Sunderland’s stature should be ready and waiting to move.

More broadly, it will be a fascinating summer market generally as we will see very clearly who has prepared well and who has some element of financial stability.

It’s a little early to see exactly how Sunderland are going to play it.

I can see the logic in letting the market settle, as long as the preparation and research is exhaustive.

That is what is going to be key, and you’re right to point out that it’s key other clubs aren’t able to snap up really good talent in the interim.

Q: Totally unfair the way the EFL has decided how the league should be finished. Why didn't ALL the clubs get together and oppose that decision?

In the end, it suited too many clubs to curtail.

Really, that’s the fault of the EFL for running the clock down and for making clear how they were going to settle the table in the event of an early end to the season.

For those already in the top two, the play-offs, or just above the bottom three, there was little incentive to play on.

A lot of clubs also had genuine and fair concerns over the costs of testing.

The EFL were never able to come up with a solution to solve that and this was a massive factor in the end.

Q: What do you make of the interview given by Charlie?

First and foremost, the interview by Charlie Methven is obviously a bit of an odd one to comment on as it’s six weeks or so old, but only really surfaced yesterday.

Still, there were some comments that have rightly been challenged.

First and foremost, the tacit recognition that removing Chris Coleman was indeed Madrox’s decision.

Two years on, that might not seem like a big deal, but it is utterly at odds with what we were told at their first press conference.

That decision was attributed solely to Ellis Short and Stewart Donald even talked about potentially rehiring him (he was asked to clarify this and insisted he was being genuine).

This matters because it’s these mixed messages and contradictory that have so comprehensively eroded trust over a period of time, and continue to do so.

It was a wide-ranging interview on loads of different matters, but it was bitterly disappointing to see a Sunderland shareholder implying that the fans have been unreasonable and impatient.

On the point regarding previous owners, David Jones put it perfectly in his response.

As we have also said before, it’s disingenuous to attribute the club being up for sale solely to the fan groups, when it was twice almost sold in the year previous.

As for the point regarding patience; I think Sunderland fans gave an immense amount of goodwill to the current regime. They would have been very patient, had there been clear signs of a plan to progress the club in the last two years.

There hasn’t been, and amid understandable concern over the academy, recruitment and slow progress of the first team, there have been calls for change.

Sunderland are at the lowest point in their history.

Of course that is so much to do with bad decisions over a long period well before the current owners came in.

But they are absolutely accountable for where the club is now.

Q: And the reply from David Jones?

It’s a difficult one generally I think for David.

He’s put his reputation and standing amongst Sunderland fans on the line because he wants to try and help the club.

It’s not an easy position to be in when the regime itself is unpopular.

I think last night showed why it’s a good thing to have someone so passionate about the club, the city and its people involved.

I think we also saw that in the way we finally reached something approaching the right stance on season cards (and credit also, obviously, to the fans who pushed for change there).

I know David is very passionate about trying to get recruitment right, and ensure the club has everything it needs in place to have a proper, modern operation in that regard.

It’s one of the things he has been pushing for since his appointment and continues to do so.

I genuinely don’t think David would be on the board if he didn’t feel he could make a difference.

Fingers crossed he can.

Q: How much money is going to be available for transfers? It's painfully obvious that right through the spine needs strengthening, a prolific goalscorer being top of the list, and greater depth of squad. There's very little rotation since there's not much competition for places.

I don’t envisage Sunderland, or any other League One club for that matter, spending big fees this summer.

In fact, I don’t think there’ll be much spending in the Championship either.

Across the three EFL divisions, I expect to see a surge in the loan market, and a surge in the number of

The latter is one of the reasons why the last couple of years has been so disappointing from a Sunderland perspective.

Yes, there’s some excellent academy products in the senior squad currently, but should Bali Mumba join Norwich as expected, it won’t leave too many really knocking on the door.

More generally, I think it’s worth stressing that there is absolutely nothing wrong with picking up free agents, or players for modest fees.

Jordan Willis and Luke O’Nien are great examples of that, but the issue is that they have been the exceptions proving the rule that Sunderland haven’t got it right too often.

I agree that the spine needs strengthening.

In the current climate, though, it doesn’t necessarily need big transfer fees.

It needs investment, absolutely.

There should be no excuse for that, given the money that has been freed up by departures over the last twelve months or so.

Above all else, it’s about good decisions and a good knowledge of the market.

We wait and see how well placed Sunderland are.

Q: Hi Phil - do you not think that the treatment shown to young Ethan Robson is shocking? Wherever he was on loan he has returned with glowing reports, he has never been given one chance by Parkinson to show his quality.

I think Ethan Robson is going to have an excellent EFL career, and I strongly suspect we’ll be looking back one day scratching our heads as to how he only made 12 senior appearances for Sunderland.

He’s excellent technically and has proven in his loan spells of late that he can stand up to the physical test, too.

I do think that absolutely, over a long period of time, he has been let down.

The one caveat I would add is that he was going to start last season, which would have been an enormous opportunity, before he suffered an injury.

The biggest error, I think, was in not sorting him out some good loan moves when Sunderland were in the Premier League and he was clearly not needed as cover at that stage.

I think that would have accelerated his development and may have meant managers were a little more proactive in giving him opportunities.

That he’s leaving now when he should be the heartbeat of the side ought to give everyone pause for thought when it comes to development and pathways.

In terms of the last few months, it’s disappointing he never got much of a chance.

Parkinson had been enthused when he first came back from Grimsby, confident that he was showing in training he had the capacity to get through the physical demands he places on his two central midfielders, but it just never quite happened.

There was another injury in there as well, and when results were decent we saw how hard it was for players not in the XI to break through.

I’m disappointed he’s leaving, yet also in no doubt that it is the right thing if it means regular football for him.

That’s what he needs and has to prioritise.

I think over a long period of time, it has been a big missed opportunity.

Indeed, I increasingly feel as if that chance to reset and rebuild at the start of this League One journey was missed.

There is always pressure to get results at a big club in League One, but so much of what Sunderland have been, in the last season especially, has just felt muddled.

Q: What happens next with Benji?

Sunderland have offered a contract but I’d be surprised if there was a positive resolution.

The club have felt that there has not really ever been a willingness to engage from the part of the player and his representatives.

For their part, they are insistent that they will only talk terms if Kimpioka is given assurances about his place in the first-team squad.

We’ve not seen much from Parkinson to suggest he is going to get that.

The contract offer is important because of compensation rules.

Basically, in order to be entitled to compensation if a youngster joins another club, you have to offer them a deal at least as good as what they are on now.

Sunderland genuinely want Benji to stay, but this means they are somewhat protected regardless.

I’m not sure how it will end at the moment.

I still think it’s unlikely he will stay.

Q: Thoughts on the retained list generally?

Keeping Chris Maguire was an obvious call and a good one to get sorted.

More broadly, it’s a little early to tell, isn’t it?

I think supporters would suddenly feel upbeat if, say, Jon McLaughlin and Bailey Wright could be added to the current crop (in terms of the former, that’s a long, long way from being certain).

Right now, there is a lot of work to be done in defensive positions to get the squad close to being ready for a promotion push.

Sunderland look light up front and need a little more guile in central midfield.

With Maguire staying, those attacking midfield positions look decent given that I’m expecting a big campaign from Elliot Embleton.

All in all, it sums up the work to be done this summer.

Particularly in the U23 and U18 sides, where there are some really talented players (Diamond, Hackett, Patterson, Kiernan to name just a few) but some major gaps to fill to get the teams competitive and to allow for really important loans.

That’s a massive, massive rebuilding project.