Phil Smith's Sunderland Q&A: Takeover talk, contracts, Lee Johnson and the January window go under the microscope

Our Sunderland writer Phil Smith has been answering questions from supporters on those matters, as well as some of the key unknowns that still surround the club, including the progress of the proposed takeover deal.

You can read his responses below...

What’s the difference between this takeover and acquiring additional funding?

This is probably the biggest question around the club at the moment.

We’ve seen a couple of the pieces of the puzzle fall into place of late, with the arrival of Kristjaan Speakman and Lee Johnson as Sporting Director and Head Coach.

Both have spoken very well about the challenge ahead, and their desire to move Sunderland away from being a club defined by short-term decision making.

The biggest piece of the puzzle, though, remains the ownership question and here, supporters still wait for clarity.

The difference will ultimately depend on how the shareholding breaks down and who ultimately has the controlling stake in the club.

If it is a combination of Juan Sartori and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, then there are questions that will need to be answered over the scale of change and to what extent the direction will be different from the last two-and-half years. Particularly as Sartori’s political career in Uruguay seems very strongly to remain his main focus, and makes a significant increase in presence around his football club seem unlikely.

If Louis-Dreyfus is taking a controlling stake on his own, then that clearly marks a fairly significant change.

Both Johnson and Speakman have spoken about the vision they were sold by the ‘ownership group’, but are clearly limited in what they can say while the takeover has still not gone through.

It led to alarm when Johnson discussed his conversations with Stewart Donald, as supporters are clearly expecting a takeover, as promised, to lead to a major reduction in Donald and Charlie Methven’s influence.

It’s our understanding that Donald is likely to become a sleeping partner in the new structure, but there remains much unclear.

The commitment to the academy and an attacking style of play, as well as a long-term vision for recruitment, are all encouraging and represent exactly what fans have been hoping for.

Which is precisely the point. It also stands at odds with what we have seen from the current regime, and so there will be a healthy scepticism until it is clear exactly how this deal will break down and who will be leading the way forward.

Clarity on this will be absolutely key if Speakman and Johnson are to get the clean slate they need with which to try and drive the club back towards where it belongs.

When and if the club is sold will that result in another new manager?

If the proposed takeover goes through as expected, then no.

The recent changes in structure, particularly the appointment of Kristjaan Speakman as Sporting Director, are closely associated with the expected changes in the ownership and shareholding.

It was then Speakman’s decision to appoint Lee Johnson as Head Coach. As Sporting Director, he has autonomy over appointments made in the footballing department.

In short, then, that’s a decision that is essentially already approved. It’s also our understanding from speaking to those with knowledge of the head coach hiring process that the potential new investor/s were in line with the process and the decision made.

So the proposed takeover will not alter the course that Sunderland have set out on in recent weeks.

It’s still firmly expected that the deal will go ahead and is believed to be in the final stages, which includes the EFL checks.

Recent (and very welcome) changes to EFL governance now mean a deal has to be approved by them before any deal can be formally concluded.

Why have the fans had no update whatsoever on the takeover?

It’s a fair question.

There has been no public comment from the club on the proposed deal, other than when Jim Rodwell confirmed a party was in exclusivity on the official club podcast in October.

No senior figure has given any interview on the matter in recent months, and a proposed meeting with supporter groups last month was postponed by Rodwell.

It’s our understanding that subsequent attempts to arrange another meeting or establish some element of clarity on the state of play have had no response.

As I’ve mentioned before, it will have to be addressed at some stage if Speakman and Johnson are to get the clean slate they need.

Everyone on Wearside is desperate to throw their weight and support behind a sustainable, long-term plan.

But there are just too many key unknowns at the moment.

If we take some money from the EFL rescue package will that stop us spending in the transfer window? If so, how can Lee Johnson rebuild?

Not necessarily.

The EFL rescue package is essentially split into three sections.

The first is a payment of £375,000 to all clubs in League One. This is handed out automatically and comes with no restrictions on future spending.

That’s also true of the second section of the rescue package. This is a further £15 million which will be shared between League One and League Two clubs, but this will be distributed proportionate to the money clubs have lost from gate receipts. Clearly, clubs like Sunderland and Portsmouth are therefore going to get a bigger chunk of this based on their high gate revenues. The Black Cats will be able to claim this money with no further restrictions.

Those restrictions come into place when it comes to the third aspect of the rescue package. This is the £20 million that is available for clubs to claim in the form of a ‘monitored grant’.

This is not automatic, and clubs will have to apply for it. A decision will be made by a joint EFL and Premier League panel as to whether the club in question is indeed eligible and requires the further injection of funds.

It’s once this grant has been handed out that a club then becomes monitored in terms of their transfer and wage spending.

If the club sticks within the rules they are set, they do not have to repay the money.

If they don’t, they then become liable for the repayment.

So whether Sunderland will face any additional restrictions beyond the salary cap depends on whether they apply for any of that ‘monitored grant’ money. There have no been suggestions as of yet that they have or will.

Can I ask what do you think the changes need to be made and if it’s on the playing side, how can that be implemented in the light of the salary cap that League 1 clubs are under? If the answer is that sales of some of our players would be made to accommodate incomings can we make sure that new players are acquired before letting others go to avoid the inevitable gap that would occur?

With difficulty, is the honest answer!

If my calculations are right, Sunderland have one space left in their 22-man squad for the season.

So that means they can add one player over the age of 21 before they would be forced to let players go in order to bring others in.

I suspect they are very close to the cap in terms of their salaries, and so major investment is going to be difficult.

Of course, the loan market could become a very attractive option. Johnson has already said that he wants some pace, and that he does not necessarily mind if it is a little bit raw.

He has good connections with Premier League clubs and used the market well at Bristol City, so I’m sure that is one route that he will consider.

In terms of the first part of your question, I entirely agree with Johnson that a bit more pace is needed in the final third.

If Sunderland are to persist with a 4-3-3, or a variation of it, then I think there current central midfield options are lacking just a little in creativity.

So that’s something I’d like to see addressed, though I do wonder if as time goes by, Johnson may able to drop Elliot Embleton or Chris Maguire into one of those roles. That would increase the team’s attacking threat, but as the team understands his demands better, the presence of two other central midfielders should mean not too much is lost defensively.

With so many players out of contract in the summer, do the club use that to clear out as much of the squad as possible and start again? And who would you give new contracts too out of those 12?

There will, I suspect, be an element of that.

If you do win promotion, then there will naturally be a turnover of personnel as you try and prepare for what will be a significantly higher standard of football.

If you don’t, then you have reached a point where you have failed to win promotion three times. That suggests you need to change direction to some extent.

More broadly, it will clearly present an opportunity for Speakman and Johnson to begin implementing the change they are talking about.

Speakman, interestingly, has pointed out that he will, alongside Johnson, try to create a squad where there is an even distribution of players across four age brackets. This is to ensure that the squad has experience, but also has players with value whose potential is significant.

Both have quickly identified that the current squad has too many players in the upper bracket, and next summer will be a good chance to start correcting that.

There are some real assets in the final year of their deal, though, and it would be a very positive statement from the new footballing structure to address that. Contract management has been a big failing of the recent past and it’s an area that any new structure should be making a priority.

Jordan Willis and Luke O’Nien clearly deserve a new deal and are capable of stepping up a level.

Denver Hume should be retained, and I have real hope that Elliot Embleton and Jack Diamond can earn a new deal in the weeks and months ahead.

They are assets that need to be protected.

Elsewhere, it will be up to the players in question to prove they can thrive in Johnson’s style and philosophy.

How successful do you think Lee Johnson will be given the ambitions he has set and the size of the challenge ahead for him?

I’m broadly optimistic from what I’ve seen and heard so far.

Clearly identifying problems is a far easier task than correcting them, but it was still heartening to see him so quickly and candidly discuss the task ahead.

His comments about the squad and the lack of pace made the most headlines and understandably so, given how big an issue it has been for a long time.

But what I liked most of all was how quickly he talked about wanting to bring a bit more energy to the place, and encouraging more creativity.

That’s something I’ve felt a lot of late and it was really encouraging to hear it addressed.

My initial instinct when Phil Parkinson left was that Johnson would be out of Sunderland’s range and likely to get a Championship job, so it therefore follows that I think it’s a good appointment.

If the brief is to win promotion and then stabilise in the Championship while improving the style of play, it looks a good bet to me.

For me, the slightly bizarre highlight of his first few days was how he handled the Dion Sanderson saga at Oldham.

Make no mistake, it was nothing short of farcical that a club of Sunderland’s stature could not realise a player was cup tied before the teams were announced.

Johnson took full accountability (even though the responsibility lay elsewhere given how recently he had arrived), and simply said the organisational standards have to be better.

We saw in that game that the transition to his preferred playing style is going to be a long project with lots of bumps in the road, but we were already beginning to see his patterns of play slowly emerge.

It was a reminder of just what a big job this is, and also how much his success will be defined by whether the structure around him is right.

Make no mistake, Sunderland are behind clubs like Bristol City right now in so many aspects of their footballing operation, and that has to change.

Speakman and Johnson’s arrivals are heartening, so long as they get that support.

There is always a lot of talk around pressure, patience etc when it comes to Sunderland.

I honestly believe anyone who shows commitment to the long-term future of the club will generate an immense amount of goodwill and support. My sincerest hope is that Speakman and Johnson find an environment where they can demonstrate what they are all about.

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