Sunderland co-owner Charlie Methven criticised for controversial remarks on club's support

In an interview originally streamed in April, Methven said that supporters had demanded the departure of the club's five previous owners.

Methven also said that there was a lack of patience amongst fans in the north east.

After supporters expressed their frustration with the comments, non-executive director David Jones subsequently took to twitter to say that Methven, who still has a 6% stake in the club, did not speak for the board.

The Youtube interview with Sasikumar Ramu was picked up by fan website Roker Report on Monday, with Methven's comments on former manager Chris Coleman originally raising eyebrows.

Methven said his departure had been because the owners had felt the club needed to 'rebase'.

In their first press conference after purchasing the club, Stewart Donald said the decision to sack Coleman had been entirely down to Ellis Short.

Donald even raised the prospect of holding talks with Coleman with a view to reappointing him.

Elsewhere in the interview, Methven discussed the sale of the club.

He said supporters had demanded change even when seventh in the Premier League, and that Donald had felt obliged to sell due to fan protests last December.

The club had twice almost changed hands in the six months previous to that protest.

Both Mark Campbell and then the FPP Sunderland group were in advanced talks to take a majority shareholding at one stage in 2019.

"One of the main fan groups came to Stewart in December and asked him to sell the club,” Methven said.

"This isn't unusual, they've done the same to their last five owners. Some fans tend to want to eject their owner on a regular basis.

"When I felt a bit put out about this, I was told by one of the former owners that when they were seventh in the Premier League, they were still trying to push him out of the club then.

"I think Stewart's view has always been that he only wants to be the chairman and owner as long as people want him to be there.

"He doesn't want to be there against people's will. He's not there for ego, to try and make a lot of money. He was there to try and do it as a sporting challenge and to try and do it in partnership with the fans.

"He put the club up for sale because the fans asked him to but subsequently, he and I received thousands of letters from other fans saying that they wanted us to stay.

"That put a different gloss on it and we realised that it was a more nuanced position than Stewart had thought.

"Nonetheless, the position is if a great new onwer comes along, we would sell because we want it to succeed."

Methven praised the loyalty of the Sunderland support, but also said when discussing the club's recruitment: "Most football fans aren't patient but in the north east, patience isn't even a quality that they admire.

"Patience in the south of England, even if people don't have it, they at least see that it's a good thing. In the north east patience is seen as something which is not a good thing fundamentally."

Methven left the Sunderland board last year, citing family reasons.

He subsequently apologised for comments made at a meeting with supporter groups in November.

David Jones, who was appointed to the board as a non-executive director a month later, told supporters on twitter that he did not agree with the remarks Methven made in April.

"He doesn’t speak for me and he doesn’t speak for the board, which he isn’t actually on," Jones said.

"I don’t recall anyone trying to get rid of the owners when we were 7th, people were supportive of Bob Murray, Drumaville and Ellis Short before he lost his love for it."

Jones was joined on the board by Tom Sloanes, and the Sky Sports presenter went on to say that he was 'more positive than ever' that he can make a difference at the club.

"I’m on the board because I want to make a difference and over the last few weeks I’ve become more positive than ever that I can make a difference and I’m sure Tom would say exactly the same," he tweeted.

Madrox conceded last month that the COVID-19 crisis meant that the sale of the club was not imminent.