Sunderland is, and don’t @me on this, easily the biggest club outside of the Sky Bet Championship. The club, their history and much more helps to attest to that. That’s without factoring in their fanatical support. They are currently involved in takeover talks and, according to Stewart Donald in the Sunderland Echo, these are still ongoing.
Donald’s words come from talkSPORT’s ‘GameDay’ podcast entitled ‘Sunderland ‘Till I die: Stewart Donald EXCLUSIVE‘ and they illustrate what is going on behind the scenes about the ongoing takeover talks. In this podcast exclusive, Donald says that talks to sell the club are still ongoing but that they have also been slowed somewhat by the COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic.
The Sunderland Echo carry Donald’s words on this with the Black Cats current owner saying:
“The virus at the moment doesn’t make that [selling the club] easy, but I’m doing what the fans have asked me and the club is for sale and there are people interested in it. But the virus is making that process a little bit slower. Do I want to do that? No. As you can see in the documentary [‘Sunderland ‘Till I Die pt2’], I feel this is my one chance to have a football club like at Sunderland. And now I’m in at Sunderland, I don’t want to go anywhere else.” Stewart Donald – Sunderland Echo – 09 April, 2020
Donald adds that the sale of the club leaves him in a position that he feels awkward in with him not wanting to let go of the Black Cats fully with him admitting that the sale scenario is far from ideal for him. Indeed, he says in the podcast that “In an ideal scenario, I wouldn’t sell it.” Yet, selling it he is and there are interested buyers out there that he is engaging with.
Club owner Donald expands on that sentiment later in the interview adding that is the stars aligned, he would like to say on at the Wearside club. On this he specifically said: “If the fans said to me tomorrow ‘stay’, and the guys from America would completely engage – which I would hope if we can get a little bit more success they would – then I would love to stay.”
Whilst he may ‘love to stay’, the sentiment amongst the majority of fans is unlikely to support that desire.
