Murray denies planning for relegation
Sunderland chairman Bob Murray has furiously denied claims by manager Mick McCarthy that the club had planned for relegation from the Barclays Premiership.
Murray was responding to comments from McCarthy who implied last week the club’s summer transfer activity was executed mindful of what shape they would be in should they make an immediate return to the Coca-Cola Championship.
Murray, however, insists the club had returned to the top flight with no thoughts other than staying up.
He told the Sunderland Echo: “I was very angry to read the comments at the weekend which are blatantly untrue and insulting. We did not go up into the Premiership just to make up the numbers or with a plan to come back down – that is just a ludicrous suggestion.
“We did expect it to be a difficult and hard first season back, as Wigan and West Ham did, but we did not expect us to be in the position we are today – and none of us are happy about that.”
McCarthy had said: “There was a view taken in the summer that, of course we wanted to stay up and do well, but if we didn’t then the group of players here will stay here and be a force to be reckoned with in the Championship…
“We have lacked experience this season but if we had gone out and got experienced players on big salaries, we might have had a real problem if we had gone down.
“If it turns out that we’re not good enough and we go down, this team stays together unless any decide they don’t want to.”
The Wearsiders lie 16 points from safety at the foot of the table with 14 games to play and are nine points adrift of second-bottom Portsmouth with relegation looking all but guaranteed.
“Our transfer policy in the summer was to spend as much as we possibly could, within the constraints we face, and we spent every penny that was available,” Murray added.
“Our worst-case scenario in the summer was that we would still be scrapping at the end of the season for our place, but unfortunately we haven’t even had one good spell or even won one game at home in front of our home fans.
“The policy was to acquire players to secure our position in the Premiership and certainly not a subsequent season in the Championship.”
The chairman is also adamant adequate funds were released on a par with fellow new boys West Ham and Wigan, both of whom have adjusted to life in the Premier League with ease.
However, many of the signings have failed to live up to expectations.
Strikers Andy Gray and Jon Stead have just one goal between them while Kelvin Davis has borne the brunt of the fans’ fury after a number of costly mistakes.
Murray continued: “In the summer we invested at least as much as both Wigan and West Ham and expected to be in there scrapping to the end of the season with the goal of retaining our Premiership status so we could consolidate further in our second season.
“At our game against West Brom I was talking to their chairman and he confirmed that despite them being in their second successive season in the Premiership, our wage bill is higher than theirs, so it's not a case of us lacking ambition, not being prepared to pay Premiership wages or not wanting to remain in the top flight.”
Murray also revealed that if Bolton finish outside the top six the players would receive the same money Sunderland’s players would have done had they stayed up.
