Niall Quinn has had a lot of sweet talking to do since he took over as chairman of Sunderland; now he is launching a charm offensive on the club's stayaway fans, writes Michael Walker
For 45 minutes Niall Quinn spoke relentlessly of Sunderland: of hopes and plans, of how he came to be chairman, of Roy Keane's impact as manager and of the journey the club are on. But when the torrent ended, Quinn paused and asked: "Can you stress that there is a long, long way to go? The pulse was nearly gone here. We have a massive journey to go on and there's no patting ourselves on the back."
Locals would say Quinn has the right to some self-satisfaction. "Quinn'll Fixit" is the latest T-shirt on Wearside and, if last summer's takeover wriggled on for six weeks longer than he would have liked, mangling the start to this season, without Quinn's idea, his backers' investment and Keane's arrival, Sunderland could be where Leeds are in the Championship.
Instead, they have a top-of-the-table visit to West Bromwich Albion this afternoon, where another away end is sold out. The last three gates at the Stadium of Light have been 33,591, 33,576 and 36,049 and yet, as those fans have been walking into the ground, Quinn has sent 7,000 letters out of it, to lapsed season-ticket holders.
Beginning on Tuesday, Quinn is to meet as many of those 7,000 as possible because the one topic he returned to again and again was the fans. Quinn loves them and is evangelical about their persuasive power but he wants more of them.
"I want them to be tough," he said of the forthcoming meetings. "It's not a popularity contest. It might get a bit hairy at times. I'm not there to say, 'Please come back.' It's a bit more than that. I'm saying, 'We're doing our bit, any chance?' If they say 'no,' then they say 'no.' But we'll go on to the next group and we won't stop."
Quinn can offer evidence of Sunderland supporters' effect. Reflecting on the long takeover process last year, he said a key moment came 72 minutes into the defeat by Arsenal on May Day. Sunderland, who lost 29 of their 38 Premiership games, were 3-0 down by half-time. Dejection was embedded, yet there were 44,000 there and, when Thierry Henry was substituted, he got a standing ovation. In the crowd were Quinn's backers. "Okay, Arsenal were miles better," he said "but the investors saw the Sunderland crowd clapping Thierry Henry. Instead of going mad, these fans were showing they were pure football - Henry gave bows going off. My people saw that, and there are only a few places in the country where that could happen. Remember, Sunderland were already relegated and hadn't won at home all season."
The eight men of the Drumaville consortium required convincing because, as Quinn revealed, "Every one of them was told not to do it by their financial advisers."
So the Henry applause was significant, as was an independent financial survey shortly before. Quinn had been working hard on persuasion since a meeting at the Cheltenham Festival "gave me a pathway".
"We got an independent adviser to come up for a couple of days and Bob Murray allowed us to go through the books. The adviser came back and said, 'I recommend you buy this.' That was a big moment for me. I was called to a meeting in London and it could have been the end if he had said, 'Stay away, it's bonkers.' And you don't know, it could have been over two weeks after Cheltenham."
One year on the Festival looms again, and Quinn is the chairman. He bought a club £40 million in debt, where lopsided planning meant players at the £15-million training ground took ice baths in wheelie bins. He has appointed Keane and turned 40 along the way, celebrated in Nashville.
"People forget we had 10 or 11 good years as team-mates," Quinn said of a relationship that still provokes curiosity. "We did a deal - the bullshit was over. We have a serious job to do and trust has to be there. As Roy said last week, he has a job to do, I have my job to do. We cross over when we need to and we revert back. That was the deal on day one, that's the deal now and, please God, that'll be the deal if we're still here in a few years. He got the same story as the investors. But he knew it was at an all-time low, he'd been up here when it was full, he didn't need to be persuaded a lot. He's been class and with the team we have assembled and the ethos of a club built around Roy Keane, that's my big selling point to fans. I'm saying, 'Come and see what they're doing, come and see the unity, come and see players on the front foot.' The desire levels are unrecognisable from six months ago. Now these players are coming with me to meetings. They are behaving as ambassadors for the club. I'm proud and grateful. Their attitude off the pitch has been as good as on it.
"And Roy has been incredible. To think someone could walk into management, take something so big on and move it the way he has already. And you know Roy, he isn't going to stop. I've won big World Cup qualifiers with Roy and he's sitting down talking about the next match while everyone else is jumping up and down. He ain't going to stop. So I'm saying to the people, 'Come back and let's send out some real messages to the football world.'" But Quinn knows the complications. He was talking before last Saturday's euphoric victory over Derby County. "The first thing this morning I turned on the radio and 140 jobs have gone in the city centre at a laundry factory. You go, 'And here I am asking them to spend money coming to see us?'" These are not isolated redundancies: Sunderland's last two glass-blowing firms are to close with 790 jobs going, Fujitsu shed 600, Groves Cranes 670, Vaux Breweries 600.
"At this club, in this region, there is a moral responsibility. The club is the biggest symbol of identity for Sunderland people. What I have to make sure is we strike a balance between being affordable and making sure we can compete. But I'm aware of the whole picture, especially on days like today when you hear what's happened a mile away from the stadium. It hits you.
"Other clubs can take this for granted and I'm not knocking them for it, that's commerce. I went to Arsenal with my son before Christmas and our tickets were £113 each. That gave us access to a restaurant - it didn't buy us any food - but 90 minutes later in a whirlwind Arsenal had scored six and Blackburn two. It was the best £113 I spent at Christmas. The point I'm making is that's fine, people clamour to see Arsenal, but people-wise, adrenalin-wise, we can compete with that. What I have to find is the correct way of doing that. There is a business way of doing it but we're here for the football.
"If I was offered Chelsea for one pound I wouldn't take it because I can bring nothing to it. But I think I can bring something here because I relate to these people. I hung around with ex-miners when I came here and I still do - they've come over to see me in Ireland. When I first came to England (in 1983) I saw these miners getting the shit kicked out of them by all these cops. It struck a chord with me and, when I came up here, I began to find out more. There was a bitter aftertaste and it helped me find out the real spirit of the region, the real problems, the real pleasures.
"And it's different here: it's not London, it's not Manchester, not Liverpool, it's Sunderland. It's an incredible place, I know that. These are real people, it's real football. There's a warmth here that this football club has to use. We feel it's starting to work. We hope Roy will go on to great things, we hope that it's going to be an exciting time, we hope that people will come here and leave saying, 'Don't Sunderland do it well?' That's the big thing." Guardian Service
