Sunderland's executive director Charlie Methven has issued an impassioned defence of Black Cats owner Stewart Donald.
After a frustrating start to the season on the pitch, and a long drawn out process of finding extra investment at Sunderland, Donald removed his Twitter account after receiving abuse from a minority of supporters.
Donald has been absent from the last few Sunderland matches as a result and while Methven believes criticism and debate of their ownership is 'fair game', he has labelled the abuse Donald received as 'unreasonable'.
Speaking after Sunderland secured 'substantial' investment from the FPP Sunderland Group, Methven told the Sunderland Echo in a wide-ranging, in-depth interview: “Without the tenacity and loyalty of our support base, this club simply would not be sustainable in its current format.
“The vast majority of supporters who have legitimate concerns, worries and anxieties about the way their club is being run is absolutely fair game, and Stewart will have those conversations all day long.
“To question his integrity is a different thing and if the club is going to move forward, it has a much greater chance of doing so if there is a tone of reasoned debate rather than antagonism.
“Football clubs at any one time, some will be succeeding on the pitch, some will not and some will be somewhere in between. The debate as to why that is drives the industry and somebody might look at our scouting system, for example, and say, why are you doing it that way, that’s not how I’d do it, fair enough.
“But to then move from there into saying the owner is a charlatan is totally unreasonable.
“I understand the frustration with the first team this season, of course.
“As the board we have to take responsibility for that, and absolutely we should be questioned on that.
“We feel you have to go a long way in football to finding people who are as open to questions and criticism on all parts of the club strategy.
“That’s taken a number of different forms, whether it be talk-in with supporters, fanzines, interviews with the media.
“We do it because we feel we should be held accountable for what happens at Sunderland, the decisions that are made, the way in which the club is run.
“All of those issues are fair game for debate and that happens, all the time, in a civilised and decent way.
“So to the people who spout bile and abuse, if you’re really interested in the answer to questions, why not join the Red & White Army and get yourself in the supporter collective meetings, or go to talk-ins and ask your questions live. Of course, all that only makes sense if you are actually interested in what is happening.”
