Donald Stewart - SAFC Blog

The Charlie Methven ‘Who are You?’: (1) Oxford heart vs Sunderland heart

February 7, 2019February 6, 2019 by Colin Randall

Charlie in shades, with pals on a jolly trip to see Conference playoff success at Wembley in 2010

Salut! Sunderland wrote at length about SAFC’s executive director Charlie Methven* after he became part of his friend and fellow Oxford United supporter Stewart Donald’s takeover of our club. The vast majority of supporters are probably content with what has happened since. But both have inevitably and understandably divided loyalties as Oxford, having given us a fright at the SoL (it ended 1-1 with Charlie Wyke grabbing the equaliser), welcome SAFC for the return.

Charlie, who also gave a long interview to this site (links in the footnote*), has offered some further thoughts ahead of Saturday’s match, important to both sides for different reasons, important to him (and Donald) for irreconcilably emotional reasons. We shall divide the interview into two parts, the second to appear tomorrow (Thursday).

Read on today and tomorrow to learn more about Charlie’s ‘can’t we both win?’ feelings about the game, his happy times so far on Wearside, thoughts on Jack Ross’s developing squad, plentiful bouquets and a solitary (lightweight) brickbat for Sunderland supporters, his Oxford United passion – but no prediction of either a scoreline or SAFC’s finishing position this season …

SAFC takeover: done and dusted with a £40m price tag and, soon, a new manager

May 22, 2018May 21, 2018 by Colin Randall

Keeping the faith

Monsieur Salut couldn’t be in Sunderland today but pieces together the bits he has gleaned about the confirmed purchase of SAFC …

Stewart Donald confirmed today that his takeover of Sunderland AFC from Ellis Short had been completed. The club is now debt-free after Short accepted a £40m purchase price to be paid over two years.

Donald told a news conference at the Stadium of Light that the takeover was concluded on Sunday night after being approved by the EFL on Friday.

He said it was his hope to have a new manager appointed in a week or less to give him as much of the summer as possible for rebuilding.

Charlie Methven says club has been “too used to failure.” New @SunderlandAFC manager expected “within 7 days.” More on tonight’s Look North @BBCLN pic.twitter.com/HNEGZABvTN

— Jeff Brown (@JeffAB61) May 21, 2018

That takeover: the Ellis Short era seems all but over

May 22, 2018May 18, 2018 by Colin Randall

No need for much more to be said than that Stewart Donald is now on the brink of completing the takeover of Sunderland AFC from the hapless Ellis Short. The EFL seems ready to confirm the change of ownership.

Here is the helfpul if limited club statement:

Following a meeting with the EFL on Friday, and the provision of further information, we can now confirm that the proposed sale of the club could be concluded as early as next week.

We would like to place on record our thanks to the EFL for their assistance during the process, at what is a very busy time of the football calendar for them.

Red socks, pinstripes, fighting the bosses. Who is the Charlie Methven in SAFC takeover?

May 22, 2018May 9, 2018 by Colin Randall

In the continuing saga of Stewart Donald’s attempt to buy Sunderland AFC, Monsieur Salut has a minor interest to declare.

Many of you will have seen references to one Charlie Methven, a public relations wizard and a director of Madrox, the company created by Stewart to take over SAFC and – who knows? – make it great again.

He and Monsieur Salut are former colleagues and also got on well when working for the same newspaper.