Matty Crichton says…
The news of Stuart Harvey’s departure didn’t come as a huge surprise for me.
While he’s played a crucial role in the club’s journey back from League One to the Premier League, like we have with many players, sometimes the time comes where you have to thank them for the part they have played, but accept you simply need better.
Sunderland have been quite cut-throat with recruitment this summer. Bar a couple of players, practically every starter has been replaced, and we’ve shown no loyalty to anyone
who helped us achieve promotion.
Some players like Alan Browne, for example, publicly mentioned his frustration that players who helped us get back weren’t being given a chance, but for me it’s quite simple: Sunderland have to do everything they can to stay in the Premier League, and that means replacements are necessary.
Just like the players, the same goes with recruitment. Stuart Harvey has some brilliant success stories on Wearside, but now the club are shopping in a completely different level of market and will be trying to find a completely different calibre of player to before.
If that means bringing in someone with more experience/contacts/reliability in Harvey’s position to help us move forward and improve, then it needs to happen.
He will leave Sunderland, like many players this summer, with our best wishes and thanks for the part he played, and I’m sure everyone on Wearside is confident he will get a brilliant job in his next project.
Best of luck, Stuart!
Malc Dugdale says…
As we will never really know how involved he was with the huge spending this summer, and the choices made to upgrade the squad, we have to assume he has done his best over past seasons (which has really helped us) and is ready for a new challenge.
The arrival of Ghisolfi was always going to have an impact, both in the way we work in scouting and recruitment, and in the ongoing team structure. Maybe they didn’t get on. Maybe what we are shooting for now isn’t quite the sweet spot that Harvey can cover off.
What I do know is the squad we have now is probably the best in my 40-plus years of being a fan, and if we are happy we can continue to build on that without Harvey, then I very much trust the remainder with the future.
Harvey was key to our achieving this position, and for that I’ll always be grateful, but like a lot of the squad who got us here, nobody is forever, other than our Luke.
All the best, Stuart. You’ve smashed it, mate, and will again wherever you go next.
