Reid on Murray resignation…

Former manager Peter Reid has spoken candidly for the first time about his time as manager under Bob Murray.

The man who spent 7 years under Bob Murray, who yesterday confirmed his intentions to resign as Sunderland chairman after 20 years, revealed that while Murray is a strong character with the club at heart, he did make costly mistakes,

‘Bob and I had a good working relationship. I would not say we were really close, but we had good times together.’ Reid told the Sunderland Echo.

‘He was an interesting character to work for – a very strong chairman and I had a great seven-and-a-half-years there.

‘We got the stadium and academy built and they are world class. They were the great things he gave the club.’

And while he believes the stadium and academy will be Murray’s legacy at the club, Reid did admit what all Sunderland fans already knew, that the successful seasons of consecutive 7th place finishes were not adequately built upon,

‘When we needed to push on I felt that the chairman was content to stand still in terms of when to put the money in.

‘I felt it was too late when he let me buy Flo, Stewart, Wright, Piper in my last season. Then he sacked me a couple of months after I spent the money. I could not see the sense in that.

‘When we were up there and finished seventh and seventh, I think that was the time we should have spent on the top players.

‘In fairness, it was difficult to get players then. There were one or two that we agreed deals for and they did not come.’

And while many fans will be revealed to see Murray resign as chairman, the former boss warned that with Murray still at the club as a board member his influence will still be felt,

‘Him resigning as chairman has happened before and I’m sceptical about whether anything changes at Sunderland now he has resigned again.

‘Like in the past, he has resigned but remains on the board.’

It remains to be seen whether Murray’s decision to resign is the first step of major changes at the club, or simply a re-occurence of where we’ve been before. Sooner or later, hopefully sooner, we’ll know which one it is. Fingers crossed.