Sunderland endured nightmare with Grigg

Former Sunderland proprietor, and present minority stakeholder, Stewart Donald endured a tough spell as chairman of the membership in League One.

He struggled because the Black Cats did not earn promotion out of the third tier and he made his justifiable share of blunders within the switch market alongside the way in which.

One participant he had a nightmare with was the signing of Northern Eire worldwide Will Grigg from Wigan within the January switch window of the 2018/19 marketing campaign.

The Sunderland chief was determined to exchange Josh Maja on deadline day and closely pursued the Latics centre-forward, with a number of failed makes an attempt earlier than he ultimately snapped him up.

Then-manager Jack Ross, who was recorded by the Netflix documentary ‘Sunderland ‘Until I Die’, urged Donald towards paying greater than the £1.25m provide the membership had made on the time of the dialog, with Richard Hill claiming that the participant was not price that a lot and the payment being quoted was “psychological”.

Was Grigg price £1.25m?

Hill additionally tried to speak him out of a transfer for Grigg by saying that it was not the “proper factor” to do and that he had fallen into the January switch window “entice”.

In the long run, Sunderland signed the striker in a deal price round £4m, nearly £3m greater than the payment Ross claimed was an excessive amount of for the participant.

All the warning indicators had been there for Donald to grasp that it will be a mistake however he went forward with the big-money swoop in an try and bolster the membership’s crew in League One.

The ahead went on to attain four targets in 18 third-tier matches for the membership within the second half of that season, earlier than scoring simply once in 20 matches the next marketing campaign.

He had scored 19 or more targets in 4 of his final 5 League One seasons previous to becoming a member of Sunderland however did not rediscover his goalscoring contact within the division for the Black Cats.

Ross claimed that greater than £1.25m can be ‘psychological’ and the £4m they ultimately paid for him proved to be precisely that as he struggled badly on the pitch. The Scottish supervisor knew that the ahead was not price that type of cash and his poor goalscoring file proved the ex-Sunderland boss proper.

After mortgage spells with Rotherham and MK Dons, the Black Cats released him on a free switch in the summertime of 2021 and he presently performs for The Dons in League One, the place he has scored three targets in 9 matches this time period.

Donald undeniably endured a nightmare with Grigg as he grossly overpaid within the eyes of Hill and Ross. The participant’s performances on the pitch and subsequent launch show that the pair had been appropriate of their evaluation of his worth, because it turned out to be an enormous blunder.