Stewart Donald gives detailed insight into Sunderland takeover talks with Mark Campbell
The Sunderland Chairman has been in negotiations of a partial sale of his shares but no resolution has yet been found.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“The reality is I’ll definitely be staying for years and years, I would hope,” he told talkSPORT.
“I can’t see any reason why not.
“What I’m trying to do is make sure I’ve got, not to the detriment of Sunderland, the biggest shareholding I possibly can so that I can try, which i hope the fans want, to keep the club with the same sort of transparency and focus that I believe they want.
“The challenge for us is not in the short term, which I know the papers and everyone are focusing on financially.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“The short-term challenge is to get promoted, the long-term challenge is to make us viable and then we can go to the Premier League.
“The investment is long term, the short term is promotion.
“So will investment come in really quickly? Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know.”
Campbell, a real estate businessman who has been based in New York, has spent time on Wearside recently and Donald told presenter Jim White about the lengths he is going to to ensure investment now is the right option.
“The difficulty is, if you want a large chunk of investment, then you’ve got give up a decent chunk of the club and then of course people want to have their say,” he said.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“The thing with it is, this isn’t about getting top dollar and selling an American billionaire.
“The reason this will take a bit of time is because the people I want in the club, I want to make sure they’ve got the right vision and tick the right boxes.
“So you do the due diligence on the numbers but I’m having dinner with these people, having lunch, meeting their families, to make sure that if I do something it is absolutely the right thing to do.”