It appears the new Sunderland Executive Director has already endeared himself to the club's fans.
During a recent interview, Charlie Methven described the club's arch rivals Newcastle as an arrogant club that "seem to think they are special."
Methven was a key player in the recent takeover of the club by Stewart Donald.
The Black Cats will be playing in League One next season, the third tier of English football, after a recent relegation from the Championship.
Methven also explained his long-standing admiration for the club.
"Yeah, (Denis Smith) was kind of the link between the two clubs (Sunderland and Methven's boyhood club Oxford)," Methven said in an interview with a club fanzine A Love Supreme.
"He was a great manager for both clubs I think, and a great man, I absolutely love Denis. So it's always been a club that I've been somewhat fond of from an early age — for some reason I've always had an antipathy towards Newcastle.
"I mean that wasn't a determining factor in this, but it does mean I've always had a slight soft spot for Sunderland because I've always found Newcastle to be a rather arrogant club.
"They seem to think that they're special, and they don't understand that every club is special.
"From an outsider's perspective I feel that from the North East clubs, at Sunderland and Middlesbrough there's much mutual appreciation from other clubs, but at Newcastle there's little appreciation for or from other clubs."