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Ok, so my confidence in an immediate return has been twisted into an arrogant “we’ll piss this league”.
Looks like you’ve been taking lessons from Bullitt on how to twist things to suit an argument.
(Hi Bullitt – I know you are lurking
)I don’t think anyone that isn’t involved closely realised what a shit state we were in last summer. Prior to pre-season, one player had stated he was happy to stay. One out of 25. Two went on strike, others agitated for moves, youth players were being poached. Pre-season started with the coaching staff having to make up the numbers in training matches.
July was a revolving door, as new faces joined, and continued to join up until deadline day. The squad had been re-built in 6 weeks. Then they had to start training together, in-between playing league fixtures.
In spite of this complete turmoil, being in contention was an achievement. Where it went wrong was selling our leading scorer (who would have left on a free), and replacing him with someone else. We’d have been much better keeping Maja and getting a replacement on a free this summer.
In terms of standard, its a pub league, with the exception of the top 5, and the other 19 sides have set themselves out to kick lumps out of us. Like it or not, we are the biggest thing to hit L1 since Man City, and just about every side has had their highest attendance when Sunderland visited, so its been a cup final for the opposition every week, including their visit to the SOL, where they play in front of crowds up to 10 times what they are used to.
Many pundits have said that it has been a very long time since there were 5 sides in league one who were all capable of winning it. I have long said that any side who gets relegated to L1 and keeps their squad should be able to double their haul the following season. You did it twice. Rotherham did it. Barnsley did it. We did it (even with a different squad).
Two of the three sides who come down will probably be in the shake-up next season, along with us and Portsmouth (assuming they keep hold of their players who are out of contract). None of our squad are out of contract, so the assumption must be that any signings will only be made to strengthen a squad that, despite being cobbled together at the 11th hour, achieved 85 points and lost less league games than every side bar Liverpool & Man City.
Like others, I expect promotion in 19/20 rather than hope for it.
Bigger than when Leeds were in there? Or Preston? Or Leicester? Wolves? Blackburn? Sides that have won things in this generation?
Don’t understand this idea that Sunderland are a big club. Of course you get big crowds but you’re from a rather large city in an area where fuck all else happens. You should be getting big crowds. If you were stuck in the middle of the north west then your crowds would be no bigger than Blackburn or Bolton.
Bigger than when Leeds were in there? Or Preston? Or Leicester? Wolves? Blackburn? Sides that have won things in this generation?Yes. It seems everyone wanted to be there when Sunderland came to town. Maybe next season Ipswich will be the cup final for everyone. I hope so, as facing sides looking to make a name for themselves is an added pressure we could do without, and probably why Luton slipped under the radar.
I don’t object to muttys posts they are normally reasonable as is his last post. Egg if u google population of Sunderland (277k) and Wigan u may be surprised to find Wigan borough has 300k+!!!
I thought Sunderland would walk it, I think it puts our instant returns in perspective so we should take it as a good achievement by us.The population of the town of Wigan is about 90k. The borough is a purely political entity. It includes Leigh who can’t stand Wigan and generally have historically aligned themselves to Bolton. It also includes Atherton and Tyldesley who consider themselves to be Manchester.
There may well be parts of Sunderland that feel they belong somewhere else but the pool of support we have to draw on is nowhere near 200k plus.
Bigger than when Leeds were in there? Or Preston? Or Leicester? Wolves? Blackburn? Sides that have won things in this generation?
Yes. It seems everyone wanted to be there when Sunderland came to town. Maybe next season Ipswich will be the cup final for everyone. I hope so, as facing sides looking to make a name for themselves is an added pressure we could do without, and probably why Luton slipped under the radar.[/quote]
And nobody would have wanted to be there against Leeds or Wolves.
I know you’re a goon fan mutty but that is beyond even their levels of delusion
Binged myself on Sunderland till I die and have seen it all now. Any Latics fan who hasn’t seen it should as it shows how not to run a football club. Mutt lad, if I was Sunderland fan the first thing I,m asking is where has the parachute payments gone. On relegation from the Prem your manager had nowt to spend and was trolling the loan market. Now why and how does a club as big as yours with as you say massive crowds so massive gate receipts have no money to invest in the squad. Especially when you expect to be in the mix to go back up and have 3 years of Prem cash to come. I can’t wait for the next series charting last season. I doubt your newish owners are going to get you back to where you want to be. You may have got promotion mutt had you kept Chris Coleman coz the job he had to do with what he had was an impossible task.
Oh and Jack Rodwell is a disgrace and should never be allowed to play anywhere.
I suspect it went the same way Boltons went. Paying off the massive debts they got in trying to establish themselves in the Prem which they never ever did.
I suspect it went the same way Boltons went. Paying off the massive debts they got in trying to establish themselves in the Prem which they never ever did.Seriously egg if you haven’t seen it watch it. We had some on here lambasting Mr Whelan for keeping the famed “War Chest” in check well he was a real big spender compared to the owner at Sunderland. Yes they got good players in on loan and paid Rodwell a ridiculous wage not to play but it backfired spectacularly on them. There is no way that club should have been relegated again from the championship. Chris Coleman never saw or spoke to the owner in his time in charge which seems ludicrous. I feel for the Sunderland fans at a small club like ours yes getting relegated twice is possible and understandable at times but when you have the revenue they can create along with the parachute payments they should never have been so bad. Thank god we had an owner who was hands on and gave us many memorable moments in his tenure. I didn’t think I could ever appreciate Mr Whelan more than I did but after watching what Ellis Short has done to Sunderland I truly do.
Like others, I expect promotion in 19/20 rather than hope for it.Hmmmm! Those who EXPECT are the ones who tend to be hugely disappointed when a season ends in failure again.
Bigger than when Leeds were in there? Or Preston? Or Leicester? Wolves? Blackburn? Sides that have won things in this generation?
Yes. It seems everyone wanted to be there when Sunderland came to town. Maybe next season Ipswich will be the cup final for everyone. I hope so, as facing sides looking to make a name for themselves is an added pressure we could do without, and probably why Luton slipped under the radar.[/quote]
And nobody would have wanted to be there against Leeds or Wolves.
I know you’re a goon fan mutty but that is beyond even their levels of delusion[/quote]
He had previous SSB – I remember a post of their’s about this time last year claiming L1 would “never have seen the likes before” when Sunderland came to town. You know coz no other clubs have ever sold out away ends in L1 before??
And I have to say, this “other clubs were trying to make a name for themselves/trying harder against us” is just as arrogant and delusional. They didn’t go up coz they simply weren’t good enough. I watched the play off final & they were dire & lacking attacking intent which (from Reading Sunderland fans comments on social media) is indicative of their manager’s tactics – which probably goes further in explaining why only Liverpool & City lost less games but they still didn’t go up than “teams were trying harder against us”!!
I suspect it went the same way Boltons went. Paying off the massive debts they got in trying to establish themselves in the Prem which they never ever did.
Seriously egg if you haven’t seen it watch it. We had some on here lambasting Mr Whelan for keeping the famed “War Chest” in check well he was a real big spender compared to the owner at Sunderland. Yes they got good players in on loan and paid Rodwell a ridiculous wage not to play but it backfired spectacularly on them. There is no way that club should have been relegated again from the championship. Chris Coleman never saw or spoke to the owner in his time in charge which seems ludicrous. I feel for the Sunderland fans at a small club like ours yes getting relegated twice is possible and understandable at times but when you have the revenue they can create along with the parachute payments they should never have been so bad. Thank god we had an owner who was hands on and gave us many memorable moments in his tenure. I didn’t think I could ever appreciate Mr Whelan more than I did but after watching what Ellis Short has done to Sunderland I truly do.[/quote]
The latest podcast, a 2 hour chat with the owners, was very revealing. They reflected on what had happened over the past 12 months, and how far they have come from turning a club with almost £200m of debts and 100m of assets into a debt-free club who will start to turn a surplus in a year. They described it as a “basket case” operation, where the owner wrote cheques from his Miami home whenever the Chief Exec asked him to. That was, until the day of relegation from the premier league, when Mr Short told the CE that he could whistle for any more funding. That put the club in a tailspin, as all of a sudden, they had to run it like a business rather than as if they were playing football manager on an X-box.
Ellis Short has waived his personal debt and helped clear the loan he had arranged with an American Bank who were charging £8m a year in interest alone. His only crime was to appoint executives who spent his money like it grew on trees on ridiculous things. The new owners’ first words were “The Piss Take Party Stops Now”, and boy has it, with spectacular results. The club has reconnected with the fans, the owners make visits to see fans who are too sick to attend, players attend fan sessions and willingly mingle, the owners do regular podcasts with the fanzine (perhaps Jay or Egg could get a 2hr interview every other month with Mr Royal and upload it to a podcast?).
Sure, we are 3rd division on the field, but off it, we are up there with the best.
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