Just read an interview with Gardner that's on ssn saying he's shocked at the criticism that the team have gotten saying "we are 4 games in, its ridiculous, we are not playing badly, we are not strugging" He says we have two good points and we have played Newcastle and. Chelsea at home. (as if Newcastle are a good team, sounds like defeat was par for the course) "I don't understand why people are saying we are struggling, at the end of the day we are not, we are playing well, we are just lacking a couple of goals which will come" He then goes onto say look at the players we've brought in, there's youth, experience, pace and creativity, there's no way way we are going to struggle at the bottom all season" What do people make of this? Id have prefered something along the lines of "we understand the frustration as we haven't hit the ground running like we thought we would but we are working hard in training on getting it right, starting on Sunday at home against Stoke'
I think it's expectations more than anything else. A team doesn't necessarily have to struggle in the league to receive disapproval from the fans. I'm sure there would be some grumbling if Man Utd dropped out of the top 4 at any point, whereas most teams would ****ing love to be anywhere near there throughout the rest of the season. It's horses for courses. I guess what it really boils down to is whether Gardner/the teams expectations for this season are as high as the expectations of the fans.
No offence to Newcastle but if they are expecting to lose against your lot and only have 2 points from.4 games that's very worrying indeed.
"there's youth, experience, pace and creativity" Not too sure on the pace & creativity but youth & experience yes. Good too see has some fight but in the games so far they have been very dissappointing but this is down to the good start and home form we had last season so the expectation was created then but I suppose we have to lower our expectation now but its a hard thing to take for the fans to be "going somewhere" and now to be "going nowhere".
Gardener has been here 5 mins. The rest of us have been putting up with failure for decades. He certainly would have been better advised to have sought advice on his wording before wading in all guns blazing. He would also be better off working on his own game which, to be perfectly blunt, ain't been all that so far. If the players and manager get their ****ing fingers out this Sunday, maybe the criticism will abate. Lose and if will see just how much we are pissed off.
I agree to a point that expectations were high after last season's start and the new players we've signed. But there's also a worry involved. Bruce always has a poor second half of the season, so we must have a good points tally by February. If a poor start meets a poor season's end, we will be in a very difficult position. It might be that Bruce won't have a bad Spring this season, but that's speculation. All we can go on is the available evidence - and that suggests our season will be over by February. We have to get some points on the board quickly now.
I think its the differance between a pro footballer who sees the squad in training each day, sees the quality and is realistic and fans who are wrapped up in emotion.
I think it's a shock for any outsider when they see the almost psychopathic over-reaction displayed by Sunderland fans, that is in my opinion almost unique. At times I feel that some of our fans almost enjoy and relish the times when things go tits up, so they can take their pent up frustrations out on the manager/team.
It depends how you define failure Cest. Is finishing 7th a failure? 10th? 15th? Relegation? Well obviously relegation would be considered a failure I think we can all agree. I've taken this chart from wiki. It shows Sunderland's finishing positions over the years. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Sunderland_AFC_League_positions.jpg I'd like peoples opinions of which of these seasons could be considered a failure. Or is it any season without silverware? Personally I like the way the line is going since Quinn took over. (2006)
16th in the Premier League, 2 points, 2 goals & knocked out of the Carling Cup, I would say that we are struggling. Only area of the field I would say we are playing well is Defence so hope O'shea is fit this weekend. I really hope we come good this wekend and kick start our season, even if its a drab 1-0 that we scrape through, it will be a start and a pressure relieving win.
The Sunderland players will respect that facing us in the derby is one of the more difficult games of the season, and it is. It always has been and it always will be. It would be naive for either team to ever think that it would be a walk in the park. It's just the nature of the whole thing.
It's precisely that 40 years of abject failure that driver my frustration though Cyprus. Just because its always been ****e doesn't mean we have to keep accepting ****e. It's as though you are saying we are asking too much to finish above 10th more than 3 times in 40 years. I'm saying that's a disgraceful stat mate and we should be doing much better than that then and especially now. What I have seen this year is as far away from us finishing in the top 10 as at any other point in those stats yet post. Why do sunderland fans accept being ****e as some badge of honour? I want so much more and if we are still struggling when all the backroom stuff is perfectly set up, when will it happen. Bruce looks a lost soul and that will lead only to one thing. A relegation struggle.
Stunned is he? Really? Well he want's to try getting by on a working mans wage then the daft ****. He can **** off back to Twattingham for me the sackless bastard.
QffT (Quoted for the ****ing Truth) Anyone fan who thinks they can predict derby results is delusional.
all in your humble opinion? We have improved under Bruce, every season finishing higher up. A couple of seasons of mid table obscurity would do me. Stabilise, monitor the impact of the new UEFA fair play rules, then push on.
I sussed out we're the red line, but what do the blue and green lines represent? Am I being thick here?
Larson interview: “I knew that coming up here, it’s a big club with expectations and that’s what I wanted,” said the former Birmingham man. “I didn’t want to be at a club where you don’t do well and no one really cares. “It’s a situation that will bring the best out of us and you’ve got to be able to handle the pressure. “I’m looking around the squad and it’s a good squad, a competitive one and one that can do really well in this league. “But you can see in periods of the games that we still need to get to know each that little bit better. You get that from training with each other and playing games. “If we can get that first win, hopefully we’ll start flying. “Of course the Newcastle defeat knocked a bit of confidence out of us. “It hurt a lot, especially after a game where we felt we should have come away with three points. “It’s a game that you desperately don’t want to lose so it affects you. “But you have to take that, get back up and get points, which we haven’t been able to do as much as we’d like.” Larsson scored on his debut to earn Sunderland a point at Liverpool on the opening day of the season, but the Black Cats have yet to take the lead in any game so far. However, the Swedish international midfielder is hoping that will change on Sunday when Stoke City visit the Stadium of Light, insisting an early goal is just what is needed to boost Sunderland’s confidence. He said: “We’re desperate for that first win and we just feel like if we can get in front in the game, it could be the key to us getting three points. “We’ve got to accept that we haven’t picked up as many points as we would have liked. But it’s a fine line in football. “We’ve got to give the crowd something to cheer about and send them home happy this time around. “We seem to be getting goalscoring opportunities in most games we’ve had. The time to worry is when you don’t create chances. “If we can start well and get ahead in the game, I’m sure that will give us the confidence boost we need to go on and win.” Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spor...essure-at-safc-72703-29425117/?#ixzz1Y1SwT5jx
No Cest. I'm saying at the moment we are improving year on year. We are only four games in. Remember 1980-1981? We were top early on in the season and finished just above relegation. Four games!!! It's just to early to see our true potential. On a sadder note. No team will break into the top six without massive investment these days. The league pay outs work against the smaller clubs ever being able to challenge the Sky Four. The new "fair" play rules coming in will make it virtually impossible if you ever want to play in Europe. The whole system needs scrapping and replacing with something akin to what they do in the American version of "Football".
