I know I will get a slating from die hards who can't see properly through their RED n WHITE glasses but this is my opinion and although I hope I am wrong I don't think I am sadly. As I start i will say this is not a moan at other clubs in this division, nor do i mean to disparage or offend them, these are only my thoughts. When we look at a lot of the clubs in the division they are working on a shoe string budget, the facilities are nowhere near as good as ours. A lot of clubs don't know if they will be able to pay the wage bills and their players know this yet they still turn out, play for their clubs and put in 100%+. These players wages are nowhere near as our players "earn'. They mostly turn up to train at old facilities which are light years away from the pleasure palace our lads use. Our lads turn up at the Academy! they have all creature comforts- Gymnasium, Sauna and steam rooms, Physios, Swimming pool, Restaurants............Not to mention the training fields and more. Their wages are higher as they play for a 'Big Club' so we had to offer them more to get them to sign. They are treated like locally by the fans as Heroes both on and off the pitch. They are even more spoilt at times, for instance when did you last hear of Fleetwood, Burton or any other team 'Jetting' off for training somewhere warm in the break? Coventry don't even have their own ground!!! Are our players good enough to get us out of this league........YES !!! Will our players do enough to get us out of this league............NO !!! They are too Comfortable, They are cosseted and protected too much. They can't fight for a ball and are easily bullied. Against Bristol our biggest asset and threat was Lafferty, they targeted him so we played into their hands and subbed him for Wyke!!!! He is a big lad, If he can't look after himself by now he is wasting his time, if he is 'targeted talk to the ref and official but you cant let the opposition dictate who you have on the pitch!! Tell Lafferty to cool it and wind his opponent up instead not bench him. They are on far too much of a Cushy number to risk endangering it by getting promoted! They know where they are best off, for most of our squad this is the best Club they have been at, they enjoy all the facilities, fanatical support and adoration to the fullest. However, the majority of them know that if we win promotion that will all end! most of them would not be capable of stepping up to the Championship, so would be released, Bang goes their current 1st Class Footballers life style and back to lower divisions with far inferior setups and facilities..... I would Love PP to CLOSE the academy for the First Team ! Tell them to meet there and park their cars, then take a minibus to Thompson park or the Town moor and do the training there, treat them like a Sunday league side until they learn.(no disrespect to Sunday League intended, they do it all just for the enjoyment and pleasure) If they put on a display like the last few games have them train twice a day, I know this will interrupt the PlayStation/XBox squad but.... In short my beliefs at the moment are:- I believe they will do enough to keep us all on the edge of our seats!! I believe they will do enough to keep us there or there about's in the running or play off spots. i believe they will show effort even if it is not the effort we all want or expect. But above all- I BELIEVE THEY WILL LET US ALL DOWN AGAIN!!! So prepare for another season down here............................................
I read all you good post I feel weather we get promoted or not most of our first team players will go There simply not good enough
So are you suggesting that the players are putting in just enough effort to keep us in the reckoning but deliberately stopping us from being promoted? Do you think the players threw the play off final last year? Do you not think they would be more worried about being released for not being good enough at this level as we sold/released 7/8 players last summer? What about the 11 players who are out of contract this summer? Would they not be more concerned that missing out on promotion means we can't afford to pay them and they'll have to leave that way?
Read the original Op and the comment above and have to say I agree with Flash. I look at O'Nien, Dobson, Gooch etc and do I see people who are purposely not trying because they are happy at a 'comfortable' club like Sunderland? An absolute No. They would more than likely be shipped off anyhow if they play that ****e and we fail to get promoted. As much as we were in a rich vein of form a few weeks ago we are now struggling. Get them up for it and lets end the season strongly. The rest will take care of itself.
if lafferty and simenyo ? go back to their clubs where will that leave us. you can bet all players on loan over the years here have been exellent then left. my targets would be if oxford don't go up Taylor coming here, Aisa from Peterborough, there is a lot of good players in this division midfielders as well, we need 4 strikers come August cos barring a miracle we are not making the play offs this season. New owners will make a big difference, can someone on here win £150m on the euros and buy the club i would and Grabban and Gayle would be my first signings on whatever wage they wanted.
I don't do the lottery but if I did and I won £150m I wouldn't buy or want a football club. If I was going to buy anything it would be 50m yacht and use the money to cruise the worlds oceans. The money it would cost to buy the club £30/£35m I'd donate to charities.
Unless we get proper investment into the club, another season in the this league will be better than a season in the championship where, with this squad and maybe some additions bought on the cheap, we will get hammered most weeks.
I’ve seen a few people now saying the players don’t won’t to get promoted, and tbh I think that’s absolute bollocks. what player doesn’t want to win the league or get promoter? There’s no guarantee that they would be sold as soon as we get promoted.
Agreed, I get that people are looking for reasons for our bad form but I don't believe that theory one bit. If the players are just mercenaries they'd have a better chance of getting a good move as part of a promoted championship side than league one failures. There's not many of them at all, almost none, who are at the back end of their careers and might want to retire in a cushy job, they've nearly all got significant chunks of their careers ahead of them and will want to play at the highest level they can. Even if you think it's only because they'll get paid the most that way.
Stopped reading at the “RED AND WHITE GLASSES” comment. Annoys the hell out of me when pessimism is seen as realistic and optimism the opposite. And that’s all I can see
I suspect all Sunderland fans have red and white spectacles... Tbh we have not been that good all season.. I was one of those who thought Ross got the push too early...Parky came in, we were awful, no cohesion, hoof ball, few goals and no clean sheets. We then went on a good run, I dared to hope, we won a home game against, I forget 3-0.. I should know I was there. Drew at the last gasp against Fleetwood, lost against Coventry and drew at the last gasp against some other nonentites on Saturday. Then came last night, terrible display, hoof ball attacking, woeful defending. The mini good run with Parky was the exception, without Wright in defence and a goal scorer, we are whistling for a wind to win. Our form atm will not get us into the play offs. We could improve, I hope we do...but?
Agree with that, if we ended up starting the season in the championship with Donald at the helm we might as well not bother.
Why do you think the reason is they play so s hite mate? I’m totally lost I guess it’s basically that they are just s hit league one players and that’s why they are in league one
Pretty much mate yeah also I think the fear is getting to them now it's at the crucial end of the season and the chips are down. Nerves is the only explanation I've got for the panicky long balls we've been resorting to because we know they're at least capable of better. I think Parky's one inflexible system might be working against him too as opposing managers know exactly what to expect and how to counter it.
A club our size needs the revenues of the Championship unfortunately. That's sort of the problem with the way we've rebuilt. We've spent too much on wages on players who are struggling to get us back up and have little sell on value. If we don't get promoted McClaughlin will be the first out of the door and many others will follow. I suspect Watmore, Lafferty, Lynch, Ozturk and Flanagan will all go on frees anyway. Maguire is out of contract and might just get an offer from the Championship without us. Donald gambled on us being promoted first time and it didn't work, but from the club's perspective it would still be better for us to go up and get hammered, because if we stay here, under current management, the situation will only get worse.
I'd quite like the idea of buying a football club, but there's no chance it would be a club like ours with too many entitled fans. There would be no winning. As seen with a previous post on this thread and countless others over the years, they want unrealistic signings on "whatever wages they want" or spending millions of pounds to get out of leagues and any owner who doesn't want to do that "shouldn't have bought a football club". The majority of our fans are not like that of course, but there is an increasingly large minority who are - in English football in general.
I agree mate. A good post from MGT. I hope he is wrong and we do go up. I will worry about next season then.
