Prehab26 said: ↑ He said that no one expected anything this season. Every single Sunderland fan and the board expected promotion. Yeah I agree what’s the point in starting a season and not having the frame of mind to win promotion There are teams who were poor in previous season and have came good and got promoted We are supposed to have the players and infrastructure to make an attempt for promotion AND NOT SAY NO ONE EXPECTED ANYTHING
That last paragraph sums up exactly where we should be but aren’t. If we can get to January without further slippage and then finally address the physicality issues throughout the spine then fair enough. Johnson needs to make sure we do both and also not risk key players in cup ties in the meantime unless they are coming back from injury and need game time. I’m concerned that they senior leadership group or whatever they are called have been very poor on the pitch for him and he doesn’t look capable of sorting things out. We’ll know after the Ipswich game but I don’t see his position as tenable if we get a hiding at home in front of 30k.
Playing devils advocate now. What makes us think we have the squad for promotion and therefore another coach will be much better. Like I say, devils advocate, but Doyle never played a first team game before this season, Huggins and Cirkin prospects from u23s, Evans supposedly injury prone, two lads from Germany young and untested, broadhead another from u23s. Last year plenty didnt rate Winchester. O'Nien is useless apparently, same with O'Brien. McGeady's legs have gone so say some. Gooch hasnt been any good for a while and Hume should never have been brought back, apparently. Flannagan was rubbish last year as well. Stewart everyone wanted to see. Loads wanted Neil and Embleton in. Like I say devils advocate, and I dont believe all of what I have said, but why if any of the above is true do we have a top squad? Have we all got carried away with the players we have?
I've heard it isn't I've heard that he sees this as a very long term project and his emphasis is on the academy and development and also picking the cream from top premier League clubs very young players like Huggins cirkin etc He realise that this approach will more than likely take time to come to fruition but he's here for a very long time and is happy to wait even if it means another season on this league as the young lads develop Hi is not prepared to go down the route of the likes of Ellis short and spend millions on over rated finished players This philosophy won't go down well with the majority of our fanbase but it's the way KLD wants to run the club
Personally, this is the kind of approach that I would rather see us adopt. Future success is more likely if its built on strong foundations. All this stuff about lost generations and people losing interest the longer we're down here is rubbish. When the success comes, no matter how long that takes, the crowds will return.
I wouldnt mind that personally. What he took on was a club on its arse. Just today at work someone said they had been watching STID 2 in lockdown and he couldnt believe how pathetic the owners seemed (Grigg episode was his evidence). He has so much to recover. Sort of stacks up as well if you look at our summer business. It might take a few well placed words to put some fans in the picture, otherwise any vocal minority in the stadium can quickly undermine the plan, not to mention young lads confidence and any chance of Man City sending another young lad to us.
You can't expect to go up no matter what club you are. That's just ridiculous as football doesn't work like that what you can do is have high ambition assemble a talented squad and hope it works out. Like it or not what I posted earlier is how KLD sees it and how he wants to run the club. Any Sunderland fan who thinks he's going to spend multi millions on players are going to be very very disappointed
Yeah I think we should start the season with the ambition to go up and work at it Then we deal with it at the end of the season for the next
I think everyone does. Or at least hoping we will. I think he was just referencing the people who were criticising the recruitment but it was just a throwaway comment. I don't think it really means anything. People comparing it to Moyes but its completely different.
1st of all I’m firmly in the stick with him camp but I can’t accept a 5th season in this league, not all under KLDs stewardship but for a club of our size to languish in this league for too much longer with the resources we have is accepting failure. I actually believe if we stick with him and invest in January we will go up but I can understand people not wanting to take the risk with Johnson. We have already become a better than average league 1 team, that blame lies firmly with Short & The Chuckle brothers. KLD must get us up this season or some supporters will lose faith.
If we win the next 10 league games ( I know … I know …) LJ will be lauded as a top coach and his job will be secure. Lose them and hes out and we stay down. But that is just speculation, the same as trying to forecast what will happen if he is replaced. That is why I’m in favour of him being given until Xmas. Any coach worth keeping will have turned things around by then considering the squad we have.
