alex neil means feck all to me ... he ran away, i called him worse than sh1te, he is just another manager of another team now.
We've needed a rest for sure ... ... and we'll also have a week to address a few tactical issues. It's clear we've been going into games unprepared.
We shouldn’t give the bloke any attention this weekend. Grateful for getting us out of league one but left in the ****test way possible. **** him.
I don’t think all fans at the game on Saturday will have the same mindset as you appear to have , I would guess he will be welcomed back in the same way as past heroes like Darren Bent and James McLean have . If I was him I would be thinking of pulling a sickie as I don’t think the support will be putting down a red carpet and welcoming him with open arms I reckon the atmosphere will be HOSTILE !!!
People will act naturally on the day ... ... I'll boo him because he was totally disrespectful to the supporters. I think he'll get what he deserves. Funnily enough I can't see the Stoke fans supporting him, they're more likely to boo him as well
Will get an horrendous reception. Just the way it played out was bad all round. He still performed close to a miracle to get us out of league one mind. That run to get us up there was incredible.
Not sure about that tbh. The team was good enough and he finished lower than Johnson left us iirc ... ... he certainly galvanised us but we were far too good for L1 imo. Taking Wigan up automatically was more of a miracle tbf.
He did a great job to get us up but all goodwill went out of the window due to his unforgivable actions by walking out to attend another clubs game whilst still under contract - what price loyalty and integrity to SAFC players and the club , how many pieces of silver ?
He'll have given a speech, to the Stoke players, about loyalty, integrity and commitment ... ... they'll have sat there thinking, 'Yes of course you baldy Scottish twat.' https://www.si.com/soccer/sunderlan...nderland-exit-excuse-with-recruitment-comment
As I've said before, I think this game is going to be a bit of a battle - especially after Rotherham and Coventry and we need to pick players who can handle that. For me O'Nien has to play in midfield and Pritchard to drop in the number 10 role and to help out in midfield. And for his size at least, I would give Ekwah a game, let's see how he handles it. So if those 3 come in, it's Neil, Michut and Amad on the bench for me
I think it would be a mistake to play 09 from the start as he will play up to the crowd and has a chance not to see halftime and that’s the last thing we need cos stoke will be physical
Really. He pretty went unbeaten from end of Feb till play off final didn't he ? Was ans unbelievable run, especially on how down everyone was after getting thumped from Bolton and such. His management in the play offs was incredible too. **** how it ended up he done an absolutely amazing job to get us out of that league.
He did a good job, I just don't see it as miraculous or anything close. Rotherham had a longer winning run and a longer undefeated run ... it's L1. We had some really dodgy results, and narrow squeaks, under Neil ... losing at Cheltenham, drawing at home to Burton and only made sure of the playoffs at Morecambe with a 1-0 win iirc. We were in the playoffs when he arrived and had a very good squad. I'm not sure what he'd have done without Stewart tbh.
This is the big one as far as Neil is concerned. He'll have Stoke wound up and they'll come out for a battle. They'll try to bully us and the tackles will be flying. He'll double up on our wingers and try to hit us on the break. Hopefully Stoke will have one of their many **** days.
I think we'll play our own game tbh. He'll try to move their centre backs around with Roberts, Amad, Clarke and possibly Pritchard ... ... Geldhart will score again imo, then it's up to Batth and Ballard.
