I really wasn't sure about Hjelde last season but didn't realise he'd played through an injury and wasn't well practised at full back. I did realise he came into a team in turmoil with starting line ups, tactics, etc, changing every week. What I've seen, so far this season, gives me hope he can be a player for us.
Has he really had loads of opportunities? He’s played the equivalent of 8.5 games in the championship and has two goals and an assist. It’s not brilliant but it’s not terrible either.
I'm more interested in seeing what Reggie can do with the existing team than what significant improvements we'll make in the transfer market. I think we'll sign a CF, probably Mendy, and that will be about it unless we sell a player for a big sum and have a major signing or two up our sleeve. The squad we've got is good enough to compete at the top end of the table. We don't need to change much.
OK, so let's say coming to SAFC if you want to split hairs. I also said this, "My point is that many players, and managers tbh, don't want to bring their families to live in the NE." Players, in the past, have openly said they don't want to come to Sunderland and live in the NE. And why would I be clutching at straws, it's just my opinion.
I didn't realise Rusyn had played that few minutes. Good stat and makes the 2 goals and 1 assist look decent imo.
It has to also be taken into account that he came from a troubled country, had to wait for a visa and then had to wait for his family to join. It is no surprise he is taking time to settle in. The same or similar could also be said for some of the other young signings we made last season. they will need time to see if they have been worthwhile signings and I expect to see a bit more from them this season and hopefully 1 of them will hit the ground running, or we bring in a striker to help with the workload either way lets just hope we have a productive season as I always believe if we manage to get on a roll we will take some stopping.
We conceded 54 goals last season as opposed to 55 the season before, as a club we tried to play a more defensive style last season and cut back on attacking football to try and manage the goals conceded all that happened was we scored less and conceded 1 less. Our main problem last season was poor Coaching/management. We had the players to achieve better we did not have the right leadership in the dug out. Mowbray's time was up Beale's appointment was a shocker! And Dodds/Procter are too defensively minded. I hope that RLB will try and harness some of that attacking flair that we obviously have and start to look to a more attack minded structure on the pitch. All in all we are looking to blame players for last season when IMO it was some poor decisions made off the field and a change in attitude to how we played that contributed a lot more than just the players alone.
Burstow had played a handfull if fidst team games and was nothing flash whilst Rusyn is not a striker
Unfortunately there are not many decent places where a very rich person would want to live in sunderland
Well I beg to differ sir. I am very posh and was privately educated in our great city. I lived in Middle Herrington which is where all the rich posh families live. If it was good enough for mater and pater then I am sure it will be good enough for the players who are privileged to wear the Sunderland shirt. Some people really do not know when they are well orff.
Don’t think they do as much now because of the prices of the houses up that way but when we had the likes of Bent/Defoe on good wages they all mostly lived in the Darras Hall estate up Ponteland. House’s are upwards of one million quid.
To an extent I agree, but some of the immediate surrounding areas (cleadon, Whitburn parts of Durham etc) would be deemed affluent and attractive. The issue is our footballers and those we wish to attract aren’t super rich, not like the Manchester players or Liverpool lot, (who all tend to live in Cheshire), or the London based clubs players. They all live in v expensive trendy areas where they’ve got an abundance of nightlife and leisure that they can squander their money on, we haven’t. We’ve got the odd restaurant, we can claim that Newcastle has the nightlife but them inbred ****ers would make any Sunderland player feel uncomfortable, we’ve got beautiful coastal areas but that’s not enough for a twenty something, testosterone filled relatively rich young man. That’s why, unless you’re from here, or we can pay so much that they can forgo a few years of shagging and partying, we’ll never be the destination of established premier league stars.
Which is where most of them live, I don’t think many if any will live within the boundaries of Newcastle. But thick mags tell you otherwise.
