agree about wickham but i think hyam is a decent young player. perhaps not the most glamourous player in the world but he certainly looks promising. wickham was good for his age but you only need to chat to a few sunderland fans to find out how bad he's been. totally out of his depth but he may well improve massively, though i still believe he'll end up playing for a championship side
I think our league position reflects the fact that Jewell has failed to make progress. He has only arrested the decline that we suffered under Keane. The Midfield we had that inspired our really good run made up by Drury and Hyam has now been disbanded in favour of the much discredited combination of Bowyer and Leadboots. Neither of these players will be here next season so I don't see the logic in playing them now! We really need to try and finish as high as we can and get our GD back to parity. Fat chance of that happening now. Jewell is tactically brain dead and the sooner he ****s off the better!
so you're still not a fan? you seem from the outside as though you'd become a bit more steady at the back though. you're not getting walloped anymore and picking up points more consistently, especially at home. looks like you'll finish in your usual home of 12-15th which, baring in mind your start isn't too shabby. nowhere near where you want of course but i really thought you might go down this year... at least coventry are going down FINALLY! they've been putting relegation off for too long!!
I won't be renewing my season tickets for next year that's for sure! 5 years of boring mediocre football compounded by a clueless idiot of a manager have tipped me over the edge! Until I start to see real improvement from top to bottom my money will be kept firmly in my pocket. I will now go on a casual basis.
Whilst I agree with you JWM in the fact I don't really understand why bowyer is playing over someone like Hyam or Drury as ever I think you're going a little overboard once again and need to put things in perspective after 1 bad result against a decent team when we really could've been out of site by halftime. That's our first defeat at home in 9 games and 28 points out of 15 games, thats automatic promotion form, i'm not sure even the most optimistic supporter would have thought we would go on a run like that after the first half of the season. Realistically we have a very poor defence and the rest of the team have generally only been here less than a season. Whilst a top half finish would've been nice this year, I'm pleased with the progress we have made in the last few months and I'm sure we will be much stronger next season. Like you say JWM, Jewell has only arrested the decline we suffered under Keane, which I agree with to an extent, I think this season was always going to be one of transition, whoever the manager we had come in. I like most others would like to see some of the younger players given a run out in preparation for next season. Looks like we did a good thing with selling Wickham, I thought really £8million for an unproven striker was worth it, he's no Jordan Rhodes. But saying that I think he should have stayed with us for 1 more season to develop. I'm not sure if he'll go one to be a great player, although due to his physical attributes I think he will always be in the top 2 leagues in england at least.
thats a shame for you warky. it must be a tough decision to decide to walk away (to a degree) from something like that. can't say i've ever come close myself but you are certainly not alone from south of the border in taking that decision as my old man will assure you! he feels like he's lost his club...
i wouldn't bet against you getting wickham back on loan next season from what i've heard. it definitely seems a possibility
I have supported them through some hard times before and will always be a supporter but I can't justify the amount of money for 3 season tickets whilst I see no improvement. My boys are getting bored and it gets harder evey season to sell the matchday experience to them.
ptc we have crossed swords many times this season but after watching our dismal surrender to Watford and then again yesterday I just feel that it's time to take a back seat for a while. I take your point about our recent good run but its always too little, too late! We flatter to decieve!
Grant Holt on Twitter: grant holt ‏ @holty30 Don't no why all these Ipswich fans don't like me it's not my fault we beat them twice and there rubbish. Just remembered it is sorry. (He could work on his English, Holt appears to dislike the Welsh and Ip5w1ch, who could blame him?)
JWM i am not having a go at you at all for not getting a season ticket next season. I completely understand we've had 5 years of mediocracy and bad football and going to watch football is an expensive business. I do however feel after 10 years of mismanagement we are starting to get back on track, eveything is by far not perfect and there are many things at the club which i don't like but nothing is ever perfect. I think it'll take time for us to progress after these mismanaged years but I think next season is the first season in a while where we will actually look like a decent team, I don't think we'll be challenging right at the top but we'll be in the mix. If not I think I will lose alot of faith in the club and the direction we are heading. I genuinely feel a little sorry for Jewell, he's probably come to the club at one of the worst possible times in our history in terms of our set up and expectations. He's come in after the worst manager in our history who ruined our club but we have a wealthy owner so expectations are high even though we had a cr*p squad on high wages. We've been in the 2nd tier of england for 10 years and the last 5 have finished nowhere near the top, one more season of mediocracy(although probably realistic) was always going to be the final tipping point for many supporters. To top it off our local rivals have the best manager they have ever had(by a country mile) and have some how managed to finish midtable in the premierleague after 3 years ago it looking like it was only a matter of time before we got to the premierleague and the possibility that Norwich could go pretty rapidly down the leagues!!! I think things would be alot different now if we would have appointed Jewell instead of Keane or even kept Jim as manager!!
ptc - I can't disagree with any of that! You know me though, I let my heart rule my head most of the time! It is so hard to take when you are always promised jam tomorrow! My big fear is that while we are floundering lesser clubs are overtaking us. We aren't the club we once were in terms of a terrific footballing reputation within the game and we can no longer seem to attract the quality players we once could. My rants are a symptom of my sheer bloody frustation at what I see going wrong down at Portman Road. We used to be a force to be reckoned with even in this division and now we have become a mere also ran. The 3-0 defeat away at Grimsby 10 years ago and the sacking of Burley as a result has a cast a long shadow over this club.
Except that it's Hyam's third season and next will be his fourth... All of the good decision making and blooding youngsters went out of the window and along with it the results.
Second season syndrome was referring to Wickham - second season in the first team (Although he's not really in Sunderland's first team...)
For me, and going against the party line of Jewell is an idiot so ignores him, We favour Murphy over him, which I believe is for Murphys size and ability to help out at set plays/ defensive qualities. We are quite a small team and other than the two centre backs we have no size anywhere else on the team. Carson is the better attacking player but when we include the likes of JET and Martin, who are both 'luxury' players to some degree and Chopra, who does nothing defensive at all (lazy ****) then we need to add a bit more steel to the midfield - which is Murphy.
Just found this video on youtube, a norwich fans response to Carrarud posting the infamous norwich are going to hell video by ipswichcrazy. I think the boy is a bit confused, he's trying to start a war with his one of his own. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4hyZ-1F3LA&feature=related Better facilities, do me a favour Watch out lads, this guy wants to start a youtube war..............scary.
How far you've fallen when the only thing you think is better than ours is facilities, and even that's up for debate.
I’ve seen a bit of one of those “Ipswich Crazy” things and that guy clearly has a mental disorder, probably on the autistic spectrum somewhere. The childish delight of our resident Norwich morons over him is disgusting, and that CarraRud ****er shows once again what human detritus he is.
