Was going to post this on Cest's thread, but then I realised I had a bit more to say on this all. Here's my take/rant on PDC and where we are headed: Generally speaking, I'd rather we died on our feet than lived on our knees (only to die anyway). PDC has identified a clear and major weakness in our club, which I think we all appear to agree on. The players have been allowed to get away with far too much for too long and the time has come to draw a nice big, fat and clear line in the sand. As far as money spent relative to league position is concerned, we would have to be one of the lowest value for money sides going around. I don't agree 100% with his style of handling this situation and the Bardsley affair (for many of the same reasons identified above - particularly regarding our bargaining position on shipping out players) - but I do agree for the most part and, more importantly, with what PDC is doing in principle. In my humble view, the main complaint I have is that PDC said too much when he could have gotten the same point across in a manner which armed the media and our rivals with less ammuition. Regardless, I'm confident that we will be a better performing and more cohesive side for it next season. If this is just an up front case of PDC piddling hard and marking out his territory to manage expectations, then I think it'll be ok. Of course, the million dollar question is whether he'll keep piddling to the point where it all breaks down. It's a fair question and we'll have to have the faith we never seem to lose and wait and see. The positive spin on this is PDC has previously shown and will show undying loyalty to his club and the players once they get on board. In particular, I love the bit where he said after the Tottenham game (when talking about not letting the players go on holiday straight away) - first we go back to 'our City'. That's what it's all about: if staff and players don't engage with and absorb what football means to Sunderland and its supporters, then they are just a bunch of empty vessels taking pay cheques at the expense of everyone's hard earned time and money. I think we are all qualified experts by experience in knowing what this results in - mediocrity, failure and unhappiness. SAFC needs to be a culture, a career and a family to all players and staff, not just a job and pay cheque. For the money they earn, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect this. It we can get this right, then future improvement and success are guaranteed in my opinion. Rant over. KTF.
Do you really believe what you are saying, the reality is players will move several times in their span, loyalty is a passage they go through by holding the shirt up when signing for whoever, unless the player comes through its own clubs ranks it does not exist. How many clubs have one club players within their system, im afraid those days are gone, as soon as a transfer occurs the first thing the player says is, what a great club i have come to , its playing the game im afraid. Liverpool has just lost a player who will be one of the few as have man utd. money is the loyalty thing, not the club and its followers .
That's pretty much my take on the matter too...I'm pretty sure that the tabloid press/media will do their very best to undermine what he is trying to achieve; but if we all stand together, he has a chance to get rid of the cycle of failure which has haunted our club for years now..
A lad I work with summed it up... he's acting like a championship manager in how he manages premiership players. He needs to learn fast otherwise there will be further rumblings but I'm sure he will as he's a bright chap.
Given Bardsleys commitment to the club for years, and his general good attitude, PDC should have dealt with this behind closed doors like Fergie always did. That way he has the chance to put things right, now there is no going back. A lot of this smacks of Keane, when he got frustrated that players did not have the ability he had. PDC needs to accept players won't be as work obsessive as him. There's a balance to get right here. However I fully back PDC & think his work ethic is why Short took him on. Remember why Keane left, Short would question what Keane did with his time as he would only be on the training pitch once a week, Keane huffed & took the dog for a walk. I think Short is buying into this but PDC needs to be clever here, & Short has to back him in the summer even more so. You can't have a player revolt when a whole load of new faces come in a short space of time.
Thing is, Bardsley Kilgallon and all that lot arent Premiership players. They have been stealing a living
Stu - I can see where you're coming from and can accept that the reality will fall short of what I have described above. However, the fact is that our club has recently gone too far in the other direction and the lunatics appear to have been allowed to run the asylum. We definitely need to head back the other way. Micko - something tells me that, at the very least, PDC will spend more than enough time on the training pitch with the players!
The integrity of our game is going down the pan. It's not the 70's where your getting 40 quid a week and a tab in the club bar. They get thousands of pounds to be professional athletes, role models and ambassadors and they're more interested in the cars, casinos and self image. Finely someone from within football is challenging a culture that is rotting our very game. Every other Chairman and Manager should grab this opportunity by the scruff of the neck, come out and publicly support Paolo with a vow to stamp it out of their club and put an end to this revolting prima donna attitude that's poisoning the greatest Sport in the world. Cest said on his thread Evolution not Revolution. I don't usually disagree with his views but I hate that phrase, load of bollocks. Evolution has no foresight what so ever. It tries to adapt to changes, it doesn't create the change. Sometimes extinction can't be avoided. to surrender to evolution is to bury your head in the sand and hope everything will sort it's self out, The universe has it's own way and all that bullshit. Revolution is exactly what's needed but Paolo can't do it on his own, he need backing of the clubs, pfa and the FA instead of pampering to these bellends who take the money we've parted with (season tickets, subscription to sky channels) and put ourselves on the breadline to support an institution, not give Bardsley a few extra chips to take to the table. Will Paolo get the support he needs to change football for the better? Will he ****. Mark my words the PFA and FA will turn on him and sell football down the river beyond the point of no return. This sport has become a ****ing joke.
I agree with damn near everything PDC said in his press conference. The thing is you lot have something to look forward to as he will change things for the better. We, on the other hand, have a wretched gray haired clit who has no tactical knowledge whatsoever and is literally balls deep in Jonas.
i was just about to post something similar, if they did their job(for which they get very well paid) nobody would need to critisise or gee them up, and thats the point i dont think they have and i for one feel they are cheating honest supporters of their rights.
Sometimes a revolution is carried out without much thought for what comes after. Just like the shock and awe of the US attacks in Iraq. The reason to carry it out was sound but the policy terribly flawed and the aftermath is a bloody mess. We all want radical change but this is now a no going back scorched earth strategy, with all bridges burned now by PDC and unless he has truly thought this out and already secured the replacement players, we could find ourselves in a pan ****e come August. That's why evolution not revolution is better imo. We need change but we are still a premier club and the addition of 4 or 5 quality players could have been secured whilst quietly shipping out the dross at the same time. I want to be wrong. I truly hope I am. I want PDC to succeed because what we don't need is another management crisis here by December.
Just been reading comments on the sky article and PDC has the backing of so many fans of other clubs. It's an opportunity to try and save this game. Agree it's very risky but it's better than lying down and letting a greed over commitment attitude swallow our beloved game whole. Of coarse i'd rather all this be happening to another club but it's not unfortunately. But if everybody could unite we could change football for the better.
I am just a firm believer that great teams are built on the trust of The dressing room integrity, a trust that has now been betrayed by the manager. I'm just uneasy at the public slanging match currently going on and I do fear it hasn't been thought out. PDC talks like a fan and echoes much of our thoughts but I want him to act like a manager, not a fan. Hope I'm wrong lads.
It seems to me that the whole thing might be getting blown out of proportion. We've heard that some players have appealed to the PFA about fines. We know 7 were fined and then there was the Bardsley and Killa incident. Both of these players were out this summer in all likelihood. I even defended Bardo on another thread before the casino incident. So if the two go, then the net outcome is the same. The other 7 aren't named, so what has been lost apart from a few rumpled egos? We've had Johnson come out and defend PDC today. We have players showing progress post-MON who will have their crack at staying with SAFC. Overall, I don't think we're any worse off. Time will tell, but at least we'll be faced with this in the EPL rather than Championship. If that wasn't the case, we'd be looking at turmoil anyway
