The whole aim of this season should be to avoid relegation without placing too much of a financial burden on the club. Surely we should follow the blueprint of a club like Norwich who in their 1st season back spent wisely and only now seem to be pushing on and making major signings after a season establishing themselves. Any club promoted next season will be immediately playing catch up and should we survive and remain in the top tier then we will be one step ahead and certainly in a far better position that we found ourselves now. In Steve Bruce we have the best manager for the job in hand and with the backing of the fans and a little luck along the way , survival this season is a realistic prospect. Onwards and upwards U.T.T.
I agree with the first line but would be wary about comparisson with Norwich. They're going down this year for me.
Obviously it would be nice to emulate these teams but there is more than one way to do this. If the right players are available to us now then we must surely go for them. We've hardly spent any money so far this summer on new signings, we've extended a few contracts, signed the odd player on a free but not really made a "premier league" signing as of yet.. I hope we will make a couple of these before the window closes as we really do need better players in order to avoid the drop.
Agree with what you both say but the fact is that we have to realise that most of the Premier League quality signings we require will see us as a lesser choice. Cant think of a better manager in our position to enter the transfer market and find a squad capable of keeping us up in the P.L. for more than one season.
I think we'll be in a relegation scrap for most of the season. We can't really base ourselves on anybody because a) we aren't like any of the other clubs and b) none of the previously promoted clubs followed the basis of their predecessors. We need to make sure that when the final whistle goes against Everton on the last day, we are at least 17th. We can stay up, we've done it before. Whether or not we do will be determined once we start playing, not before. We could sign nobody else now and play brilliantly, grinding out wins and stay up. We could sign another 5 players and go down. I think after 10 games we'll have a good idea of where we are in relation to our rivals. I do find myself looking at other teams signings and just wonder if we need to bring in a bit more quality; Norwich have signed Van Wolfswinkel and Redmond, Palace are close to signing the Spain U20's captain (looked awesome in the Summer tournament) and Sunderland have brought in a free scoring Altidore and are close to signing an Italian international winger. We need to be bringing in some real quality; whether that's from abroad or domestically is up to SB. I just fear at the minute that we've only really made changes to our defence and goalkeeper positions, two areas that weren't really an ongoing concern last season.
Figueroa is definitely 'Premier League'. Davies I think is PL quality, Meyler played in the PL and Brady, Aluko and Chester are all capable of making the step up. We're looking at the best squad of players we've ever had IMHO.
Agree here, I'd probably add Quinn and Elmo to that list. It'd be harsh to say McGregor is just Championship level too.
I don't really know enough about McGregor, but yes he comes with a decent pedigree. I am concerned about his extra curricular activities, for which he has well documented history of getting pissed. Hopefully not a Bullard between the sticks!
Well we had Jakupovic, who wasn't a loan, but I've said my bit on him. The thing was, while we needed a permanent number 1, while Stockdale was there nobody was going to replace him so it only became a cause for concern once the season had finished. I think it's the order we've addressed it in; we've signed Elmo (a WB/RB/RM), Davies (a CB), Figueroa (a LB/LWB), McGregor (a GK) and possibly Harper (another GK). Suppose you could include Boyd in there but he was technically already signed in February. I'd have gone for the striker first. Suppose if we hadn't gone for Figueroa he might have been snapped up by somebody else; I just hope these irons in the fire we have are of a good standard.
¤ Avoid relegation ¤ Strengthen the team and keep the squad united ¤ Extend Aluko's contract before we have parasites reaching for the telephone ¤ Keep a good home record and get some scrappy away wins ¤ Get a proper striker That will do for me
I honestly think, and this is just my opinion, Sunderland are signing far too many foreign players without EPL experience. It's alright for Giaccherini and Diakite to play in Rome or Florence on a balmy spring / late summer Sunday but do you really think they'll fancy Stoke / Norwich / Palace / Us on a freezing, dark February? Or any home game for that matter between October and April, they've got a shock in store about how cold it is up there. I'm much happier with our summer signings so far vs their's. It's all guess work but Id honestly say with Sunderland they'll either do brilliantly and finish top 8 or they'll go down.
Bruce is a magician in the transfer market, have no fear. I would rather have Bruce at the helm than Holloway or Mackay. I also think he'll finish further up the table than either of those.
The panicking poodles who play football manager are starting to come out of the woodwork in force I see
I hope that wasn't aimed at me, it's just my opinion on the upcoming season. It's hardly a panic, it was a constructive look at how we've performed in the transfer market and how I perceive our season panning out. I don't doubt Brucey will have trouble getting good players in, I'd have just preferred us to have sorted the forwards out before the defence. But in doing so we might have lost out on our free transfers, especially Figueroa who would've been snapped up straight away. It's my opinion. Either agree with it or you're wrong. Your choice.
Do you play football manager and are you worrying about our activity in the transfer market? If you do and are then it was aimed at you, if not, its not!
Haha, fair enough, I do play Football Manager, but it's just a game. I'm in 2045 on mine so unless we're interested in signing Guam international Elvin Jonathan (for at least £32m, or whatever it was that Parma quoted me), I don't really take it as fact. Especially as Ferriby are in League 1 and Boreham Wood have made it to the semi finals of the Europa League. And Finland won the World Cup. Dark times ahead folks! In the transfer market, I think the business we've done so far has been great. I'd just like the striker chase to step up from media interest to offers made.
Wishing we'd hurry up and sign a striker is fair enough, we all want that I'm on about these ****ing poodles posting all the time about how worried they are that we aren't spending enough cash/other teams are signing all the good players etc
