Oil Shake? Spoiler please log in to view this image One difference between PDC's and Poyet's Sunderland was the fitness levels, that gave you an edge last season, you seemed to wilt a bit towards the end of the derby game, two weeks of beast mode now for Dick I reckon.
Why does he have to be an Arab? I think my problem was there was so many not even average overseas squad fillers bought in by DiFanti. I can't blame PDC cause he was out the door as quick as the season started. Poyet came in for most of the season and didn't rate most of them either. Roberge, Cabral, Dossana, Celutsaka, Diakitie all average overseas players. Some of them may have been decent where they came from but most were out of their depth. That's everything wrong with he game in this country, the influx of **** foreigners. Is it any wonder the players with at least some Premier League experience were the ones that did well. Vito, Ki, Borini? Even Marias and Karlsson failed at U21 level giving them no hope of breaking the first team. It was down to the players who were signed to prove their worth and all but a few simply didn't. Giacc was the only perminant overseas signing who had anything about him and look at his injury record. I'm not saying they're **** marra, but they were definitely below average and out of their depth imo. He's where Di Fanti gets some defence. Our squad was tiny and the budget limited, what's the bloke to do with his entirely overseas football knowledge? Cough cough Ellis Short.
Well, you can hardly blame di Fanti for Karlsson. He came, did well at U-23 and got farmed out to Motherwell. He didn't like the British game, like Scocco and the Paraguayan CB Bruce brought in. But nobody can know that till they get here and try. In a case like that you can't blame the player or the manager/DoF. All you can do is ship them back out and forget about it. Mavrias and Celestka got their first caps while they were here - and Celustka scored within 5 minutes of his international debut! So how bad were these kids, really? - I honestly don't know the answers, and I'm not prepared to slag them off till I do. It's a matter of opinion, of course, but I'll reserve my judgement till I see something.
Mate it's easy, if they were good enough or up for the challange they'd still be here in and around the first team set up. Karlsson and Mavrias couldn't break the first team as fast as they'd liked and wanted off, fair play, they weren't up for the challange. Ba has been injured most of the season out on loan, juries out. Celutsaka lost game time as the season drew on, wasn't fancied, was available for half a million and we passed, there most be reason, either not good enough or not up to the challenge, either way it wasn't to be. So many to failures tells it's own story regardless of why they failed. They weren't good signings. I feel the budget was inadequate for our needs.
