This season will be 10 years since we were last relegated into the then Fizzy pop League, with the then record lowest EPL points tally over the course of a season - 15. Which was then thankfully bettered by Derby with 11 a couple of seasons later... Here is a look at that squad we all cheered through mostly the bad times.. 1 GK Kelvin Davis 2 DF Stephen Wright 3 DF George McCartney 4 MF Rory Delap[24] 5 DF Gary Breen (captain) 6 DF Steven Caldwell (vice-captain) 7 MF Liam Lawrence 8 MF Dean Whitehead 9 FW Jon Stead 10 FW Stephen Elliott 11 MF Andy Welsh[25] 12 DF Nyron Nosworthy[26] 13 GK Ben Alnwick 14 MF Tommy Miller 15 DF Danny Collins[27] 16 FW Kevin Kyle 17 FW Anthony Le Tallec (on loan from Liverpool) 18 W Andy Gray[28] 19 MF Martin Woods 20 FW Chris Brown 23 MF Grant Leadbitter 25 DF Neill Collins 26 FW Daryl Murphy 28 DF Dan Smith 30 GK Joe Murphy 31 MF Christian Bassila 32 DF Justin Hoyte (on loan from Arsenal) 33 MF Julio Arca Looking back through that squad, you've gotta wonder how the **** we even managed to get 15 points?? This was what probably was the bottom for a lot of Sunderland fans... record lowest points in the EPL. A truly terrible squad, no manager after MicMac was sacked, with SNQ coming in for his 4 game (I think tenure)... I honestly at the time thought this was it for us. This was our Leeds moment. Down in the lower leagues where we would be for a looooong time. Except we hadn't flirted with CL football and lost that gamble. Alot has changed in 10 years. We got Roy, stormed up the Championship and got into the EPL again. The perennial yo-yo club was doing it's thing, aiming to set a third straight record lowest points. But we fought. We survived. We built. It hasn't been easy. SNQ magic carpet ride has been promised to us for 10 years, and we've kept believing. Kept hoping. Bruce, MoN, Sbriagia, Paolo, Gus, Dick, and now BSA (with Bally & Eric Black thrown in for good measure). It hasn't been easy being a Sunderland fan this last 10 years. There has been many downs. And a few ups. League Cup final, 6 in a Row, the Great Escapes... all brilliant times to be a supporter. But on the flip side the 8-0, AJ's antics, Titus, McShane.. all been terrible. I just hope we continue to build for the future, and with BSA i finally believe we can get there. It's always good to look back and see where you've come from, to see how far you've come.
Good post and nice to see our progress highlighted so clearly. That squad was threadbare in quality but now we've got loads of good players. We owe Keane a lot, he dragged us by the scruff of the neck back into the prem and I don't like to think what could have happened to us without him as we were dead certs for relegation at the time.
Nacho, define progress. We finished 17th. Again. We're still up there. But only by the skin our teeth.
Well look at the difference in the squads for starters, it's stark. Add to that the raft of talented youngsters we have coming through these days which wasn't a factor then. We've also got the best manager we've had since Reid in my opinion. It's true our league positions are still bad and we haven't improved there but at least we didn't get relegated from the Championship and since the January window I feel we're poised to propel ourselves up the league, with more signings of the same quality or better. I know that not everyone agrees on that.
What you're talking about there is potential, not progress. Yes, there's greater potential there. Progress isn't necessarily guaranteed from it though.
No it is progress because the squad is objectively better. By a mile. Also the fact that we now have a fully functioning youth team system is clear progress. Now it's time to take that progress and turn it into improved league positions.
Good read that, only Quinny didn't take over as manager until the start of the following season, after Drumaville bought the club. Wasn't it Kevin Ball who took over after McCarthy was sacked?
Sure it was NQ who took charge and not Ball. We lost our 1st 4 league games i think then Bury in the cup who were bottom of the football league at the time. Then Keane sat in the stands at the SOL when we beat Westbrom. The rest as they say is history!
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Quinn started the season as manager. He didn't finish the previous one as manager
When keane took over he worked some magic into that awful squad, a couple of decent signings or loans at the time and the team was unrecognizable in terms of performance. shows you what confidence does for players.
If someone else had been buying and selling the players Keane seemed like an otherwise good manager. Surprised he's seemingly got little interest in trying again anywhere.
Outstanding players who make it as good managers are few and far between. The only thing I can think of that causes this is that the lesser quality players that they coach/manage just do not get the message that is being preached. For me the ideal manager would be one that has served his apprenticeship by managing at lower levels before making it to the top but the injection of huge money killed that one off. Owners just go out and buy one to look after expensive players as evidenced by the merry go round of the rich clubs swapping managers. We have had our fair share of managers who went the apprentice route and Steve Bruce was a good example, not a bad manager, just one who got it wrong and the crowd would not ease up. Keane splashed a shed load of money on ordinary players with long contracts that the club could not sustain so his judgment was as suspect, but he was the commodity the club could not afford.
That flattered us. We were a bottom half of the table team, all of that season and even coming into the last game we were about 14th. Every single result went for us on the last day and we sneaked into 10th position. We only got about 44 points that season. 5 more than the one we have just finished...
