Its obvious that even after the first 5 games of the season that this 2011/2012 campaign is going to be a long hard one for the Red & White Army. January will give us the opportunity to replace Gyan and hopefully add a ball retaining player into the midfield (a left footed Sessegnon hopefully!). I pray to God that we are not in the relegation mix come January, otherwise its going to be nigh on impossible to attract players of quality as we even struggled this summer even with the tenth place finish. Hopefully we can rally round the Gyan drama and become a more unified squad and club because of it and maybe we will be hovering in mid table come January, which should give us a good platform to attack the second half of the season. Its going to be difficult to get the right men for the cause but Bruce has a good track record when it comes to strikers, (although keeping them is a problem) but his identification is usually spot on. Question is, who do we go for in January to possibly save our season? Possible Strikers 1- Gignac - Marsielle - Could have been some truth in this story about the swap with Gyan so it could be an avenue explored in January. 2- Pavelchyenko - Spurs - Again Bruce has had a long interest in him and he isnt seeing much action at spurs lately. 3- Cisse - Frieberg - We showed quite a strong interest in the summer along with Newcastle but this lad will be at ACN so its no go for me. Added to this he will probably jump ship for more money after a season anyways. 4- Jnr Hoillette - Blackburn - Good little player who plays off the striker and has scored goals this season and last. He works well off a big man (Bendtner) and has pace, good passing & control. Similar to Sessegnon but more of a goal threat. Possible Left wingers 1- Adam Johnson - Man City - stuck on the bench again this season apart from the odd cameo appearance when they are about 4 or 5 nil up. I would love him here on loan or permanent but I know every footballer would chose money over playing time so doubt this would ever materialise. 2- Kranjcar - Spurs - not left footed but can perform in this area of the field as he has 2 good feet. It would depend on Spurs signing players however as he has been starting their opening games. 3- Forlan - QPR - More of a central midfielder but I watched him play last night and he is a goal threat but can control possession very well and also keeps the ball. Would be a good addition if we could prise him from QPR but with their new owners etc it could be difficult. Thoughts?
Nice to see your optimism, me I would like to win a few games between now and the Jan transfer window. You must realise atm we are relegation fodder, we have hardly won any home games in 2011, every EPL team would love to play us right now. So yes I would like some players but we could almost be dead and buried come Chrismas.
Dont be stupid, two away draws are acceptable especially as one was liverpool away, and did you really expect anything from the chelsea match. So that brings us to one game we should have won but we didnt. Mind you next two or three games are pivotal in bruces sunderland managership
Loving the pessimism of the fans at the moment. Wonder how much of it the players feel when playing at home, and how it affects the outcome of the games? Our squad, even without Gyan, is more than good enough to keep us above the relegation spots. Hell we drew with liverpool and managed not to get totally thrashed by chelsea (see our record against them since we come up into the premier league again - with the exception of one game). We might struggle to score goals, but I am hopeful that Ji and Bentdner can for a partnership and our defence looks good with the additions of Brown and Oshea. a few boring 1 goal wins and some draws are on the cards until january imo.
Wish I had your optimism, truth is we shouldn't even be thinking about January, we shouldn't be looking past next Sunday or we are in deep doo doo.
100% agree with this. January may as well be 10 years away at the moment and I'd be more concerned at who will be leaving than coming in. We were supposed to be signing all of these so called targets this summer after Bent left. We didn't. I have no confidence or belief that we will replace Gyan either in January. GARY ROWELLSWORLD - we played well for 45 mins at Liverpool in the 2nd half and this after the first 30 mins when on any other day, we would have been dead and buried - I watched the game. After a decent 20 mins at the start, we got beaten by one of the most ordinary (I'd say poorest) mags teams for years at home - I watched the game live; we played and drew with a Swansea team that was simply awful and will get humped off most teams this season and we played poorly as well - I watched that game too. We got knocked out of the cup by a team that last year played in the 3rd tier of English football and has hardly changed its personnel. - I watched the highlights (such as they were); We were comprehensively beaten by on Saturday by a Chelsea team in transition and without threatening them for the best part of 80 mins. I was there too. It was boring. Thats just this season. Last season, for the best part of 5 months, we were simply hideous to watch and as pathetic to watch at home as any team I have watched for the past 20 years. I wanted to see improvements for this season and if there were positives I'd be happy to take them. We are simply limping along and prolonging the pain to mask over the rubbish we are watching. 5 transfer windows and 2 years and we still dont have a game plan, tactical plan or indeed a best 11. We are hemorrhaging strikers like there is no tomorrow (we have lost 3 since July 2010) and players like Cana have come and buggered off sharpish when they have had a chance to see whats what. Its wrong on so many levels its painfully obvious that Bruce has lost the plot. He wont get it back. It never happens once the slip into that downward losing mentality hits a club. You must have seen this so many times not to recognise the tell tale signs. This is not a competition between BiB's & BoB's to see who is the winner. This is the sad reality that Bruce is not going to be the man to take us anywhere. That is as painful for me to say as anyone as I really thought he would be the one.
so we shouldnt be planning ahead, looking on how to strengthen come january? Quinn and Bruce will very much be planning ahead.
my god cest: why do you insist that your OPINION is fact? Thats what gets ppl's back up, when you state opinion as fact. Derby = always un-predictable regardless on how teams look on paper. New season = clean sheet. The injuries last season would have stopped any team from playing well. Lets judge the new team on the new season.
Yeah exactly mate, i agree we should be concentrating on Sunday for the purpose of this thread I was asking who we should be looking at in january, not turning it into a "analysis of the 4 games so far" thread. KTF
I think Cisse would be one for the summer because of the ACN, I also think that might be the case with Gignac because they wanted a swap with Gyan, but I suspect Marsielle would not be able to pay Gyan's wage demands so this one could have some legs as a straight deal. I would love Hoillette. I said last season that he looked like a very good player and he has got better since then, he could play on the left as well, but he would be big money probably 10m+ as he is young and on a long contract. I can't see Pav coming as he is too similar to Bendtner. I could see us going for someone on loan with a view to buy in case campbell gets fit,and one of the young lads might step up, with the idea that we will go for Cisse in the summer. On the left who knows?? Adam Johnson would be the best fit for us but I can't see that happening. Krancjar is getting 1st team football at spurs so I can't see that either. What we need is pace out on the left??
Simply far too soon to even start to ponder who on these sorts of forums IMO - sure SNQ et al need to put plans in place but injuries at other clubs will have an effect on each of the players mentioned so far and they might build a place in their current clubs - none of them jumped to join us this summer, why would we expect them to in January - we`ll pick up a striker no idea who. Doubt a Left back although we need one and doubt a left winger need one of those too - am guessing our league position will be such that we will be more in the beggars than the choosers camp I`m afraid (very afraid!)
