On strikers; Boro with Lath for instance, they've got a way of playing that caters to a striker, which means it's harder to gauge the talent we have, like Rusyn. If any striker is to be any sort of success here, could do with more direct play. Otherwise, someone who scores 25 goals isn't what we are yearning for, more someone who links up well. With Mundle, as a left winger, he's gonna have big boots to fill. We are obviously looking at wide men though, amongst others. I wonder where it'll leave us in the market.
Signed a load of younguns and potential ‘future stars ‘ finished comfortably mid table In a current rebuild of the club bottom to top after it being decimated in recent years Gaps to fill, that arent easy (goalscorers dont grow on trees) Head coach to be appointed, and been linked with some exciting prospects Sounds like an exciting summer and finally something to look forward to and be excited about
He looked excellent at WB. Could perhaps push him on to the right wing depending on formations etc, he offered more attacking threat from WB in the few games he had than Roberts did all season on the wing.
Imo Big money moves tend to happen in the second half of the window. It's really hard to predict if anyone goes, because it depends on what other teams do. I wouldn't begrudge us selling anyone for big money. It's good that everyone is tied down on 2+ year contracts (apart from Rigg) so we are in a good position to hold out for bigger money. Patterson and Hume are the two I would begrudgingly sell if I had to pick two of our better players. Hume and L09 are quite similar imo and I would quite like to see a big dominant centre half come in and L09/pembele at right back.
Bizarre that the likes of Dortmund, Ajax, Southampton, and so on have been lauded over the years by the footballing world for being talent factories that develop young players. And our fans consider it embarrassing that we are trying to do it too. I dont know what people expect from the club but the owner is finding his feet, he's running the club in line with a really admirable vision and all many us want is to criticise it. I don't get it. At all. I find it really sad that such an exciting time for the club is somehow being conflated with failure and a lack of ambition.
The club have consistently stated that they are not a selling club and have always maintained that they are building for the future, it is the fans who constantly talk about player sales and how the model is designed to maximise profit. The truth is every club apart from maybe 2 or 3 in the prem look to sell players for profit and we are no different, the trick is to build up your academy and U23 teams so that ready made replacements are available. We have to be patient and build for the future and I do believe we are gradually getting there as this season I expect to see more established player brought in to the team, as our development squads look to be strong, and this allows that flexibility where in previous years we have not had that, we have had to build it from scratch.
Last season was an absolute embarrassment after sacking Mowbray. That’s why. Add that to the fact we still haven’t replaced Ross Stewart and it’s easy to see why fans are annoyed and are now questioning said model. The reason hardly anyone complained last year is because of the fantastic job Mowbray was doing and the way we were playing.
I don't see it as an embarrassment in the slightest. Just a poor season we need to improve upon. We need a striker. That needs sorting. We know it, the club knows it. They need to do something about it and they will when they can. But we're Sunderland. Not United or Liverpool. Not long ago we put together a string of consecutive seasons in league one. We're not entitled to success. It's going to take some work And mistakes will be made and bad seasons will be had.
Despite a season that didn't go the way we wanted, or even expected, I still feel like the club is in the best hands it has been for a very long time. KLD has, at the very least, got a coherent plan and is trying to run the club like a 21st century football club. That's a huge departure from Short (who was well-intentioned but badly advised) and Donald and Methven. I get that there are problems with the Stadium, but that's not solely KLD's fault. I get that there have been problems with ticketing, but similar, if not necessarily identical, problems have happened at plenty of other clubs when they've tried to implement similar systems. Although it's gone backwards recently, the current board have consistently tried to appoint managers who play good football. The recruitment policy is my favourite part of it all to be honest. To me, spending big money (by Championship standards) on players like Kieffer Moore, for example, is boring and meaningless. How can you be proud of a team of journeymen players who are just here because we'll pay more than anyone else for them? The ideal would be a first team composed solely of local (or even not so local) lads who love the club and have come up through the academy. The next best thing to that is what we're doing- inspiring loyalty and a connection to the club in players by picking them up and giving them a chance of first team football when their paths are maybe blocked at other clubs or their careers have stalled a little. That's something to be proud of as a fan, in my opinion. I just don't get the negativity. That's not hyperbole or intended to annoy anyone, I genuinely don't understand it. Setbacks happen, it's all part of the journey, but we're on an exciting ride.
Hilarious listening to the nay sayers, one yesterday who gets regular updates from Roker report. Where they said that Speakman is trying to offload Hume to save his £3k per week wage. This guy actually believes it too. Also said that he got one saying Hemir was on £20k pw! He believed that too!! Roker report can be decent, but this is absolutely garbage!!
There are a number of our fans who don't seem to understand that progress is very rarely a perpendicular upward directional line. They hold this unfounded notion that this club is entitled to success almost match by match,certainly season by season,and,when it's not forthcoming,they lead a premature clamour for change,often ill-directing undeserved criticism towards their perceived causes of failure ,ignoring the fact that what they're calling for is merely a repeat of the very action which has plagued us for so long and has led us to our continued lack of success in the first place.
On paper it looks easy to go out and buy a Ross Stewart or similar but virtually every club wants to do the same and once you identify someone you are vying with a whole lot of teams to sign them . Affordability is another issue as you would be needing to spend top dollar with no guarantee of the deal being a success , the other option is to have a successful Academy to develop players for ourselves which is also part of THE MODEL which some fans dislike opposed to the cheque book management that almost bankrupt the club .
I’m not saying I agree with anyone who wants KLD out or wants the blueprint ripped up. I can, however, understand where the frustration comes from. I think it’s a reasonable complaint that we haven’t replaced Stewart - it didn’t need to be like for like, it just needed to be someone who wasn’t an unproven kid. I also think it’s fair that people are concerned that the season was written off by the club after Beale left. I’m a big fan of the work the club had done to get us to where we were and the general idea of how they want it to work is great, but things need tweaking and lessons need to be learned.
Obviously this season wasn`t great after Christmas but, when we got promoted from League 1 if we had been offered 1 season where we weren`t competitive but not at risk of relegation and one where we made the play-offs I think most would have taken it - the issue is we did it in the wrong order.
Good post mate. I hate the fact some posters on here think that no one is allowed to speak about the obvious flaws we have as a club and we must all trust the plan. Its been an absolute sh@t show of a season from sacking Mogga, to hiring Beale and then letting Dodds take control. Bringing Dack in, selling Batth, allowing Gooch and Pritch to go, and i dont even want to get started again on how we done in the last 2 transfer windows. What we are seeing now is an absolute shambles, and to think this time last year we looked like a club that was on the rise again with a manager we all loved and a brilliant team playing amazing football with a good mix of youth and experienced players. We are going backwards and things need to change asap on and off the pitch.
Disagree mate, it's not an absolute shambles. It's a 10 place or so step backwards, in a very competitive league,which should afford the opportunity for us to learn from the mistakes and to push on again next season.
It will be interesting to have this conversation in about 6 months time mate when weve finally hired a manager and the summer transfer window has ended but right now i dont hold much hope
I wasn’t particularly disappointed with getting rid of Mowbray. He looked like he’d reached the end of the road with us. The football had gone rapidly downhill and he wasn’t getting the best out of players. Some of the players we recruited from that could have been better in the right hands i.e not Mowbray, Beale or Dodds and I still have high hopes for Rusyn, Pembele and AA. Just one other point. Why give Boro as an example earlier to say how they’re doing things better than us? What success have they had recently? How long have they been in this league? No doubt because of where you are you get a lot of stick from smoggies but give them this season and that’s it - their future bragging rights will be limited in my view.
