It doesn’t really matter though what matters is now and they’ve just been promoted twice and look to be heavily invested in giving it a good go. Sunderland are easily one of the top 20 biggest clubs in the country in my opinion we should be in the PL but the reality is we judge that off how good we were 60+ years ago and the crowds we attract. It’s not based on success because our fans this side of 50 haven’t even see us lift a major trophy. My time as a Sunderland fan is very short in comparison to most in here but all I’ve seen in my lifetime is yo-yo-ing between the champ/PL and fighting to survive in the PL. Quite disrespectful to Ipswich to just dismiss them and think it’s absurd for our players to join them when they’re in a good position right now.
Bit of a Ross Stewart vibe about him on the video I just watched. Rangey, willing runner. Even scuffs all his shots like LND
UEFA cup wasn’t it? Still a great achievement of course. they’re a good club. Never heard them called huge before like.
There's a lot of noise about Clarke, albeit 90% is coming from twitter randoms. I have no doubt Harte is feeding people info as well Look at it from Clarke's perspective - he's found a home here, he loves it here but he wants to play in the PL. Does he want to play in the PL for an Ipswich or a Southampton who are most likely either going to get relegated, or going to scrape 4th bottom? I can't imagine that's much fun (it certainly isn't watching as a fan). Money plays a big part, but does it play enough of a part to go to smaller clubs with a high probability of relegation? Is he going to gamble on playing well enough in a struggling team that he gets picked up by a Wolves or a West Ham? From the club's perspective, this summer is the time to sell him IF he's not going to sign a new deal, so maybe they are pushing things along a bit. Whatever the outcome, I hope Clarke gets the move that is right for him and we get the full £25m (no doubt there will be plenty of 'ITK' folk on twitter and WMS who will tell us we sold him for pennies and it was £8m+ add ons etc)
Roko Simic, 20, CF Given his 6-foot-3 frame, one might think that Salzburg are shaping the Croatia U21 international into the same mould as Haaland or Sesko. Simic is the son of the ex-AC Milan defender Dario and his physicality makes him a natural target to play the ball into, while he's good at using his body to outmuscle defenders, or even pin his marker as he turns away. And, much like Sesko, his speed is also impressive once he hits his stride. Perhaps expectations were too high following his 19-goal spell on loan at FC Liefering (Salzburg's development team in the Austrian second tier) last season, but with such a complete No. 9 profile, his breakthrough could happen at any moment. He has not hit the net since October (14 games without a goal; four in total this season), but has enough potential to suggest he could come good soon.
Really positive news about Huggins - would love to see him get an injury free run for the last 3 or 4 months of the season, earning a new contract in the process. Very talented player imo. Hopefully this is a really good news day taking us into a big match full of optimism, even more so on the back of Sunday gone.
I agree with all that and, in reality, it depends on the balance between money. ambition and loyalty. There are too many possibilities and we only know what we see. It's possible that Sunderland have decided it's time for him to go or Clarke himself ... ... after seeing what happened to Ross Stewart it might make him want to take the leap now.
