@JamesCopley_ Carlos Corberan has just called Sunderland one of the best teams in the Championship. He sounds very pleased with the point given their defensive issues. #SAFC | #WBA
Looks like Hull have sacked Walter or are at least on the verge of doing so. Interested to see who they go for now, my money would be on someone from the Turkish league. What they should do is go to Robins and make him say no first though.
Another big night in the division Cardiff v QPR Leeds v Luton Middlesbrough v Blackburn Portsmouth v Millwall Derby v Swansea
What do you think of our “model” where we develop players bought cheap and sell them for £millions, using this money to buy better ones to develop. We sold Stewart a couple of years ago and got a good deal. Have we improved with a better striker yet. We sold Clarke for a decent sum. Mundle is ok but have we improved on our left wing yet. If we sell Jobe and Rigg will we get a better midfield with all the money they would bring in. Cirkin and Hume would bring a big wedge in as well so would we get better L/R Backs. It’s ok saying Mundle and Watson are good prospects but will we sell them once they are performing well. Speakman is doing wonders with the squad worth far more than we paid but are we going to be stuck as a club developing players and selling for a profit if they become good players.. If so we will struggle. If we end up selling Rigg, Jobe and Cirkin at the end of the season will they be replaced with a new lot that need a season or two before they are ready for sale. My hope is that if we have to, sell just one of them and use the money to get better prospects in but many on here say we will be losing a few of our top players if we don’t get promoted. I want them all to stay and for us to improve the squad with a couple of top players and a handful of young prospects. We can move out a good half dozen who are not in any future plans. The bottom line is I’m pleased with how it’s going but can see us becoming weaker and having to reset and start again when our top players go.
I think that part of the plan is that we only sell players where we already have the replacement in house. Unless of course we get a really stupid offer for a player.
The individual replacements might not be as good but the squad as a whole has improved on the back of the sales. No chance we can get Mepham without Clarke going for example. We were never going to get a like for like replacement for Clarke so you have to replace him in the aggregate. In my opinion we have done that. The only way a non parachute payment club can compete at this level is by developing and selling players and using the money to improve the squad as a whole. We can't keep a hold of players worth £15m+ for more than a year in this league. Never going to happen. Selling players is something we simply have to get used to, infact we need to embrace it as a good thing. It allows us to move into the next price bracket of signings which theoretically lessens the risk of signing duds.
