Saw this on Roker Report's FB page and thought it was relevant to this thread
Some of the most memorable occasions we’ve had as a football club are when we’ve all felt as one. All pulling in the same direction. All shouting, singing, and roaring for one common purpose.
The Sheffield United semi-final at the Stadium of Light. Chelsea at home in the FA Cup quarter-final. The Chelsea and Everton games under Big Sam. Derby games at St James’ Park. The playoff semi-finals against Sheffield Wednesday and the final against Wycombe.
Together, we’re virtually unstoppable.
But at the moment, it feels different. It feels weird. There’s disproportionate negativity - and it’s hard to put a finger on why.
Of course, no one’s particularly happy with the run of results over the past few weeks. And in reality, no one is overjoyed with some of the performances we’ve put in since February.
But, in the grand scheme of things, recent performances and results aren’t too important.
It’s what we achieve over the course of the season that really counts.
As Sunderland supporters, we presumably all want the same thing - for the club to be as successful as possible.
This season, that means promotion.
We locked in fourth place ages ago, meaning that over the next few weeks we’ve got an absolutely brilliant chance of achieving what we set out to do.
But if you took some of the online commentary at face value, you’d think we were struggling to stay up. While some people may not think of social media as the real world, it unfortunately is. Everything that’s posted on social media, on forums, is read by players and other supporters - and over the past couple of months, the negativity has verged on the overwhelming.
Why? If you take a step back, it’s virtually impossible to say with much conviction.
Yes, results and performances haven’t been great, but there have been loads of mitigating factors for people who want to look for them.
Some may prefer to see a certain style of play or particular players playing - or not playing - but ultimately, that doesn’t matter.
It’s the destination, not the journey, as the saying goes.
As supporters, we’ve got a job to do - support.
Absolutely, call things out when they’re not right, but when you look at it completely objectively, there’s not a lot that’s “not right” at the moment.
The club have delivered on a number of levels over recent seasons, which makes this contagion of negativity really difficult to understand.
We’ve got a once-in-a-generation team packed full of young, exciting talent. We’ve got an ownership group that’s overseen us getting out of League One and becoming competitive again. We’ve got a sporting director and a head coach who’ll both be on the radars of other clubs.
The team has done exceptionally well this season, and if you cast your mind back to last summer, we’d all have agreed Le Bris would be doing an excellent job if he got us to fourth place.
Yes, social media and forums are a microcosm of the real world, but they do seriously impact and influence the mood and feeling around the club.
Recently, there have been people shouting we need to sack Le Bris. People slagging the club off for resting players ahead of the playoffs. Fans criticising left, right, and centre because, what, we’ve not quite managed to keep pace with three clubs armed with parachute payments? Because we’ve not scored as many goals as you’d like?
It’s extending into “real life” too. The atmosphere at the Stadium of Light has been poor for months now. On Saturday, Chris Rigg - who’s been brilliant this season - was reportedly almost in tears after facing a barrage of abuse from a few people in the away end. Haway, man.
This group of players have been brilliant - likeable, hard-working, and a world away from some of the dossers we’ve had line up for us.
They deserve more support, not less. They deserve unconditional backing right now.
It’s baffling that anyone who considers themselves a supporter of SAFC would want to feed negativity into our team or our fellow supporters right now. To what end? Dampen other people’s positivity? To reduce people’s expectations? To… sabotage the chances of us going up so they’re not left too disappointed by an unsuccessful conclusion? So they can take the “telt ya” high ground?
Surely not - but that is exactly what this endless cycle of online negativity does. It’s not conducive to anything positive, it’s not productive, and it brings the whole mood down. And it eats into real life too.
There’s been loads of talk - and hands up, some of our own contributors on here have added to it - about why we should not have rested players over the last few weeks. Why (despite evidence and in the face of first-hand experience, by the way), the momentum of results really does matter. This adds nothing but unnecessary, unwanted pressure.
The football staff - including Régis Le Bris, who’s contributed to academic studies about athlete workload and recovery, by the way - probably know a bit more than us about that one.
The players are off to Portugal this week, and for everyone connected with the club, it’s time for a reset and to get back down to the reason we’re all here.
All of us want Sunderland to win the playoffs, and the team’s got a far, far better chance of doing so if everyone’s behind them.
Save any inquisition for when the season’s over.
Of course, this piece will likely get a load of negativity in itself. But hopefully, it prompts those people who are being consistently negative to ask themselves why. Ask themselves what it’s achieving. Ask themselves if it’s contributing positively to the success of the club.
Ask themselves if this is actually support.
Because support is about far, far more than turning up to a ground or logging in to a stream.
If the goal this season was to get promoted, we’re still on course to do so - and we’ve got a far, far better chance to do so with a positive mentality around the place.
So let’s do what we collectively do best as supporters and roar the lads on over the next few weeks. As supporters, let’s give it our absolute all - because when we’re all pulling in the same direction, we can be unstoppable.
