Is Sunderland a better club than Newcastle …

think KLD learnt from his dad how to run a club,

everyone is close and connected,
we have no egos at the club.

Hannah1989 said:

think KLD learnt from his dad how to run a club,

everyone is close and connected,
we have no egos at the club.

Click to expand...

Often overlooked this lass.

They didn’t have any old club, it was OM. An absolutely massive club in a crazy city with absolute lunatic fanbase.

They are fierce if anything goes wrong, they will set **** in fire, smash **** up, absolute bedlam that club.

Anyone who’s had anything to do with that will learn a lot about running a club.

Being connected to the fans and having us feel involved, informed and part of it all will have been a massive takeaway from Marseille.

We will reap rewards from that.

Smug in Boots said:

One thing intrigues me at the moment and it's how the club presents itself to new players and their families. As the owners have to pretend they're not owners, and never attend, who greets the player's wives on match days?

If it's Linda, from the media office, with a lanyard I'd think that was poor tbh. I know KLD isn't always there but Ghisolfi seems involved on match days and we have Monty, etc. And who do the players think they're playing for, it all seems vague and a bit fake.

We may all be fooling ourselves but it does feel like a football family.

Click to expand...

Yep. You've touched on this before mate, and it is a really important point.

Having a strong dressing room and a real team spirit is only possible if everyone is pulling the same way in a common cause.

That lot have some good, if a bit over rated players. But a lot look to be playing for themselves, and this looks more obvious since the absurd way they handled the Isak issue.

Even Linda can't sort that out!

its the little touches we are doing that makes it

Take the final game of season, a Gary Rowell top in the dressing room, nothing big or flashy, some something so simple.

its doing the legends walk away and getting the fans included,

its going the meetings, taking what fans say and addressing them, saying it will take time but its being sorted,

its embracing the fans and not talking them for granted.

We always have been and always will be.

Just remember, biggest is always best.
I've always preferred quality over quantity.

I agree with Wilson....

Evil Jimmy Krankie said:

Football wise, too early to say.
In every other way, definitely.
My claim to fame, if I have one, is having known Andrew Friend (RIP) and knowing his partner Jonathan Morrell. Some of you will know that at one time or another they were both presenters/reporters on Tyne Tees telly. Both of them said that Sunderland were by far the classier club of the two in the dealings they had with them. Much more family oriented and community friendly and just nice. They disliked NUFC for their lack of class and general feeling of superiority.

Click to expand...

That lines up with something I heard many years ago about how Century Radio wanted to get coverage of ours and the mags matches in the mid 90s. I'd heard it indirectly from someone who worked at Century at the time.

Century got the coverage of Boro's matches from TFM pretty quickly and put a big bid in for coverage of us and the mags and were close to getting it. Metro came back with an improved offer which we accepted and made statements about having a good working relationship with them going back years and we were happy to carry on with them. The mags though, supposedly kept playing both Metro and Century off against each other to get more from them. Not just money, but also stuff involving media access, editorial stuff etc. The mags ended up staying with Metro but nearly went to Century because they'd supposedly agreed to most of the mags demands. Century were that confident of getting the mags coverage that that was the reason they launched the Supermac at 6 phone in with Malcolm MacDonald. The mags allegedly kept holding out the threat of moving over to Century to keep getting concessions from Metro as well as keep Century dangling for a few years afterwards. It goes along with them controlling most of the local print media to show how that gives the impression of them being "better" than us.

Better ran? Yes
Better facilities? Yes
Better fanbase? I'm going to say equal
Better players? Yes ( In regard to technical ability, devotion and dedication)
Better quality for money? Yes
Better team players? Yes (They have too many individuals who play for themselves)
Better Captain? Yes

So, that's a yes from me.

Honestly.This is often debated over the road
My stock answers are always along the line of I couldn't give a **** who is bigger.
I will always be an SAFC fan irrespective of size or stature.Not really arsed about other clubs.
Likewise there are often debates about crowd sizes etc, I don't really give a toss whether they average more or less than us.
SAFC is all that matters to me.

HTFL

Jack Ford said:

Honestly.This is often debated over the road
My stock answers are always along the line of I couldn't give a **** who is bigger.
I will always be an SAFC fan irrespective of size or stature.Not really arsed about other clubs.
Likewise there are often debates about crowd sizes etc, I don't really give a toss whether they average more or less than us.
SAFC is all that matters to me.

HTFL

Click to expand...

Snap.

The question posed was Better, not bigger.

Bigger doesn't always mean better, like the boil on my arse or your mortgage payments or Katie Perry's fanny

Bigger? Not yet. Better? I'd say so, by just about any metric you care to use. We would need to be better than them consistently for a fair few years, expand our global presence, and have more than one foray into Europe, before we could be considered bigger though, imo.

Who the f*ck are Newcastle

young2077 said:

I'd love to know what the vision was, why it excited Xhaka so much and where he was going to be in it once he finished playing?

We all assume RLB replacement eventually but he must have been sold some vision for the stuff that has been said and can only imagine how excited we would all be if it excited a pro with no links to the club!

Click to expand...

Good post, must be pretty big to attract Granit giving we just had been promoted.

Sir Bob seems very happy with the proposed development of the SOL so that is a very good sign.

Very exciting times.

vic9 said:

YES, in my eyes always have been, to many of the young generation that might seem biased and wrong but like many on this forum I have followed SAFC and football in general throughout the 60’s, 70’s,80’s etc and have personally witnessed the apathy and disinterest in nufc in the north east ESPECIALLY IN DURHAM at first hand,we always had the better history and achievements and bigger ground
BUT the main factor behind their rise and our poorer nationwide outlook is unfortunately Newcastle is the HOME of the north east MEDIA and we can’t compete with the coverage and love in they receive, so when the likes of keegan and robson turn up you get the fanfare x 10 , but deep down I know what I’ve witnessed in the past and any time a mag wants to talk about all things football in the north east I’m VERY confident in putting them straight , but to be honest the conversation doesn’t get very far when I ask “do you attend games “
So yes taking everything into account we are the biggest club….and they sold their souls

Click to expand...

Good post and spot on