Is it just me or...

Going back to the OP, In my opinion the good feeling between the rival fans on our two boards, which with some notable exceptions seems to be the order of the day, is largely down to the intimacy of the site which allows you to get glimpses of peoples personalities rather than just seeing them as 'the enemy'. This in turn shows that there is a mixture of good bad, strange and indifferent in both camps, and this allows to treat these people as individuals rather than just a rival fan.
having said this, I'm sure the battle lines will be firmly back in place as the derby draws near..

 

Come on now be serious

 

Krul vs Westwood (you know, that Holland international who has been touted as the most in-form keeper in the entire league)
Santon vs Bardsley
Coloccini vs Brown
Williamson vs Bramble (even I'd say)
Taylor vs Turner
Simpson vs OShea
Obertan vs Larsson
Tiote vs Cattermole
Cabaye vs Vaughan
Jonas vs McClean - (McClean looks like a great young player, but you can't compare him to Jonas' defensive ability, attacking ability and all-around contribution. McClean is too raw yet)
Ben Arfa vs Sessegnon (it's close, as Sessegnon is a cracking player, but HBA edges it now he's back to his best)
Ba vs Bendtner
Amieobi vs Wickham
Lovencrans vs Campbell
Best vs Gyan (he is still our player)
Guthrie vs Colback
Gosling vs Gardener
S Ameobie vs Richardson

 

As for getting into who has the best individual players, this is always going to be subjective and will be undoubtedly lead to name calling etc....

 

You poo face.

 

traitor!

 

ha.


i just thought of a team that could call ben arfa and sessegnon its wingers.


then i thought of a team that could call williamson and bramble its center-halves.


so confused.

 

Think we've got a better keeper and core (CD, CM and striker) but our wingers are so-so, wing backs are weak, our only good striker is away for a month or so and cover varies from below-par to poor. Santon could be great, Ben Arfa could become a legend but neither have played enough over a long enough period of time to convince me they're better than Sessegnon and Brown. Hopefully by the end of the season i'll be more convinced they are consistently worthy of plaudits (don't get me wrong Ben Arfa has been immense on occassion, i just wish that if he wasn't going to get played in behind the strikers then he'd at least get in on the wing).

 

.....
...I know you love me really Chaps...

 

Wum.

 

Not going to get into the who has the best team thing as we never agree and it just ends with falling out. I do enjoy both teams doing well though, I'd much rather Sunderland were 1 place behind us than 10 places behind us, we're representing the region and a competitive, exciting derby trumps a walkover (we have Boro for that) every time.

 

Blatant undercover mackem wum

 

Had this conversation with my dad the other day when we were watching the Posh play Sunderland.

I actually like to see Sunderland do well and would hate it if they got relegated as it's always great to have a decent rivalry and of course, it represents North-east football altogether.

I think us North-east fans get a lot of unfair judgement over the rivalry, people down south probably think we hate the sight of each-other like some scummy Millwall/West Ham rivalry when in fact, we mostly have mutual respect for each-other. I've had people from outside the area chanting Sunderland to try and wind me up when I actually couldn't give a toss. I remember when I was in my mates pub in Gateshead watching last seasons derby at the SOL. It was jam packed with toon fans with about 2 sunderland fans at the front which no one really took much notice of, then Gyan got the equaliser and the 2 of them went mental in front of the whole pub, everyone just laughed. You'd probably get filled in if you were say, Man U fans in a pub of Liverpool fans.

Just to stir **** though, I still have a chip on my shoulder over this especially since I'd never want to see the mackems go down.
[video=youtube;5dHvP9jOhbw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dHvP9jOhbw[/video]

 

A sensible stance, I can tell you who has the best manager, chairman/owner and chief exec though.

 

This squad debate is ****ing pointless. I think the player quality are close (we're both top ten teams IMO) so everyone is going to have a slight bias towards their own team.

 

I stopped at Brown being better than Coloccini...

 

This

That is ****ing hilarious.

 

This. Coloccini - one of the best centre backs in the league. Brown - injury prone, mistake prone.

 

I don't mind people rating their players and having a slight bias, but when they make absolutely shocking choices its just beggars belief.

PS: For the record, Brown has turned out to be a very good buy and has kept their defence solid, but really, Coloccini is a fantastic CB now.

 

Cue the inevitable "Coloccini was a error prone joke of a defender in his first season" defence of Brown!