I've been away for a couple of days in the Midlands, on a management meeting, with colleagues from all over the country. Interestingly, due to its location, with a Villa fan, a Leicester fan, Southampton, WBA, Birmingham, Liverpool and surprise surprise, a couple of non manc Man Utd fans. Now, both the Leicester and Villa fans thought MoN would be a fantastic manager for us and both said that they expected Sunderland to be a real force for the good. Everything we have seen so far they endorsed but the Villa fan did say he can be moody and was desperately disappointed the way he left their club. Not bitter or vindictive towards Martin but more of a gutted feeling as he felt they were on the cusp of greatness again and he lamented how awful their current situation was without him. He also said that Villa were in deep **** and although he hoped they would survive, he was far from convinced that they would. Strangely enough, the Villa lad added that he thought MoN would need loads of money or he would not be happy but the Leicester fan disagreed. He said that MoN had nothing to spend at Leicester and was there 6 years quite happy and I think this is the crux of the matter right here. MoN was promised money at Villa and was given the green light to break into the then impregnable top 4 stranglehold of Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. He was a gnats fanny hair from doing that when Lerner pulled the plug. That's what pissed Martin off most. At Leicester, he was told from the beginning there was **** all to spend and he accepted it without a problem. The Villa lad said if MoN had stopped another year, Villa would have been in the Champions League and who knows where they may have been. He had no malicious feeling towards MoN at all and that spoke volumes to me. Now, I don't know what promises Ellis has made to Martin but one thing I am absolutely convinced about is that whatever it is, either he is happy with it and accepted the challenge based on it or we will hit problems in the next few months if those promises are broken. I don't think ES would have considered MoN without that in mind so forget all the crap we read about a sulky manager he isn't. He just likes to be told the truth and have promises kept. For me as a Sunderland fan, to hear Liverpool, Man Utd, Villa, Leicester fans and the others to a man, all saying that without doubt, we had one of the best managers in the game and that they thought we would be a real force next season, gave me a hard on tbh. The only negatives about Martin are coming form the craa bell ends. They simply don't matter. For the rest of the country, we are being looked at with knowing nods of approval.
I really don't think that there are too many sets of fans that would have a problem with us tbh. Do you mean as a club or as supporters?
MON lives all games. I first came across him at Wycombe and he was up and down the touchline jumping for headers or swinging his leg in a shot etc. I reckon that if the coaches area was not there he would still be doing the same. From scratch he built Wycombe up and was a huge success. The Leicester years were spent building again, leading to his league cup successes as well as uncovering some handy players. This ability to built allied to spending power should be a lethal mix for us to look forward to.
As a club to be fair but they had no negatives at all for us as fans either. They had nothing but praise and good thoughts. It was very nice to hear.
Ilove cracking with fans from other clubs, never recently had much bad craic. Among my personal friends I can count Villa, West Ham, Watford, Celtic, Rangers, Partick, Boro, Bristol City & aye, even Newcastle. That does not include anyone I've met on here. I'm just very easy going though, lol.
There's a mix of everything here, and we're quite well regarded as a club & fans. It does seem that nobody knows our history though, I know it's ancient history, but it's still important! People know our derby, for sure.
Living in Manchester, I get on with most of the local fans very well, and even from their lofty position they respect us as a club on the up.
A bit like Anzhi above really, having lived down here in Liverpool forover 20yrs, the general perception of people down here towards Sunderland is generally every postive. Both Blue noses and Kopites have a great deal of respect for us and a genuine likeing of us as as a Football Club. What is often mention is the working class links and from there comes the mutual respect. Now whilst its not my intention to introduce a Chap arse type dig at our rivals, there is quite a distictive difference in how we are regarding by scousers and how Newcastle are. First and foremost there is a historic immense disliking of Newcastle by Everton Fans , this has been in existence for approx 10 years when during a fixture up in Newcastle large sections of EFC supporters were ambushed and set upon by Newcastle supporters, by all accounts the actions of Northumbria Police didnt help matters with some rather robust Police action being taken against EFC supporters. Nevertheless this bad feeling exists today. The other things that I have picked up from LFC and EFC supporters regarding our cousins up the road, is that Newcastle ' Thinks its a bigger club than it is' and that 'they feel as if they have a devine right to success'. As Ive previously stated folks the object of this post is not to have a pop, but merely to add to Cests orgional observations as to how we are percieved and to merely pass on the observations and comments I ve heard over the years down here with regards to certain other clubs.
biffa, That ties in exactly with the Scouse lads I know. What I always appreciate about Scouse lads, is they know Mackem from Geordie, I don't mean on matchdays, I mean generally. A few of the lads I drink with here are Scousers, and every one of them said 'you're a Mackem', when we met. I've heard a lot of people say we have a great sense of humour as well, I guess that's 'if I don't laugh i'll cry' syndrome..
I think one of the reasons MoN accepts it is because there are simply no other jobs which would offer anything else. Due to the FFP rules virtually every club outside of the top 4 needs to watch their spending and live within their means, so it's not like he's missing out on a high-budget job elsewhere. Everyone is in the same boat.
Have you noticed how every big 'top 4' club hates each other? Spurs hate Chelsea, Chelsea hate Arsenal, all of them hate Man Utd and so on. It's because they're rivals, and they have a reason to hate each other. 10 years ago when we were battling right up near the top of the table, teams like Liverpool and Man Utd were our main rivals, certain defeats and results left bad tastes in our mouths, and I still don't think that's fully dissolved to this day. This might sound like a dig, but I have no other way of wording it, so here goes. If you've never been fighting high enough in the table to come into conflict with many of the 'big' clubs, then they will simply have no reason to dislike you. A lot of the dislike from other fans towards our club has went away as we were relegated and dropped off, and some are even hoping we make the top 4, but if we were to stay up battling for CL spots for the next few seasons, I'd bet anything that the novelty would wear off and we'd become just as hated as any other top 4 club hates one another.
If you can see a dig in my post then I'm honestly amazed. We're all in the same boat. EVERY club, even Newcastle, has to live within our means now. It's just the way the game has went, so MoN is hardly missing out on big budget spending elsewhere. That will certainly help him settle into Sunderland a little bit better. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that's the primary reason. First and foremost, I think he's just a genuine Sunderland fan at heart.
Chappaz, I know a lot of people who dislike Newcastle as a club because they know what the club was like pre-Keegan, and don't but the 'loyalist supporters' ****e. Genuine historically great clubs fans were a bit pissed of by the 'Toon Army' media circus bullshit for a club that won **** all. This ain't my opinion, it's what lads from all over the country have said to me over the years.
