The difference is it was Bruce's 3rd season and he was still making a hash of it. Martin celebrates only 12 months in the job tomorrow. That's the point most people who compare the situation forget. If we are still playing poorly in another year and a half under MoN then I'll accept he will have to go. My opinion though is we wont be by May this season.
but but but, (devils advocate btw) SAF was nearly hounded out in his 4th year, they kept him and look what happened, no one was saying that when Bruce got the boot in his 3rd season, but thats all I am hearing now that ppl are hounding MON out (I am not one of them btw) I just think its rather funny, SAF got 4 years nearly got sacked and see where they are, bruce gets 2 1/2 years, bye bye, MON in same place as Bruce (league placing/nearly points etc), SAF got 4 years and see where they are now.
to be honest, you have the quality to turn it around. i mean an in form Johnson and Sessegnon, with Fletcher and you should get lots of goals... in my opinion your a better team than when bruce was there but just not showing it!
Not that I care who your gaffer is, but what I will say is that rather then pad the squad out with plenty of 5-6 million pound (average) players, O'Neill is thinking long term and buying quality such as Johnson & Fletcher who have their best years ahead of them. Now I know Johnson's career has started slowly (at best) with you, but form is temporary and class is permanent etc. I know he's also signed Saha, McFadden and Cuellar but they are just stop gap signings, especially the first two. O'Neill's transfer strategy is geared more towards the long term than Bruce's although that doesn't take away from the fact he is also needs some form of results in the short term. I think his biggest weakness/drawback is failure to dip in to the European market which will also save the club from paying top dollar for British players when there are equally good players in Europe for cheaper.
The title to this post seems a bit strange, if you ask me. Being 4th bottom means we're right in a relegation battle! But I still think we have the quality to pull out of trouble. If we're in the bottom three come May, it'll be because we deserve to be there, but there's 2/3rds of the season to go and I'm not for throwing the baby out with the bathwater....
FFS you picked one sentence out of a post. The injuries excuse is bullshit as you have had your best players on the pitch been beaten and played **** that is a fact. My Geordie mates were voicing their concerns over the way Partridge was setting you up THEN! Not just now with your injury problems. Every team has injury problems.
One of the first and probably one of the last times I'll agree with you. Although you're wrong about the game in hand, we have played the same number of games.
He has his moments...but look to the 4-4 with Arsenal as an extreme example of what we are lacking at the moment...leadership. Disappointing when your captain, good player though he is, is a South American pansy.
Sunderland AND Newcastle are in a relegation battle you better believe it, yet some of them players don't, yes only 2 more points than last season, i see it like this: we should have beaten WHU a, Villa, QPR h drew at Everton to gain 8 more points. why did they play in the second half but not the first ? or vise versa and now how long is Fletcher out for?, this when you look back and think about them games when we had a fully fit squad.
We've been **** all season but today I saw signs of encouragement, if we can reproduce that last 60 minutes of today's game again, then we'll be fine.
I believe any team that wants to be successful has to have a player like this. That wont put up with bullshit from their own players. Or worse still lack of effort. This we have in two players in Bardsley and Catts. Both aren't afraid to gee up our players. We as a team aren't rolling over and playing dead right now, but we definitely aren't firing on all cylinders. No I haven't seen every game your lot have played, but the ones I have seen too many times players have hid when the team needed graft and grit. (That isn't a pop it's an observation by the way.)
Both clubs missing the influence of their captains. Cattermole must have missed at least a third of Sunderlands games I suspect, Colo has played less than half of our games. When its Man U, Citeh or Chlesea they can cope with that, other clubs not so much. Also depends how vital a component he is. If he is a full back then you might get away with it, if he is the marshall of your defence or the driver of your midfield it hurts that bit more.
Areet BallBag. Have to agree with you. But. Even with Catts there, there have been games where as a team we haven't done enough. The one thing he does stop is the rolling over and letting the oppos rub our tummies as they score. Look the next comment isn't a wum. A few times I have watched you lot and apart from a couple of players the others haven't looked up for a fight when the going is getting tough.
Key problems with us are simple for me: 1. Injuries and suspensions have left us finding no consistency in selection. People point to the length of the injury list but I don't think has been the problem. Its the constant chopping and changing. Our best runs last year came when we didn't change the side. Plus Colo and Tiote have managed hardly any games, its a killer, we're not Man U dropping in top class to replace them. 2. Europe. Again people moan about injuries but we've played 2nd teams most of the time. Its more the lack of preparation time for weekend games to me. It shows in our defending. 3. Pardew not standing up to Ba and making him play left for good of the team. 4. We should have signed a left winger and centre half in the summer. Willo is championship, Colo and Taylor injury prone. Left winger would have solved Ba problem and eased burden on Benni. Only one game I've felt we lacked heart and that was Southampton. Absolutely pathetic.
The Barton argument is a fine one but I can't go along with it whole heatedly as we finished 5th last season without any of that. A Barton type player this season would come in handy but after last season and how we played, I can't imagine anyone thought we would be down near the bottom scrapping, all be it, early doors in the season. Our form has taken everyone by surprise but I have every faith that will pick up. Not a lot pardew can do formation wise at the minute as the creative side to our game is out injured. His tactics while we have had our best players fit have been off but as warm pouch touched upon, I think that has been down to pandering to Ba.
