please log in to view this image Merry Christmas to one and all from the whole of the Roker Report team. Will Santa deliver us a surprise this year? Seems like every club is pulling shock results off left right and centre all season, except us.... Oh, and Villa. Any hopes of Boxing being the day of a shock result have melted away fast with the latest injury news. The most alarming thing of it is how 4 injuries and a suspension can look and make us look so weak on paper. Rivals like the Mags have had up to 10 long term injures most of the season and are trying to compete. Could we even put a team out with 10 injuries? We're struggling badly with the gaps we have. This where my Christmas wish comes into play and it's not to Mr Claus. Dear Mr Short, We fans have been extremely good again this season averaging a very impressive 42,000 for home fixtures. Our die hard followers travel the length and breadth of the country selling out away game after away game. Even the Derby game went off without very few incidents and we once more collected a win. The thing you need to understand Mr Short is had you bought the club a few miles up the road, the bed sheets would have been out and you'd have been met with indignant protests long ago. But instead you purchased a club with one of the best fan bases and facilities in the country and you've failed. You've failed by continuously surrounding yourself with the wrong people. You've failed in spending the club's money wisely. You've failed in keeping us competitive with our rivals and now you're failing in keeping us up. The January window is upon us and our last chance of adding to a squad which is only going one way at the moment. The scenario where a Manager comes to you and says 'I want this much' has been and gone. That was Dick Advocaat who pleaded after every game for you to do the necessary. You refused and we lost our head coach. Now the time has come for you to give the manager what he needs. Whether it be it 10m or 50m. When Sam asks for it you better believe we need it. Without it you are going to relegate this wonderful and truly great club. My patience with your running of our football club ran out a long time ago. Since then, you've continued to starve our squad of what is required. My Christmas wish is for you to wake up and smell the coffee Mr Short and show the same commitment from your cheque book which you expect from the team on the pitch. You are in the process of relegating us unless you do something. Everything is in your hands Mr Short and with that comes the responsibility. I urge you Mr Short to do what is necessary to ensure that it's not too late. You're abusing our club and our loyal well behaved fanbase by undernourishing us. It's in your hands Mr Short. Yours with dread, A very fearful fan, Brian Cummins. Match Apoinments Referee: Anthony Taylor Assistants: R West & S Ledger Fourth Offical:C Boyeson Team News Manchester City Vincent Kompany is available for selection after a long lay off. Pablo Zabaleta and Fernando are also available for selection while Samir Nasri remains sidelined Sunderland Sunderland are without Younes Kaboul, Seb Larrson and Adam Mathews. Lee Cattermole has an outside chance of making the match squad while Jack Rodwell is suspended. Form Manchester City please log in to view this image Mon 21 Dec Arsenal 2-1 Man City Sat 12 Dec Man City 2-1 Swansea Sat 5 Dec Stoke 2-0 Man City Sat 28 Nov Man City 3-1 Southampton Sat 21 Nov Man City 1-4 Liverpool Sun 8 Nov Aston Villa 0-0 Man City Sunderland please log in to view this image Sat 19 Dec Chelsea 3-1 Sunderland Sat 12 Dec Sunderland 0-1 Watford Sat 5 Dec Arsenal 3-1 Sunderland Sat 28 Nov Sunderland 2-0 Stoke Mon 23 Nov Crystal Palace 0-1 Sunderland Sat 7 Nov Sunderland 0-1 Southampton What Big Sam Has To Say "We are faced with the types of pressures that come with being talked about as relegation candidates week in and week out, about people being dissatisfied with our performances, which if you lose football matches, is going to happen. "We would have been ahead of ourselves a couple of weeks ago when we got back-to-back wins and we got three wins out of six, but now we have slipped back again to being under where I would have liked us to have been, on the basis that we have lost too many games instead of drawing a few." Flashback Man City 2-2 Sunderland We look back to the Great Escape of 2014 where Connor Wickham struck twice at the Etihad to keep our survival hopes alive. Last Corresponding Fixture Manchester City 3-2 SunderlandTouré 57 Jovetic 66 Lampard 73 Rodwell 68 Johnson 71(pen) please log in to view this image Last 10 League Games 01 Jan 2015 Manchester City 3-2 Sunderland 03 Dec 2014 Sunderland 1-4 Manchester City 16 Apr 2014 Manchester City 2-2 Sunderland 10 Nov 2013 Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City 26 Dec 2012 Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City 06 Oct 2012 Manchester City 3-0 Sunderland 31 Mar 2012 Manchester City 3-3 Sunderland 01 Jan 2012 Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City 03 Apr 2011 Manchester City 5-0 Sunderland 29 Aug 2010 Sunderland 1-0 Manchester City Facts 'n' Stats Head-to-head Manchester City are unbeaten at home against Sunderland in the top flight for 13 matches spanning 34 years, winning 10, drawing three and scoring 36 goals. Sunderland last won at Manchester City in January 1998 in the second tier. Their last top-flight away victory in this fixture came in December 1981. Manchester City City have only taken seven points from their last six matches (W2, D1, L3). They have already lost five league games this season. No side has won the title after losing as many times by Christmas since Everton in 1986-87. Manchester City have won 15 of their 19 Premier League home games in 2015 (D1, L3). However, Manuel Pellegrini's side could go eight successive league matches without a clean sheet at home for the first time since 1991. Sergio Aguero's last 11 Premier League goals have all been scored at the Etihad Stadium. Sunderland Sunderland have lost their last three Premier League games - they haven't fared worse since a five-match run ending in April last year. They have earned just one win and five points in their last 11 away games (W1, D2, L8). The Black Cats have won only two of their last 10 Premier League Boxing Day matches (D4, L4). The team that has been 19th in the Premier League on Christmas Day has gone on to be relegated in each of the last four years. Sunderland have conceded a league-high 33 goals and have allowed their opponents the most attempts on target (106) in the Premier League this season. Jermain Defoe has scored six goals in 10 Premier League appearances on Boxing Day.
Top work again Bri. I liked the letter to ES. Particularly the "You've failed by continuously surrounding yourself with the wrong people" bit. Been saying it for long enough. Been shouted down often enough. Still have not changed my mind.
It's his company. If the buck doesn't stop with him then there's nobody to blame and this whole nightmare is just a figment of our imagination Cheers fella.
Great thread Bri. Its all against us vs City. No once will give us a chance of winning. So we probably will. Lets face it there is more pressure on them than us. As for Short, if he believes in Sam he needs to back him, my worry is Short will back him but we will not be able to attract the quality we need.
It's his company. But it's our club. We've seen owners come and go, and I dare say we'll see a few more before I slip this mortal coil. The guy clearly knows how to make money. I just don't think he can read between the lines on how to run a PL club. There's more to it than just following the rules. I do fear this is one season too far. And just before the most lucrative financial contract in PL history. If we do go down, keeping Big Sam must be an absolute priority! But, hey, we've been here before. There's probably no other club as skilled as ours in avoiding the drop. This must also be the craziest PL season ever. So, you never know.....
Those last 10 games P10 W4 L4 D2 Just a small reminder to an injury-ravaged squad that the results are out there if they fight hard enough for them.
If we go down we must get the award of the most pathetic curl up and die club in history. We're down if we don't get in 4 or 5 quality players and demote some of the **** in our ranks out of the squad regardless of if we can sell them or not. Just me opinion like. I've backed us through thick and thin over the seasons in my faith in us staying up. But I looked at our squad and the squads of our rivals and felt it was possible. I just can't say I see the same this season.
We've been here before though mate. My greatest gift is an abject inability to foretell the future! I'm bloody awesome at it! So me despairing at this point in time doesn't mean jack-****! Now, it's Christmas Eve, so get yerself to bed before the big man turns up. Happy Christmas Bri, to you and your lovely lady, and our lucky mascot!
Not in my mind we haven't. The Gap in between our squad and our rivals has never been so great. I can't see the future neither, but I can trust me own judgement. It's not despairing. I'll say it how I see whether it's good or bad and completely at piece with our situation, it is what it is. That's why the idiots who called me a happy clapper are just that Idiots. Happy Christmas fella Canceled in this house this year as it's a mass of boxes and chaos, not really practical to stage this year with the move. Hoping to go to the Dam in the spring to make up for it.
Are you going to have it in say a month or two time? Might be weird eating all the trimmings in February
deary me we are short. Kaboul and Catts leave 2 massive gaps that our squad simply can't fill. Looking at it now I think we have to stick to wingbacks as our only hope of winning a game is with Fletcher and Defoe on the pitch. -----------Pantilimon-------------- --------Coates-Oshea-Jones------ Yedlin--------------------------Pva ----------Mvila--Gomez----------- -------------Johnson-------------- ----------Fletcher--Defoe---------- Mvila and Gomez are both good passes of the ball so hope that helps with ball retention (ooh er). AJ a free roll to roam and link the play up to the wing backs and the front 2. Lens Borini and Watmore as impact subs
Great time to play us,we've been garbage for a while Kompany & Zabaleta return to the squad but I doubt any more than a spot on the bench.If they had been fit to start on Boxing Day I'm sure they would've been OK for the bench at the Emirates Hart Sagna Otamendi Mangala Kolorov Fernandinho Delph Sterling Yaya Silva Aguero Subs from Caballero Clichy Navas DeBruyne Bony Iheanacho Fernando Roberts Zabaleta Kompany Demichellis
It's a good letter, if you like the idea of calling the bluff of/goading the owner of a club that you love, possibly to the brink, which could leave us in 'no-mans land' . . . . a far worse position than we are in now It's a good job, perhaps, that Ellis Short will never read provocation like this (I presume/hope that it wasn't a letter that was actually sent to him) It's bad enough as it is without asking for more trouble 'Pops/Bri, but that's the way that I read it
That, I think is particularly unkind. That lad has as much right as anyone to get things off his chest. If it turns out not to be a literary masterpiece, so be it. He`s not sitting an English examination. I picked out that particular sentence because I happen to agree with it. By his own admission Short knows nothing about football yet surrounds himself with a boardroom full of people who know less than he does. Madness imo. Whether or not Short reads it is matterless. I hope he does. He`ll learn more than he will from the board members. There are plenty of (far worse) threads on the subject which have failed to ellicit a response so I doubt very much whether this one will be the exception. These are our thoughts on our forum. If Ellis wants to join in he`s more than welcome.
The teams are in at the Etihad Stadium. Sam Allardyce has made six changes to his side as Sunderland face Manchester City in a Boxing Day clash at the Etihad Stadium this afternoon (KO 3pm). The alterations begin in goal, where Vito Mannone has been recalled in place of Costel Pantilimon to make his first league appearance of the season. Boss Allardyce returns to a back four with Younes Kaboul injured, with Jordi Gomez recalled to central midfield along with Adam Johnson, who replaces the suspended Jack Rodwell. And there's a new-look forward line with Duncan Watmore, Ola Toivonen and Jermain Defoe making way for Danny Graham, Fabio Borini and Steven Fletcher. Sunderland: Mannone, Jones, van Aanholt, O'Shea (c), Coates, M'Vila, Gomez, Johnson, Borini, Fletcher, Graham. Subs: Brown, Cattermole, Lens, Defoe, Toivonen, Watmore, Pantilimon.
Shame Grandpops quoted it before you changed it. You skinny decomposing streak of piss. Want to bash the dyslexic people do you? You jumped up arrogant little ****. We'll be seeing each other at some point soon. Best be preparing to say this to my face hadn't you?
