8 of course if you consider the cup game. We are currently lying 5th bottom with 6 points (not even a point a game) and 1 point off the bottom 3. Our next game is against Arsenal at the Emirates so we may well be a bottom 3 side by the time we play equally hapless Bolton Wanderers in 3 weeks time. Then we have A Villa and Judas visiting the SOL. All I can say is thank the heavens for Bolton, Blackburn, WBA and Wigan. 4 other teams that are possibly worse than ours because thats all thats keeping us from propping the league up right now tonight imo. My concern is that maybe Bolton and Blackburn will act in the next 2 weeks to stop the rot. Wigan will be loyal to Martinez as he was to them but what about us? What will we do to stop the rot? My biggest fear is bugger all. Complete denial is still with Bruce and sadly Quinn and with that apathy will soon be added the 'we are to good to go down' routine. It is just around the corner now for a new Bruce, Black double act in the local media. In 3 games time, that will be 10 games played and a quarter of the season gone and I have absolutely no doubts in my mind we will be in one of the relegation places at that time, or just barely above them at best. I have no doubts whatsoever. Would the BiB's still be fully behind their man in after a full 1/4 of the season had gone and we were still the same sorry pile of ****e we have been for the vast majority of 2011, would you then maybe agree its time for a change? Its only prolonging the agony but at least if the majority started to wake up a bit and see its not working at all, we will get the clubs hierarchy to act and I can wait another 4 weeks for that to happen. All I hear now from Bruce these days is excuses and denials about our plight. He really thinks we are playing well and doing okay and thats the scariest thing about it. He is oblivious as to the mood of the fans and the plight of his team. Yes HIS team. Bottom 3 after 10 games and playing poorly isn't progress, nor is it building on anything form anytime. What that will be is **** your pants time people and make no mistake thats exactly what we will be doing. We are not too good to go down at all. In fact we are very poor and looking every inch a team that could go down. I trust that the powers to be will not wait until its too late before putting together an action plan for survival because bottom 3 at the turn of the year would be too horrific to contemplate for Sunderland fans too used to seeing the outcome of that scenario.
You lot will be fine imo. I don't like fat head but he will get you enough results by the end of the season to finish 11th/12th or maybe even top 10 if you get a good run of games. Prem is really hard to predict.
I'm sorry but your lot wanting Bruce to stay is purely because you know we will be in the bottom 4 or 5 come May and maybe even relegated. Bruce wont get us enough points at all and the magical 40 point mark is a million miles away for us at the moment and after 2 and a bit years and 5 transfer windows we are as clueless and hapless as the day he walked through the doors in June 2009. If there were real true progress and this was a blip I'd be 100% squarely behind him to turn it round. Its not a blip though its now a 27 game horror show run in the EPL, that has no evidence whatsoever of turning round under his leadership. We are desperate for someone with a bright idea and a fresh look at an age old problem.
Cest. I've always said ten games is a decent measure of our season and I'll stand by it. We ain't there yet. Whilst I'll admit my doubts about Bruce are growing I can't honestly say we played badly against WBA. If Sess could shoot as well as the rest of his play, we would have slaughtered them.
I don't deny that we were better than them (they were simply awful) but conceding 2 goals inside the opening 6 mins is just criminal at this level but so indicative of the way things are for us under Bruce. That said, yes I agree we should have won but there just isn't the personnel, the confidence or the spirit and passion to do it imo. Arsenal, Bolton and Villa to make up the 10 games of your own benchmark Cyprus. How confident are you that Bruce can get anything more than 2 points from those 3 games? A draw at struggling Bolton who will see that game as a chance for points and a draw at home to Villa is the best I can honestly hope for because without Bendtner away to Arsenal, we havent got a prayer down at the Emirates. That would be a paltry return of 8 points from a possible 30 and 1 win in the league this season. It cant be allowed to continue or we will be lucky to have 15 points at Christmas.
He'd be my choice although not universally desired by one and all at the SOL, I think he could galvanise the squad and start to grind our way back up the table. Resilience is what we need now this season and MoN has plenty of that imo. I'd like him to have 3 months to look at things and a few bob in January to bring in 2 or 3 new faces. he could then have a full summer to get ready for the 2012/13 season because this ones totally written off already for me. We certainly wont be fine with SB in charge. Would you rather have Hughton back?
Yeah O'Neill a class manager. Wouldn't have him at Newcastle because he is supposably a Sunderland fan. I love Hughton but there is no point in getting him back. Although I do prefer him to Pardew haha - he is doing a very good and surprising job atm
Fair play to Pardew. He is making a far better fist of the crooked hand Ashley has dealt him, than Bruce is the far better one Quinny has dealt him. You're in the top 3 on merit (and a slice of luck here and there) but after 9 games unbeaten its not all about luck. Will you be there in May is a massive doubt but with this start, you may all get a little carried away by January as well as we did last season with a similar start and start to dream of far better targets than you did back at the beginning of August?
Hopefully we will keep our heads all season. We have some winners in our team like Cabaye and Tiote in the centre. The only worry is if a few key players get injured (especially Coloccini) then we might start struggling. Krul too
We won't be anywhere near 3rd come May. I think every mag knows that. However, we really just have to go off what is happening. I think we're 10 games unbeaten now and sitting in 3rd place with 15 points from 7 games (including some tough matches). If we're anywhere around 6th come January, then the evidence would be mounting that we're good enough to perhaps fight for a European place. We'd be going against the evidence and putting on a purposely pessimistic view if we suggested that it was infeasible by then.
I wouldn't entirely bank on a home point from Villa either tbh - Agbonlihor and Bent are banging them in lately and their whole team seems to be gelling pretty fast. I'd worry about them a bit.
We were 6th in January and 7 points clear of Liverpool. It doesnt always work that way. If your 6th on May 15th then you will be in Europe.
I'm well aware. I'm just saying, if we're in this position come January, we can be optimistic about achieving a Euro spot. I think the big nosedive in form you guys had last season is a rare occurance and can largely be attributed to Bruce. It doesn't happen to everyone so it's still fair to be optimistic.
The squad that Bruce has assembled is a bottom 6 squad and only time will tell if it is capable of avoiding relegation. If Bendtner, O'Shea and Brown are injured we will be starting with Turner and Nosworthy at the back and either Ji or Wickham up on his own or another 6 man midfield. Progress? Looks to me asthough we are walking a tightrope. Bent, Welbeck, Zenden, Malbranque, Onuoha, Ferdinand, Mensah, the original Gyan and to some degree Muntari. Oh how I wish any of those were still on our books.... Amazing to think that it is only 12 months since ALL of them were on our books... Its incredible how anybody is capable of wrecking a core of players with such pedigree as what we had with those lads within a mere 12 months, incredible. Oh and before anybody chirps up, I do realise Gyan is still on our books, but not a great deal of help on the pitch at the moment.
