Erm ok? You're new so you probably still need to discover what a bite is One day you'll also be able to use it in the correct way when you become a big boy!
No syd , I love you. In fact , I think you were my cab driver a few days ago. Are you a cab driver , syd? It was you or someone who really looks like you.
Maybe Cest will walk away and after both explanations of why Dads have in the past fair enough but I still think it would be a very hard decision. Hope that you don't Cest we need your passion and it means we ain't in the Clart.
Surely,no true supporter of any club would turn their back on the club for a lack of success!!1 have supported SAFC since the early 1960's and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.I may now be a BOB,but I still support him as he manages MY club!!
At no point did I say I would stop supporting my club but another relegation and I would stop going to games. I'd rather spend a Saturday afternoon with my daughter than watch another championship season in full. If the club were to just let Bruce idle on into a relegation fight and maybe go down, then I'm all out of 5 year plans and more pointless promotions lads. Sunderland is in my blood and I'll follow them forever but my time is mine and if the club can't be arsed to got it right, then yes 100% I could become an armchair supporter. I can think of far better ways to piss £420 a year away other than watch football in the lower leagues again. Had my fill of those days.
Wow, there's some real wisdom flying around tonight. I'm rather surprised that, after watching my club for 63 years, I'm not a true supporter. Kinda brought a wry smile, I must say. Someone even suggested people like me were leaving for want of success. Ha! If that had been it, I'd have left by 1960. Froggy, you made the point rather better, I think : "Maybe Cest will walk away and after both explanations of why Dads have in the past fair enough but I still think it would be a very hard decision." Well put - and you're right, it isn't easy. Mind you, it's getting easier these days. In 1972, a lot of people hated Alan Brown's teams and drifted away - inside 15 years, Roker Park crowds had dropped from 50-odd thousand to just 8,500! And Brown was sacked. Today, I just feel if all 40,000 stayed away from the SoL, it wouldn't matter a damn. They don't need us any more - Sky is the supporter who matters these days. People like Short, Quinn, and Bruce don't give a toss what we think. The players in the dressing room - every one of them a millionaire - probably joke about us and call us 'the punters'. The fact is, I've never felt so distant from 'my club' as I do today. How the hell Bruce kept his job last May I will never, ever understand ... or just maybe I do. Does anyone still think it's 'our club'? Is it really? You're right, froggy, mate - it isn't easy. But it isn't half as hard now as it once would have been. But then perhaps I'm really not a 'true supporter'. Perhaps the guys who come out with tripe like that do know it all. Who knows, eh?
Suerly its a lot easier than good supporter bad supporter, I have a feeling we are all good supporters, why do we go or listen on a radio, why are we wasting parts of our lives on forums like this, why do we scan the gossip colums looking for news, could it be because we are all good supporters, seems logical to me. We go to games, if we can because of location, family and finance to support the team yes but we can do that from afar, I go because I enjoy it and that to me is the key. Enjoyment comes from a number of things.. The game and our performance....well that lets us down quite often. The other team and their players...in the prem it is possible to enjoy watching even when they tank you, not so lower down. The pre and post match...getting harder for me, the cold bites more and the standing around gets to my back. The mixing with other fans..again getting harder when everyone is pissed off. IMO its far to easy to throw the YOU ARE A BAD FAN dig, when you stop enjoying its time to take a step back, right now I still enjoy but I can see the time.
I look forward to seeing mrRAWhite's opinion on this with a well thought out reply defending Bruce and letting me and my fellow Bruce outs know, why he is the right man to move the club forward, get us a cup run and european football. Over to you Raw.....
Maybe, just maybe MrRaw is like me, no comment on the OP because it has been done so many times we have no more to say, that does not mean others cant.
There has been a marked improvement in the last few games imo, and I said a while ago that Bruce should be given until Dec 10th to prove his case. After that date, if we havent started climbling the table, I would think that Bruce's job would be very much on the line.
Next 4 games.......vital for Bruce and to how the season could span out... We should do well in the forth coming matches..so Bruce and Cest stay.
Agree with Comm, that the next 4 matches are critical. We have seen (some) improvement over the last few games, but it will be the next 4 that will tell us if we are genuinely improving. If we aren't then ES must do something.
We have seen improvement in the last two games, without a doubt. The improvement came as soon as we started to play 4-4-2... However this season has effectively been relegated to a lower to mid table battle because our manager signed two players he was unwilling to play for the first quarter of the season. Its decisions like this along with the complete rebuild each and every summer that make me doubt we are ever going to witness any stability by retaining the same manager, which is the whole reason why you try and keep a manager over the long-term. All we see is star players coming and going, smoke and mirrors in the media, excuses from the club and a complete seasonal rebuild. This is it under Bruce... and I sincerely doubt that Bruce will ever achieve a Europa cup position because if he couldn't do it with the players we had last year then... Sunderland are big enough to challenge for the Europa league each and every season under the guidance of a manager with a proven CV.
I agree that the complete rebuilds are damaging to us, but I am not sure they can be put down to Bruce. Last season we had many loan players, and the prices we were quoted for buying them were too high, which is what forced our rebuild this summer. Onouha was good, but was he worth the 8 million City asked for him? Mensah was always injured, Muntari was awful, Welbeck was never going to come here on a permanent basis after his form for us....... the next question is, of course, we we took so many players on loan last season. Now, I always prefer to give the benefit of doubt where the full story is not know, so I believe that we took the players on loan because the players we wanted to buy were either unavailable or their quoted price was too expensive. However, we will never know for certain as our club has always conducted its business as quietly as possible. btw, for the 2 players who were not on loan: Steed: We got money for a player who retired a few months later, good deal imo. Zenden: He wanted guaranteed playing time, and we cannot (and should not) guarantee playing time to any player - this should be based on form.
Going into this season, I have never been more excited - I was religiously checking forums, all the sports websites etc all the time. However quarter of the way into the season, and our performances failing to ignite, I find myself sort of dreading each weekend rather than looking forward to it. Last season I felt we would be able to get something from every game, this season I don't have the confidence. Why is this? Not sure. I can't say it is because we are playing bad football, or lacking goals, it is just overall we aren't that good. I like Bruce but ultimately who is or is not in our squad, how they play and their performances are on his head. After these 4 games if we don't win at least 2 then he should go. 2 wins from 11 games so far is not good enough, especially considering how much we've invested in the team.
