This thread makes very good reading The half full vs the half empty My opinion - if we are bringing in young impressionable foreign players who are looking to impress, what the hell is the point in allowing them to take influence from chatter ole and bardsley? Where did it all go wrong for you mr Diakite?........well, I remember popping in to the casino for a bit, then the next thing I knew I was smashing up cars on Stowell street
I agree with every word. The club has become averse to gambling on players in recent years, preferring to sign "seasoned" British Isles players with PL experience over gambling on a foreign import. It is time to take the bull by the horns and gamble big time, which is exactly what the club are doing. We can't possibly have a worse season than last, so I am desperate to see the new look Sunderland take to the field come August.
I'm with the OP Short has tried the old method so embracing a different approach I fully applaud. Shows he's not sitting on his laurels and accepting rubbish. I think he is fully aware that if he puts exciting football on at the SOL he will fill it. I'm happy for Paolo to try his way. I understand Cest's reservations. I have them too but I'd rather this approach than 2-3 players from relegated clubs added to our ranks. We do seem to be targeting big, strong and fast players. Next seasons team could see our average size player at 6 foot. Can they play football will the gel? Well that is Paolo's job.
This is exactly what Aston Villa are doing. Not the same way but they too could not be help to the kind of fees english football demanded and the absolute rubbish what's served up. I totally agree with this thread. Ellis Short has pumped loads of money into this club buying very very average players from advise given by man managers not scouts and the return of investment in zip. Therefore he has changed his business model and looked for the correct personnel to take us forward. Ellis is a true leader, he has given us fans everything we've asked for and had no return. I am so grateful he didn't walk away because he could have done this. Poor management and more than one occasion must have left him really low but because of this he has notice the errors of his ways and with the clubs heart in mind he has flipped it on his head. Now Ellis Short has drawn a line in the sand and is actually giving this club some needed direction. I will follow our new blue print and I'm sure that it might not happen this year (villa) but we will move forward and I'm so excited by it. Bring on the 17th August and thanks you Ellis Short.
I'm happy with the approach to signings but feel we should be keeping our best players. Let's show the world we are a big club, we are not Wigan & don't need to sell to buy. Our best 2 players last season were Mignolet & Rose.
Great article and spot on. I am sick of hearing "I have never heard of him", can't people just write "I have no knowledge of football outside the Premier League or the big national sides" for a change. Doubt many people in Italy or France would have heard of Bale or Walcott or any number of now established british players before they went to big clubs. Now, I am not claiming to have any more knowledge than anyone else and its the first I have come across many of our targets but I trust the guys in charge, you know, the ones who have spent their lives in pro football and do it for a living.
Like Bruce & Oneil have. The truth is no one knows what's install for us. We can just apply logic & previous seen footballing events to judge.
I'm nervous about the speed of change, but you can't deny doing the same old **** wasn't working. Vive la revolution!
Er, no not really as I had heard of every player they signed so very different in fact, we all new Danny Graham was dog **** didn't we. Of course it could all blow up but at least we are trying something different than the same old formula of failure
We've only sold one player that we didn't want to leave! Can't see why some people are moaning, I'm really looking forward to this season..
Bardsley was a 2 time player of the year least some forget and he makes one daft photo and suddenly he is a villain. Pathetic. I'll never forget who the only real hero was for us that Halloween horror show match. Catts too is that kind of committed player you need in a team. I bet by Christmas many who are happy to get rid of these lads are head in hands wanting them back. Like I said, not against change but this is change for changes sake and we will live to regret it IMO.
I was refering to the fact that Bruce & Oneil had spent there lives in football but did not warrant us to trust them fully.
It was an American, Franklin D Rooseveldt who said "Do something. If it works do more of it. If it doesn't, do something else". It seems like another American in Ellis Short has decided that what he has been doing hasn't worked, so time to do something else. I applaud him for it, whether it turns out to be successful or not, and will back him to the hilt in his efforts to make our club a success for the first time since the 1930s.
Well said Smiffy, my sentiments too mate. We've tried everything else and it hasn't worked. Time to ignore the bed wetter's and take the gamble I say.....
The main reason for my concern is, if you look back to when MON came, we won the first 7 out of 10 games and he had won a trophy at every club he had been at. Every single poster on this board, myself included, thought we had finally cracked it. He brought Fletcher and 'the world class Johnson'. We couldn't fail. That has stuck in my mind ever since, I'm seeing people already talk about their big expectations for next season and because its Sunderland, I kind of expect it to blow up in our faces. Again I'm not saying it is the wrong thing we are doing, just I have reservations about it.
Bardsley being player of the year is a shocking indictment of our squad rather than anything else. No tears shed from me when he leaves.
I must say that's very fickle of you. That season he won player of the year he was immense, give us blood, sweat and tears. He would have died on the pitch for us. I don't forget and will always remember and appreciate this. He's been a fantastic loyal servant and deserves more than what you have wrote.
He was going into his last year when he won that. He was playing for a contract imo. His two best seasons he was going into his final year. He'll have known we're as good as he'd ever get.
