Giving Hemir a run would show if he has what it takes, if not he's better off going home ... ... this situation puts us in a good selling/buying position if you get what I'm saying. Players know which league we'll be in so those, like perhaps Embleton, may see their chances as too limited. Players who want PL football now can be auctioned to the highest bidder ASAP. What's left will show us exactly what we need, we'll have cash and can get new players in quicker. That'll put us ahead of teams like Hull who may not know, which division, until the final whistle at Wembley. It's rare for us to know where we stand so let's make it count.
This might just be the first season in all my years supporting Sunderland where there is no drama at the end of the season. Struggling to think of a time (since 1984-5 when I first went to a game) where there hasn't been something to play for in the last 5 games
I can only remember one, 80's probably, when our last away game was Ipswich. I'd seen every game, home and away, so wanted to make it a full house ... ... I literally had to drag the lads out of their houses who I travelled with
In my opinion we need to give young players, like Hemir, the most time and best service we can ... ... building their confidence could get us off to a good start next season.[/QUOTE] I know that we’ve chopped and changed our forwards this season and probably none of them have been given a decent enough run of games to find any sort of form but I honestly fail to see what Hemir offers. He’s a unit but can’t hold a ball up or hold a defender off. He’s young and should be full of energy but Vardy who is twice his age hassled our centre halves from start to finish whilst Hemir ambled about the pitch looking like he couldn’t be arsed. It’s his job to put defenders under pressure but he doesn’t look like he can be bothered to break a sweat. For me that has nothing to do with skill or ability. Anyone of any level should be able to run about and hassle people.
100% I’d be doing this, you never know what we’ll unearth. Remember the kids that nearly kept us up in ‘77.
Of that team 6 had been apprentices with the club. Bolton ,Kerr, Ashurst, Elliott, Arnott and Rowell. 7 if you add in Brown who was also breaking through. They played reserves football against "men" not like the U23's or whatever it is now with just a sprinkling of over age players. Nothing was mentioned about "world class coaching" back then, just young (mostly local) lads with boundless energy giving their all to be successful footballers for Sunderland. Of course that was before football was invented in 1992
The way it's going I think we'll drop a few more places, which is very disappointing, but relegation nah.
We finished top half once, and even then we went on a run at the end of the season where we took 1 point from 9 games that left us 5 pts from 3rd bottom It was only the Bolton away game (36th of the season) where we secured our status Last day we jumped from 13th to 10th in injury time
I was thinking that same thing, I’ve had a few where a handful of games meant nowt at the end of the season, either because we’d already gone down, or very rarely we were safe with a few to go. At the other end there’s been the odd season where we just couldn’t get over the line to get promoted or v v rarely just missed out on Europe (I do remember them!!!), but this season already feels over. We’re not nearly bad enough to lose 10 more games in a row, no matter what the pissy knickers amongst us may say, and we’re not good enough to make up 10points in 10 games, so for me season over. Now had this been last year I would have said ok, it’s just we promised so much last year. Could it all be down to diallo and the free flowing football that Mowbray promoted, or is just a natural thing for such a young group.
1988/89? Finished 11th after promotion from Third Division. Poor start, winning run from about Sept/Oct, fairly dismal finish to the season.
11/12 season maybe? Think we were 8th in March but didn't win a game in April and May and finished 13th with 45 points 9 points ahead of relegation zone
We’ll be fine as there’s a lot of ****e below us but it’s ridiculous that we could possibly be in the mix for a bottom 6-8 finish towards the end of the season. Hopefully things improve next campaign but I’m far from confident.
Despite yesterday throwing us closer to the drop zone, I've actually softened a bit on the chances of relegation. There was enough yesterday to make me think we sneak another win in the next 4 games, which should be enough. Our form however is worrying. And its not just the recent form. 5 game form - 23rd with 0 points (4 points from safety) 10 game form - 22nd with 7 points (1 point from safety) 15 game form - 20th with 14 points (1 point above relegation) 20 game form - 20th with 21 points (1 point above relegation) 25 game form - 17th with 28 points (3 points above relegation) 30 game form - 16th with 34 points (3 points above relegation). The fact we are just 3 points above relegation in our 30 game form is worrying from a trajectory perspective. Its almost more worrying than the 5 game form, which could be seen as a blip. 30 game forms aren't a blip, they're an accurate representation of where we are. We're just lucky we had such a good start in our first 7 games.
Aye. Its feckin mental that within a couple of months we've gone from wanting Huddersfield to beat West Brom to wanting West Brom to beat Huddersfield.
