I am an openly optimistic supporter, and would at times even class myself as happily delusional as in my mind with the right owners and the correct business decisions I can see us being as big and as good as Man City if not better. The trouble is our fans have forgotten how to dream. In 1973 Leeds were one of if not the best team in Europe at the time when the SAFC juggernaut brought them down a peg or 2. Even back then repots were little old Sunderland defeat mighty Leeds. All this historically is not correct. As we all know Sunderland have a proud rich and successful history which should be embraced and built on. Modern fans are fickle these days and that working class fanaticism is missing with a lot of our fans. Even when we are poor which we have been recently I am happy to sit and look through my rose coloured spectacles and dream of glory because if we don't have that then as fans what do we have! Rant Owa.
Saw this on Roker Report's FB page and thought it was relevant to this thread ❤️⬇️ ⬇️❤️ Some of the most memorable occasions we’ve had as a football club are when we’ve all felt as one. All pulling in the same direction. All shouting, singing, and roaring for one common purpose. The Sheffield United semi-final at the Stadium of Light. Chelsea at home in the FA Cup quarter-final. The Chelsea and Everton games under Big Sam. Derby games at St James’ Park. The playoff semi-finals against Sheffield Wednesday and the final against Wycombe. Together, we’re virtually unstoppable. But at the moment, it feels different. It feels weird. There’s disproportionate negativity - and it’s hard to put a finger on why. Of course, no one’s particularly happy with the run of results over the past few weeks. And in reality, no one is overjoyed with some of the performances we’ve put in since February. But, in the grand scheme of things, recent performances and results aren’t too important. It’s what we achieve over the course of the season that really counts. As Sunderland supporters, we presumably all want the same thing - for the club to be as successful as possible. This season, that means promotion. We locked in fourth place ages ago, meaning that over the next few weeks we’ve got an absolutely brilliant chance of achieving what we set out to do. But if you took some of the online commentary at face value, you’d think we were struggling to stay up. While some people may not think of social media as the real world, it unfortunately is. Everything that’s posted on social media, on forums, is read by players and other supporters - and over the past couple of months, the negativity has verged on the overwhelming. Why? If you take a step back, it’s virtually impossible to say with much conviction. Yes, results and performances haven’t been great, but there have been loads of mitigating factors for people who want to look for them. Some may prefer to see a certain style of play or particular players playing - or not playing - but ultimately, that doesn’t matter. It’s the destination, not the journey, as the saying goes. As supporters, we’ve got a job to do - support. Absolutely, call things out when they’re not right, but when you look at it completely objectively, there’s not a lot that’s “not right” at the moment. The club have delivered on a number of levels over recent seasons, which makes this contagion of negativity really difficult to understand. We’ve got a once-in-a-generation team packed full of young, exciting talent. We’ve got an ownership group that’s overseen us getting out of League One and becoming competitive again. We’ve got a sporting director and a head coach who’ll both be on the radars of other clubs. The team has done exceptionally well this season, and if you cast your mind back to last summer, we’d all have agreed Le Bris would be doing an excellent job if he got us to fourth place. Yes, social media and forums are a microcosm of the real world, but they do seriously impact and influence the mood and feeling around the club. Recently, there have been people shouting we need to sack Le Bris. People slagging the club off for resting players ahead of the playoffs. Fans criticising left, right, and centre because, what, we’ve not quite managed to keep pace with three clubs armed with parachute payments? Because we’ve not scored as many goals as you’d like? It’s extending into “real life” too. The atmosphere at the Stadium of Light has been poor for months now. On Saturday, Chris Rigg - who’s been brilliant this season - was reportedly almost in tears after facing a barrage of abuse from a few people in the away end. Haway, man. This group of players have been brilliant - likeable, hard-working, and a world away from some of the dossers we’ve had line up for us. They deserve more support, not less. They deserve unconditional backing right now. It’s baffling that anyone who considers themselves a supporter of SAFC would want to feed negativity into our team or our fellow supporters right now. To what end? Dampen other people’s positivity? To reduce people’s expectations? To… sabotage the chances of us going up so they’re not left too disappointed by an unsuccessful conclusion? So they can take the “telt ya” high ground? Surely not - but that is exactly what this endless cycle of online negativity does. It’s not conducive to anything positive, it’s not productive, and it brings the whole mood down. And it eats into real life too. There’s been loads of talk - and hands up, some of our own contributors on here have added to it - about why we should not have rested players over the last few weeks. Why (despite evidence and in the face of first-hand experience, by the way), the momentum of results really does matter. This adds nothing but unnecessary, unwanted pressure. The football staff - including Régis Le Bris, who’s contributed to academic studies about athlete workload and recovery, by the way - probably know a bit more than us about that one. The players are off to Portugal this week, and for everyone connected with the club, it’s time for a reset and to get back down to the reason we’re all here. All of us want Sunderland to win the playoffs, and the team’s got a far, far better chance of doing so if everyone’s behind them. Save any inquisition for when the season’s over. Of course, this piece will likely get a load of negativity in itself. But hopefully, it prompts those people who are being consistently negative to ask themselves why. Ask themselves what it’s achieving. Ask themselves if it’s contributing positively to the success of the club. Ask themselves if this is actually support. Because support is about far, far more than turning up to a ground or logging in to a stream. If the goal this season was to get promoted, we’re still on course to do so - and we’ve got a far, far better chance to do so with a positive mentality around the place. So let’s do what we collectively do best as supporters and roar the lads on over the next few weeks. As supporters, let’s give it our absolute all - because when we’re all pulling in the same direction, we can be unstoppable.
Without faith, no matter how futile, it's pointless for 95% of football supporters to even bother ... ... very few clubs ever win anything, even fewer consistently. How many clubs have we seen 'pushing on, and the way we should go, only to collapse ... ... Leicester, Southampton, Sheff Utd, even the likes of Hull City who people claimed were 'showing ambition'. If you don't have blind faith then football isn't the game for you.
its an interesting one, and like this thread ha shown, there is discussion here, we need to recapture the lighting from those said games,
“He’s going all the way, he’s actually going all the way ! Shoot, shoot ! He’s scored !!!” That’s what makes all the difference to me, points of time like Mayenda’s wonder goal. There’s been loads of great, great moments this season and ya can’t and shouldn’t just dismiss them because of a few crap results. Im glad of Roker reports column cos we need a big push for these next matches, if the players need lifting that’s our job, its a two way street the fan/ team relationship and we should be lifting each other when we most need it.
I think it's possible negative people treat football support as some kind of 'investment' for which they expect, even deserve, some return. It's not, that's just daft. But I see people talking about how much it's cost, in time, effort and money, to follow their team ... ... some go as far as suggesting they should be refunded as if they've bought a faulty laptop. The ticket entitles you to enter the stadium, that's the entire contract.
Yes we do. We've got the whole sleeping giant narrative and 10 years in the PL buzzing around our heads but that doesn't match with our current reality - where there is a massive gap in finance between SAFC and 3-5 of the clubs that we're competing against. Doesn't matter how big a club we think we are, there isn't an owner in the world who would put in the amount of money it would take to guarantee an automatic promotion. I'm not sure it would be possible anyway.
recall after we went down from the PL under the dour one and some said thats it, they are done until we are back in the PL, and after the championship final same thing, yet these fans that said that were first in line for a Wembley ticket, not sure if we need to do something at the SoL, our own Ultras? a "higher" quality name in a coach? players? etc. yes all fans are different and have different views, we all want the best for SAFC, we all wants us to do well and compete etc but to call a player crap after one bad pass or game, or a manager needs to go after defeat this is just the culture of modern day football, if you not recording yourself there are, are you actually there? if you dont do a podcast or have a youtube channel are you actually a fan? if you dont record yourself watching the game at home etc?
I agree with many of the comments posted here. I have several good friends who have stopped going over the years,motive for which,it seems to me,is to protect themselves from disappointment at continual underachievement. One could say their committment isn't strong enough,and I wouldn't disagree, but I've always thought fan response is led from performance on the pitch.Year after year of last minute escape to stay in the PL,only then to suffer relegation to L1,has damaged a good part of what might be described as fickle support......every team has them. We pride ourselves on historically being one of England's big clubs,with very good reason. When I first went to Roker,the 61-62 season,in the second division, we finished third behind Liverpool and Leyton Orient. Liverpool tells its' own story from there,but,at that time, they were no bigger than us.When we played them that season,the crowd at Anfield was 48,000+,at Roker 47,000+. Mind you,we got stuffed both times! I think the point I'm trying to make is that the support in the stadium we all long for will be there if performances on the pitch deserve it. Great support,in my view,isn't fan-led,it's team led.
I think it’s 2 fold at the moment. 1) we’re used to being hurt and things going wrong. Back to back relegations, defeat at Wembley twice in heartbreaking circumstances, having to play Luton with no defence, last season in general. We’ve been bloody excellent for the majority of this season and have no right to be 4th, given the money we’ve spent compared to other teams. 2) I can’t lie, the football is pretty boring. When you’re winning you accept it, but we’ve not been winning much lately. Boring doesn’t mean bad however, I watched City yesterday and they were a really tough watch despite getting to the FA cup final. When you combine the 2, along with the general sunderland thing of always expecting the worst, I can see where the negativity has come from.
Facebook post saying Jobe young player of the season. First response I see is “been ****e for months”! No “well done Jobe, congratulations” or anything. Straight in with both barrels! So, in answer to the op, yes, some do have a problem with negativity! Not me though. Glass firmly half full
It's the 'double negatives' that make me laugh. Realists will say, 'Our opponents are coming off the back of three defeats and will want to reverse that, it'll be a tougher game than people think.' In the next breath they'll say, 'Sunderland are coming off the back of three defeats so our form is terrible, it'll be a tougher game than people think.' Reality appears to be whatever people want it to be Putting forward a negative opinion is fine, endlessly repeating it is pointless and annoying ... ... saying, over and over again, 'I told you so' afterwards is simply feeding their ego. The internet makes people believe they're broadcasting to the world. The real reality is that their audience is tiny and only a small percentage of that audience bothers to look. Of those who do many will disagree but the few who agree will confirm, to them, that they were right along. Those who agree become 'fellow realists' while everyone else is just fooling themselves Anyway, perhaps this fella explains it better, if you disagree I'll just ignore you and find someone who will. Then I'll be right!
I'm just going to say it. The Saudis taking over Newcastle, pumping them full of petrodollars and moulding them into a European cup team has sowed discontent in our support. We aren't anywhere near them now after being roughly the same level for over 135 years. Hopefully, in time we can let them go to enjoy their new life as a sportswashing project. We've needed a separation from our chunky cousins for quite some time.
I do think that is valid, certainly the most negative on here would like to return to the spend spend spend days when we were in the PL. There are even some who openly adore them up the road, one even has them in his avatar FFS. If you like them that much just come out and admit it like Albert’s **** shop
All fans have their negative sections. I don't think we are any better or worse than any other fans. Opinions get polarised so much these days by social media and internet forums. It feels as though you are either a doom monger or a happy clapper, with no middle ground. The vast majority of fans are likely somewhere in the middle and are optimistic about the play-offs but with a slight niggling doubt due to the current form. I'd say every set of fans in the same situation would be the same
Honestly I think that the double relegation followed by not being immediately promoted from League one just broke a section of the fanbase entirely. Not that we were all fountains of optimism before that but minority are always waiting for the other shoe to drop essentially. We could get promoted this season, finish in European places and they'd all still be thinking 'well the fixture congestion will relegate us now'. I'm not sure its fixable other than continually improving on and off the pitch ultimately.
Quite right … … there are people repetitively predicting relegation if we go up and losing half the squad if we don’t. That’s fair enough, they may be right, but they just never give it a rest. It’s not like predicting a promoted will struggle, or a Championship team will lose top players, is being clairvoyant … … yeah we know.
