Mackems

So they've had a change of manager, perhaps a bit too early in the season some would say as PDC never really was given much time. I think factors other than footballing ones perhaps contributed to his demise and the revolt that allegedly went on in the dressing room behind his back.

So they've grabbed a derby win against their arch rivals since poyet took over, and in all honesty it was always gonna be one of those games that lifted them slightly, coupled with the fact that it was the new manager's first home game in charge so they were still on a bit of a high I guess from new manager syndrome.

Looking at their next 5 fixtures though, I'd be slightly worried if I were a mackem like.

Man City (h)
Stoke (a)
Aston Villa (a)
Chelsea (h)
Tottenham (h)

Tough home games and even tougher away games I reckon.

How long is it gonna be before they start getting on Poyet's back, and if they continue on a downward spiral do you seriously think they could change manager again during the season ?

Surely they can't go through 2 managers in one season ?

 

To be fair Aston Villa haven't got a great home record.

 

I come in peace gents...

I don't want to be rude but if you find a mackem who's only "slightly worried" you've found a moron. Make no mistake, we're in the ****, big style.

We've, comfortably, got more than enough about us to stay up but there is a horrific amount of work to be done and less and less time to do it in. The teams I expected to implode haven't done so yet, they keep picking up points.

I was disappointed Di Canio left at the time but upon reflection, he needed to go. He'd lost the entire squad by all accounts and that incident where he confronted the fans was embarrassing.

Poyet needs to be given time. Personally if we were to go down this season I'd be holding onto him and letting him rebuild.

All the best fellas.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no historian, but seems to me that most season in the EPL one team, usually two, are completely cut adrift from the rest. I think, unfortunately for the mackems, that it's their turn. Them and Palace look absolutely horse sh!t. The other place is then usually a fight between two, three or four. Norwich look absolutely hopeless, so it could be this season it's just a straight three-team plummet! But if I were a Fulham or Cardff fan, I'd expect a tricky season.

 

I don't see it the same, I'm afraid. And I'm not wumming, I just feel you're looking at it as a supporter and not objectively. You look a lot like QPR to me. For Samba, read Giaccherini. For Remy, read Wickham. QPR's relegation team were quite a bit stronger than yours, but you brought in about a dozen players, none of whom look good enough. That means you've just got a complete discord in the dressing room. Those players who have shown talent don't have Sunderland hearts - they'll want out of that car crash, just as the likes of Hoilett and Samba didn't want to be in West London.

Where you do have heart, you have no talent. I know you guys like Cattermole, but he's going to miss half a dozen games at least and I fear isn't as good as you think. I may be proven wrong, but I fully expect 5 defeats in a row coming up and before Xmas Poyet will be planning for life in the Championship.

I'd do the same, if I were you. When we went down, I personally greeted it as the chance to wipe the slate clean, start afresh. It was great to win matches again. You'll thrive in that division, because you'll keep hold of those who are cut out for it - Cattermole, Bardsley, O'Shea, Brown, Wickham.



As a slight wum, though, it wouldn't be right of me to ignore just how optimistic you guys were as face number 47 came through the doors in the Summer......take a look at some of those threads....egg meet face, foot meet mouth, face meet palm....

 

I know you're not wumming chief, you're on your own board giving your opinion. Nowt wrong with that. I know we're not guaranteed to stay up mate and to be honest I can definitely see us dropping. I'm just saying that if Poyet get's the team clicking they can pick up the 30-35 points required from the last 28 games.

It's a very, very nervous time for Sunderland fans. No league cup quarter final is going to plaster over that crack. Especially when it's against Chelsea and we got around 16,000 in against Southampton.

You're possibly right about going down but I fear that the championship is becoming a harder league to get out of. It would be nice to support a team that wins more often than 1 in 10 mind, whatever the league. My fingers are crossed.

 

I know it's cliched, but that article that ran in the Chron citing Sir Bobby's quote about what football is rings true. It's deeply unpleasant being down the bottom, don't get me wrong, but the football club, YOUR club, will always endure. Many of us have fond memories of that season in the Champ; the camaraderie, the foundation that was built then to enable us to then finish 5th was a good period. Different expectancies help, and that's what I don't like about football, it's a perpetual cycle of greed. We're all marching down streets because we're "only" 10th, with just 14 Internationals in the squad. How dare they. I always look at Chelsea winning the CL couple of years ago, Roman's coup de grace, his crowning glory. It lasted about 20 minutes until another pundit said "yeah, but they'll find it harder to retain it than they have to win it". FOR FUX SAKE, MAN, LIVE FOR THE MOMENT!!!

The difficulty in the internet and SkySports era is just taking it back down to brass tacks, of being about 90 mins and a bit of passion, not 24 hours of assessment and opinion (Paolo is a Nazi...ffs). I've tried to preach that on this board, because I think it ends up looking a bit embarrassing when you're protesting against your owner all week before the euphoric nature of beating Chelsea. It tempers everything. Same with you guys - it's just been a few mistakes, every club makes them.

You've got a chance of staying up - whilst I said your team's not as good as QPR's was, your team is currently better than Palace, Fulham, Cardiff and Norwich at least. It's whether the manager is good enough, whether the dressing room's already gone.

 

Having a shambolic season. Clubs a bit of a mess. However, while unlikely, I don't think all hope of avoiding relegation is lost. They need points before Xmas though, even it means Poyet abandoning some of his principles to try and get them. They could very well go through another manager, however daft that would be. Trigger has already shown he is no different to the other billionaire playboys. They lack quality. The fans patience is as shot as any in the country but then bar a couple of derby results, what have they had to get excited about? Some have seen it all before and will just carry on through thin and thinner, other more modern fans will think "well **** this".

They definitely need some luck. I hope they stay up personally. The derbies are good crack. Unless we plummet like a stone and go down (also not impossible), then I'd want them down the chute with us

 

Also, the championship was great fun.

 

Funnily enough I actually re-read my post before hitting submit and replaced the word seriously with slightly....i thought it might have come across as a bit OTT, clearly some of you more down to earth fans are a bit more worried than I had anticipated.

I was expecting a bit of a roasting off you lot if I'm honest. I'd love to see poyet do well, I really like the bloke and a good mate of mine is a Brighton fan and speaks very highly of him and I would have fancied him at the toon at one point not too long ago.

Football's a funny game. I don't think anyone in their wildest dreams could have predicted us beating Chelsea so you never know what could happen over your next 5 games. We'll probably get humped off the spuds, less likely since bale left mind, but still more than probable.

 

Morning Disco.
It is looking a bit bleak but January is just round the corner and I expect you will bring a few new bodies in.
I personally would want SAFC to stay up for the derby days.
The three I think will go down are Norwich (sorry Maestro), Stoke and Palace.
Mackems will have brown pants for a bit but you will just sneak to safety.

 

I'm sure that there's some of our lads who'd call me a negative twat but I find the situation very concerning. Four points from ten is dire.

I'm not going to give you a roasting for stating a fair opinion on a football matter. I don't really have or understand the Us/Them attitude that a lot of Newcastle/Sunderland fans have.

In my eyes a **** is a **** regardless of who they support. Similarly a decent bloke's a decent bloke regardless of his affiliations.

Hola scourge of the mackems!

I hope you're right.

I can't believe we still need more signings.

We signed about 75 this summer for ****s sake

 

Fancy some rep mate, I know one or two of your fellow Mackems love it?

You signed a lot but I honestly don't thing there's too much quality there.
The pick of the signings seem to be that lad Giac.
He reminds me a bit of Emre. Seems to have that bit extra time on the ball and never seems to get panicked.

 

I've handed a bit out on this thread so far. It's all just a bit of harmless fun is it not?

Giack's been cracking, if a little lightweight. In a side surrounded by a bit more quality I think he'd become immense. As he was for Italy this summer. I used to really like Emre for you lot (apart from that one he put past us). Less so much when he moved back to Turkey(?) and got all racist (allegedly).

Agreed though. We need two or three signings with a bit of quality and things would look much, much better. Do I get a prize for stating the obvious?

 

As QPR proved, you need points before signings, matey.

 

If QPR had as many points as they had signings, they'd have stayed up.

 

Points? Plural????

We don't play you until next year though...

 

Rep is the centre of life mate. It is like the force...but v2 and more pumped up. Without rep the fabric of the universe will collapse and ginger haired lasses wouldn't exist

 

I put a bet on at the start of the season that the mackems would be bottom by Christmas - but if I win that bet (big IF with the was Palace are playing!) I'll be reinvesting the winnings (less the original stake) in them staying up. They've had a horrendous run of games, but that basically means they've got an easy run in - I reckon they'll go on a bit of a run come Feb and scrape survival. We'll see though!