'always knew it was ging to be a relegation struggle'. Wondering now if that is what he was saying in August. Imagining team talk something akin to. 'Right , lads, most of you are **** we will struggle all season but don't worry while I pay a fortune for rubbish like Johnson and Graham. It's hardly great stuff when the manager says he always expected a relegation battle, it's like saying he thinks the team is **** and tbh they totaaly are but he needs to change it not just accept it and even with recruits like AJ and DGB make it worse.
Well it is beging to look like a relegation struggle, but in the beging we never thought that, wonder what makes MoN think it was ging to be a struggle. Where did you find this quote from?
That's a very interesting admission from our manager. Perhaps you would be kind enough to divulge the source of your information?
I got the impression when I spoke to him early on in the season before West Ham away that he thought it was going to be a long hard season.
Rubbish like Johnson? Not many on here thought he was rubbish - he had the place buzzing when we signed him and everyone was very happy - hindsight is a wonderful thing eh? As for "always knowing we wer in a relegatiuon battle" - as you said, we have no idea when he told the players that but we have known this for some time as fans
If he's said that it may be a psychological ploy for the players. A team with Sessegnon Johnson Fletcher Mignolet etc shouldn't be fearing relegation
Guys visit news now Sunderland and have a look through there plenty of quotes and all sorts , I to read an interview were oneil says he expected to struggle , like I said check out the website it's good and will keep ya arses up to date.
Sunderland manager Martin O'Neill says he is not surprised the club are in a relegation battle. After losing to 2-1 to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, coupled with Aston Villa's win over Reading, Sunderland find themselves just six points clear of the relegation zone with nine games left to play. O'Neill believes his team have not done enough to secure maximum points in games they have controlled, and believes the remaining matches will be very tough "I'm not surprised at all (at the prospect of fighting for survival)," O'Neill told reporters. "I knew right from the off it was going to be very, very tough and it's been like that all season, every game we play. "In the last number of games we've played my own view is we shouldn't have been beaten in these games. "We put severe pressure on Arsenal, couldn't get the ball over the line, at West Bromwich Albion I thought any piece of luck going was going with the home team. "But you can say that forever and a day, we have to turn it (around)." O'Neill also believes an injury crisis at an unfortunate point in the season has limited his ability to change games with substitutions, and cited the QPR defeat as a case in point. "We had a lot of defenders on the bench but at the moment that's all we have," he said. "(Lee) Cattermole is injured, (Wes) Brown's been out all season so we can discount that. "The only other one we had is James McClean, who was ill. He got let out of hospital around about 11 o'clock on Saturday morning having spent the last two days on a drip. "We had a lot of defenders on the bench but that wasn't anything planned, that was just lack of choice."
Looks like the OP was taken out of context. It's been hard, but we really only need 36-37 points to survive. A couple more wins should be doable.
That's the problem, we are the worst team in the league at the moment with no signs of improvement and only 3 home winnable games remaining. We have to win 2 out of Norwich, Stoke or Southampton. All 3 of them teams will just as easily be looking at us a game they 'should' win.
Agree, if we dont get these six points, we will go down. This weeks game is huge for both teams, I think more pressure will be on us being the home team. Maybe a Danny Graham winner in stoppage time
leave DGB AND Johnson out they are both rubbisg. Give Whickam a go, he was just improving when he was shipped out. Bardsley and Rose start as full backs gardner back into midfield move larsson out left.
Larsson left?! I remember when Bruce played him there, he's more effective in cm than on the left and thats saying something!
Have you said where your original MON quote came from yet? You know the one in the OP. "always knew it was ging to be a relegation struggle" Larsson shouldn't be on the pitch if anyone else no matter their early allegiances is fit.
