Costel Pantilimon has revealed the “frustration” felt at Sunderland by a squad of “only good players” once again poised on the brink of a relegation battle. But calling for patience to “build a stronger team for the future”, the Black Cats goalkeeper insists Gus Poyet’s men are focused solely on “fighting, and working hard” to stay in the Premier League. The Wearside outfit stand 16th in the table, four points above the drop zone. They face an Aston Villa side one place and one point below them, at the Stadium of Light on Saturday. But asked to what extent his first season at the club, following last summer’s free transfer from Manchester City, is going to plan, Pantilimon said: “I knew (when I signed) what the project was here, I knew the team spirit. “I spoke with the head coach and he explained to me plenty of things about what was happening at the club. “In the dressing room, I only see good players. “But sometimes it’s like that, you never know what can happen. It’s just important for us to fight, to work hard and to remain in the Premier League. “It’s not easy, you need time. For the head coach, it’s only his second year, his first full one, and I think he needs time. We need time, especially in the summer if we sign new players. “We need time to adapt, to have more ambition. “But at this moment, this is the situation, and for us it’s important to continue fighting to remain in the Premier League. At this moment, the only thing I think and the most important thing is to remain in the Premier League, to play good football, because we have players with quality, to show something different, and to build a stronger team for the future. “From pre-season, they tried to bring the kind of players to the club to play a certain type of football. “Sometimes we’ve done it well, sometimes maybe not. But you have to continue to work hard, and keep following the head coach’s ideas. “Does it hurt, to be in this position? I don’t like to think like that, at this moment. We still have games, so we don’t think about (our position) normally. You only look forward, and think about helping to get good results. “You never think about what might happen. If, if? No. It’s not good to think like this, or to look at it like that. “Sometimes it’s frustrating. If you look at our team, you have a lot of players who have won trophies, but what can you do? This is football. Sometimes it can happen. It’s important to stay in a good position.” Pantilimon has this week seen his head coach Poyet deny an FA charge of improper conduct after he was sent to the stands for kicking a stack of water bottles during Sunderland’s 1-1 draw at Hull City last Tuesday. Amid the incident, the Uruguayan attempted to square up to the Tigers’ ex-Black Cats manager Steve Bruce. But Pantilimon insists his boss is simply passion, and inspiring. “Yes, he loves football,” he said. “He knows what to take from us, and what we put on the pitch. “Sometimes it’s frustrating because we are not in the best position we maybe want to be in. “So it’s important at this moment to look forward, and to remain in the Premier League, in a good position.”
Kind of conflicts with the arrogant ****e the playboy was spouting a few days ago. What to believe? They're either fighting hard to avoid the drop of they're unconcerned. Tells me there could be cliques in the squad and we may have a small group of arrogant little gits within our squad.
Given up listening to what they say. Pants sounds sensible (unlike Connor), but we want to see some passion on the pitch. Results not interviews please...
Tells me there's two groups of players when you take into consideration the both players are talking on behalf of team mates, one who's ****ting it and very aware of our plight and another group who's blaze and unconcerned. That's scary, Haway Gus, get them all singing from the same hymn sheet. The likes of Whickam shouldn't be seeing sight of the pitch with his attitude. It's dangerous, the kind of attitude that saw the Mags go down, thinking they're too good.
I'd love to, they're doing my head in, but can't help noticing there's pieces of jigsaw into what's going on at the club buried in their words.
Not too much to ask for is it. For god's sake, stop talking and start doing!! If our position was based on hot air, we'd be top 6!!!
