Alright chaps, I thought I would leave it for a few days for everything to calm down a bit before I posted this article, just wanted to give my views on Brucie, MON, the squad and the future of the club. First of all Steve, I like the bloke and think he is a genuine guy who I will remember for improving the club that bit further and bringing a better calibre of player to the SoL. We have been lucky over the last couple of season's as we have had some good players at the club, the likes of Darren Bent, Lorik Cana, John "The Rock", Asamoah Gyan to name a few. The downside to Bruce was his inability to replace Bent and that ended up IMO costing him his job. Along with poor tactics and a poor transfer window when he made us into a squad of squad players it was only a matter of time before his time was up and that came last Wednesday when he was dismissed from his position at the SoL. As I said at the start I will remember Brucie for the first 2season's not the last 13,14games and I hope he gets back into management soon. As for MON I think Ellis Short has pulled off a masterstroke with this appointment and lets hope he can get us back on track but he will need time, firstly to bring in his own backroom staff and for the players to get used to his idea's and not forgetting making the playing squad his own. It won't be another 2transfer windows time IMO till we see MON's Sunderland team, this season we just need to consolidate our position in the premier league and I think we will finish around 11th-13th which I would be happy with after the start to this season. Now the playing staff, MON has a huge job on his hand! IMO bar Mignolet, Westwood, Brown, Richardson, Larsson, Sessegnon, Wickham, Campbell (and Gyan????) he has got a pretty average squad and changes will need to be made firstly in January and then the summer. I had hoped we would never have to see another mass clearout and mass recruitment in a summer transfer window again but I feel we need to in the summer along with 3 or 4 in this January, I just hope Ellis will invest and get us back on track. As for the future it all depends on the investment. MON IMO is the right man and can take us that next step, for this season we just need to keep our premier league status then next season we can aim to get back into that top 10 and keep pushing on each season and we have the right man to do that if backed. The aim for me should be... this season - stay up next season - top ten along with a good cup run season after - try and sneak into the last europa league spot along with a good cup run. The future for me is certainly bright at the SoL I just hope Ellis is willing to put his hand in his pocket for one final time during the summer as we need to to drastically improve our average squad. I wonder if our kit manufacturer and main sponsor will have much of an effect on this as we are into our final years with Umbro and Tombolo I just hope Quinny can go out get us a top company to make us some nice kits for a chance and a global company to be our main sponsor Ha'Way the Lads!!
Vaughan, Gardner, Meyler, Colback, Ji and dare i say it.. Elmo are all players who, if MON can get them playing to their full ability, will be more than good enough for a top 10 team imo. Bardo and Gordon also missing from your list, or dont you rate them?
Poolie not sure how you can single out certain players above others , (especailly Richardson, this guy plays 3 maybe 4 half decent games a season. If I had my way wouldnt be anywhere near the first team squad). When Bruce went on his recruitement drive in the summer we all (well most ) was well pleased with his signings and praised the squad that he had put together. What has changed, were we kidding ourselves about the quality of players we brought in ?? If MON is the great manager most of us think he is, will he not be able to bring this squad together and get an extra 10-20 % out of the players. I accept he will want to bring in some of his own players but I believe he already has the potential in our current squad to pull well away from the relegation end of the league.
I just genuinely don't understand how this years aim can be to stay up. At the start of the season you wanted top 10/possibly Europa League place. If Bruce had kept you up by 1 point, you would all want him out. Now, if MoN keeps you up by a point, you're going to be happy with that?
cheik - because our confidence is shot to **** (players and fans), we can't stop haemorrhaging late goals, and we are lucky if we score one a game. we are in serious ****, unable to get a win from anywhere, so if o'neill stops the rot and keeps us up, we will be happy that he then gets a chance to build his own team. obviously we would like to finish higher, and the expectation was we would, but certain circumstances have left us up the creek and in need of reassessing our goals. put it like this, i daresay your expectations at the start of the 2008/2009 season were slightly different the hopes you had when shearer took the reins for those ill-fated couple of months. things change, and most sunderland fans would settle for staying up at this moment in time.
Poolie I agree with most of your article except your view on the players IMO we have a strong squad who need confidence and a descent goal scorer, when we get Campbell and Whickham back we'll have 2, on top of that give Noble and Ji a chance now don't get me wrong we still need a top class striker Like Cisse but more than anything we need the team to have confidence and playing in the right positions. You rule out Flash because he's injury prone but you rate Mensah who couldn't play more than 2 games without been injured.
Just proves how ****e we have become...Start of the season most were highly expectant of a decent season.... with Bruces new signings.
I'm with you on this one. I've read loads on here recently saying that survival is our aim, bollocks, top 10 has still got to be our goal, we're currently sitting 5 points adrift of top 10. If or when MON sorts the team out then we can still have a good second half of the season and push on up.
Exactly. We are too used to fighting relegation we don't know what to do when we climb the league, we start to get nose bleeds! That is why I am pleased to have MON - he has experience of sustaining performances, something Bruce was not able to. My only hope - and this is my biggest concern - is that fans expectations become more realistic, as some of our "fans" have unrealistic expectations and time scales.
