I do think we have a habit of being too down on some of our signings. Most of them I've never heard of these days to be honest - so have no idea if they are any good or not. I prefer to wait to see if their performances are any good or not before I judge. I think its fine to criticise the strategy of recruitment and whether the positions we are looking at are the correct ones - but that doesn't mean the criticism of the player has to come with it. I think you're right that criticism of Turkish league players has been too high at times but I kind of understand because our strategy in most of Acun's transfer windows have been questionable at times to say the least. But at the same time, we must remember that doesn't mean every player we get will be rubbish. In Lincoln's case - I still think its too early to judge - but his first performance was better than I think many expected. Hopefully that continues.
You are really clueless, aren’t you? That was what was said to me when I quoted another club’s crowds going up when they were relegated to League 1 and being larger than we got in the PL. Funny old world, eh?
You're assuming I disagreed with you on that point, it's an obvious fact that doesn't need stating. What's hilarious is that I've lived in the north east for nearly 30 years, make no secret of it and is why I used specifically north east mentality as an example when arguing city fans being far more pernicious and transactional than NE fans as a percentage of demography than you get up here. Of course you don't bother to think that this might actually inform or support your argument about City having "meh" support, you just argue for the sake of it. Go to bed old man.
Daft twat. I have said the same as you for years and wished we had fans like all 3 clubs in the north east. Who is arguing with you, I have always made the point you are making. Others have argued with me on that point and accused me of hating City fans. The problem has always been rugby league. North east clubs are what identifies a city and even those who don’t go think the club represents their city. Same in Coventry, Portsmouth and elsewhere. Hull had 2 rugby clubs before a football one, only Leeds did that as well. A lot in Hull thinks that the rugby league clubs represent this city though they are big fish in a puddle and massive underachievers. The local media go along with this nonsense, City beat Sunderland, the first time they have lost at home, in front of 44,000 and what is the first mention on sport on the HDM website? FC’s possible transfer targets. When FC won in France it was the main feature. KR’s first home game was the main story and 5 articles about it. No doubt you will disagree with me.
Early leavers, negativity, even local media over exaggerated click bait. It’s all the same at every other club up and down country.
I well remember Sunderland winning the FA Cup at Wembley beating Leeds and Jim Montomery and that certainly wasn't in the 1950's. I've been to Sunderland and seen the pubs dedicated to that win. Those are recent memories. As for a 'small hardcore bunch of fans' I don't have to look at Gateshead for evidence. I was part of such a group right here in Hull who fought to save Hull City from extinction. Perhaps you were not around then ? Maybe we fought harder to save our club dropping out the FL then Gateshead fans did?
And us having a crowd of 24,000 against them 2 or 3 years later in which 16,000 of them were from Sunderland. There attendances have never dipped to the levels ours have. https://european-football-statistics.co.uk/attnclub/league/sund.htm I know what you, and some others did. How many of these commenting were taking the time and effort to produce the excellent fanzines we had when the club was a laughing stock? (Came across a couple of them not long back. One particular contributor was prolific under a number of pen names,)
I don't think being skeptical of signings that are clearly driven by our owner - a non-football member of the staff - rather than our recruitment team or manager is unreasonable, particularly given the high volume of them that have not been successful - Sayyadmanesh, Pelkas, Sinik, Tetteh, Traore, Omur - vs just Oscar and Tufan before this season. It also is no coincidence that last season we saw far fewer - in fact only one - player sourced from Turkey as we clearly identified issues with that element of the recruitment strategy. So if the club identified that it was not the way to go, whether due to a lack of robustness of the players, or difficulty in adapting to the Championship, I don't think it's xenophobic, or irrational or extreme or whatever word you want to use for supporters to come to the same conclusion, seemingly as the club's own staff in thinking that players coming from Turkey are by and large of a substandard quality. This season Pedro has worked out to the surprise of many (including, I would hazard a guess, those at the club, otherwise I'm sure he would have been targeted earlier in the window and not just out of desperation), and Lincoln has made a promising start. Omur made a promising start too though so let's not get too excited on the back of one game.
Did you see how many people were in the ground with five minutes to go yesterday? Of course it happens at other clubs, just as much as at City.
There were more in the ground than at City. Unless over 30,000 left. Though I get your point. Didn’t see loads walking out at Ipswich despite them getting mullered. Or at some other clubs. Maybe there is a problem getting off the car park at Sunderland?
I would say at least two thirds of the home stands had emptied as 90 minutes approached. But obviously don’t believe me, I was just, erm, there.
The stand opposite the cameras didn’t look as empty as the East Stand does. You should have videoed it to make it a FACT. As I said, maybe their car park is worse than Walton Street. And they have twice as many fans trying to get home. As you said, you were there so will have to take your word for it. Forget which game it was, was flicking through on FAWA but one game had a load leaving opposite the cameras but when the camera swung round no one had left the stand under the cameras. Often the same at City, people streaming out of the East Stand but very few leaving the West Stand. Maybe they are asleep as not a lot of noise to disturb them.
Some of the players you mentioned weren't an absolute disaster though. Sayyadmanesh had some decent games and his work rate was high - I can see why we signed him but ultimately he didn't fit into the team. He's not having a bad time of it in Belgium last time I looked? Pelkas was OK for a season but didn't set the world alight - probably was an image signing but he was OK. Sinik.... Tetteh looked good in flashes when not injured - again I can see why we signed him. Traore had some decent games - as a free transfer it wasn't a bad option. I have no idea what went wrong with Omur this season - but last season he was being lauded as a great buy. Players from the Turkish league are clearly going to get some extra scrutiny but I do think we're quick to judge before we've seen them play. I'm not going to say the strategy has worked brilliantly because clearly we've also got a huge history of injury issues coming from that league - but I do think the standard of player being 'poor' has been overplayed a bit.
Bob stokoe did a step further than Steve Bruce in the byegone age, but let's face it, they're as average as we are in recent times.
You don't know which ones are owner driven and who aren't. But you'll get a good idea of who's wanted by the ones who get minutes. And your early assessment of Tufan and generalisations on so called 'turkish signings" have been a little archaic at best and questionable at worst. You're in no position to throw stones. Hence the blatant back-pedalling. Which you're inevitably gonna deny in your response.
