• The first stage of the forum upgrades has now been completed but they remain in a degraded state and are still being worked on.
    Please read this thread for more details.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.

Competing to be the NE top dogs


admwil said:
I’ve been holding off on saying this, because it’s Sunderland and we all know how quickly things can change, but without getting too far ahead of ourselves, I genuinely think we have an opportunity to flip a script that may have been easy to accept just a short while ago. When the mags got taken over by the Saudis and became 'the richest club in the werrrld', I remember the chat on here at the time and I felt the same. Loads of concern that we would be left behind forever, we were in League One so it wasn’t hard to feel like it. I remember posts like, 'that’s it, we’ll never be able to compete with them again', and, 'all the top young players in the area will be sucked up by their academy now'. I would love to look back at that thread if can find it.

Yet here we are, and it feels like we’re on the cusp of building something sustainable and potentially long-term. A proper identity, signing young, hungry players who want to prove themselves, who clearly get the club and the city. Players with character, not just ability, and importantly, we’re giving youth a chance. There’s a pathway here, which you can see from afar. From the outside, the mags are starting to look like a bit of a soulless machine, all cash, no connection. There’s a growing respect for how we’re doing things from fans outside the region who are noticing it, which I witness firsthand as an exile. If you’re a talented young player coming through in the North East right now, and someone asked which academy you’d rather be in, where would you point them?

We’re on the rise, doing it properly, and if we keep going like this, all those fears will be long gone or potentially even reversed. It's crazy to think back to this time and look at what KLD and the team have done in such a short space of time when at one point all felt lost.

Let's stick it right up them. HWTL.
Click to expand...

I'm not fuckin' interested to be honest with you. Fuck them. This micro-competition with the scum needs to stop. What we do against them or where we finish compared to them should never define our season. It's an attitude that's held us back over the years. "I don't care as long as we beat Newcastle." Fuck that, and fuck them. They're nothing.


We're competing to stay in the league first and foremost, and then be the best Sunderland we can be.
 
DonaldDownTheWing said:
We can’t say for certain that we aren’t getting left behind, it’s far too early in the season.

We’ve started beyond all of our wildest dreams and fans’ confidence is rightly high and it’s really enjoyable, but just collecting as many points as we can this season is the only thing I’m looking at.

To come back to the point about NE clubs specifically, they’ve created a load of PSR headroom with the Isak sale. They could spend about 250m in January.
Click to expand...
Some, maybe quite a few, may not realise that one or more of the players we've bought may well end up being targets for the mags. It would be hard to stop them leaving if we're offered a decent transfer fee as the wages being offered to the player would no doubt be higher than we could offer.

Given the players are already up here then it won't be much to swap clubs as loyalties in football aren't as big as they used to be. There's obviously not just the mags, as other teams will come sniffing and it's all about being able to replace players. We've brought in some very promising players and it needs to continue as they may not be around in time if they end up on the radar of other clubs.

The mags may not buy any of our players but the 'threat' is there. Threads like this, as you say, it's just feed for that deluded knacker. I'm just enjoying the moment as the huge gulf there once was has shrank hugely and it's shut them right up which is enough for me.

The fact we've had a great start and they're not doing so well could still change, especially come end of December. It's been class since May as the swing has been tremendous since the playoff final, the transfer window and the league table. I won't get too far ahead of myself as there's still a way to go and surviving relegation is the main aim this season. It's a hard ask to top dogs just yet but taking points off them in the derbies would be a bonus and I'm not sure Carlsberg has enough % left to have us finish above them this season 😉
 
DonaldDownTheWing said:
If and when we add the next layer to our attacking force with another creative player and a better striker, then I think we can really kick on.

We’re averaging less than 1.0xG per game which, despite what people might think about the stat, shows we’re not creating an awful lot.

We’re built on brilliant foundations at the back and a team that is unbelievably well drilled. The next layer is to start creating chances.
Click to expand...
We actually had our best XG of the season at the weekend. Fuck knows how mind. :lol:
 
perhaps not always in league position but we've always been top dogs in the class and morality stakes, especially since they sold their souls.
this is a reason the england women's rugby team started off the world cup at sunderland and not at their place despite it being bigger.
 
Prefer us to stick to doing us, and not worry about how them lot up the road are doing.
We've made a great start but it's still a long hard season ahead, and we are going to have some fallow runs where points will be few and far between. If we lost perspective now, when those runs come, the whole thing could come crashing down. However, if we keep our feet on the ground, we can get through the difficult parts of the season when they come.
 
chriswallace85 said:
We actually had our best XG of the season at the weekend. Fuck knows how mind. :lol:
Click to expand...
Hate the fact that XG is a stat that people are taking notice of. It's meaningless.

It doesn't really relate directly to how many goals you actually score, it doesn't relate directly to how many games you win.

It's just some stat that looks meaningful to fill out 1000s of podcasts and chatrooms
 
Trauntrian said:
Hate the fact that XG is a stat that people are taking notice of. It's meaningless.

It doesn't really relate directly to how many goals you actually score, it doesn't relate directly to how many games you win.

It's just some stat that looks meaningful to fill out 1000s of podcasts and chatrooms
Click to expand...
It’s a load of shit like, so and so didn’t play well cause his XG was such and such… well no I have eyes and I clearly seen he didn’t play well cause he didn’t play well.
 
not spavin said:
They should be winning their next 5 games, think it'll be a different picture after that.

Besides, our season shouldn't be defined on how we do relative to them. The most likely thing to happen is for them to finish comfortably above us, and probably have the better of the derbies too. That reflects where we are on our journey, and the fact that they've been bankrolled by the dirtiest money on planet earth.

Easier said than done I know, but we'd do well to care less about that rivalry. They're not the club we all grew up alongside anymore. Newcastle United is little more PR wing of the House of Saud these days, they don't deserve us playing along with the charade.
Click to expand...
Bravo 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

NUFC doesn't exist anymore in the same way it did up until the takeover. It's now a full blown sportswashing venture. Anything they win is tainted. They'll not care but we'll know.
 
chriswallace85 said:
With lads departing for AFCON, I think it's gonna fall at just the right time for them.
Click to expand...
They'll get the Newcastle match in before departing for AFCON won't they?

There's only going to Brighton, Leeds and Man City where we miss a number of players.

The odd one or two players maybe will get to the later stages and will miss Spurs, Brentford and Palace, but it won't be many.
 
Last edited:
Ale taster said:
Yet I wonder who's genuinely more concerned about December 13th right now.
Us or them?
Click to expand...
It shouldn't be us. It's the definition of a free hit.

They HAVE to win.

A draw would be as bad as losing for their super sized egos and delusional entitlement. (We'd obviously be portrayed in the media as the plucky under dogs who battled against all the odds, David v Goliath, insert journo clichés.)

£700m squad of established PL players, CL qualifiers, League Cup winners last season with media darling Beheaddie at the helm vs newly promoted team just back in the PL after a decade adrift in footballing purgatory with a team of players worth less than a third of theirs on paper and some unknown Frenchman in charge!

The mags were all über confident of 6 easy points pre-season and still seem to think its a foregone conclusion and our start is just a flash in the pan, beginners luck if you will. Even some their players have put comments on their social media about the fans over emphasising how its "the ONLY game theyre bothered about."

Imagine though what the scenes would be IF we turn them over. Their whole identity, their raison d'être, is completely demolished. The facade is pulled down and, even if we win by a flukey late goal going in off O9's arse after being battered for most of the game, there's no coming back for them. The illusion they create of super duper toon, cock of the north, is no more.

For many of them, and their arse licking friends in the media, it would be the ultimate disaster. And Christmas would be ruined.

As long as we give a good account of ourselves the rest is gravy.

Lose, should be expected they have quality (dirty) players.

Draw it'll feel like a win for us and defeat for them.

Win, I'm not sure if the scenes from previous defeats to us would be close to the carnage that would erupt from their fans.
 
CARLOS CLASS said:
Yep - which is the most difficult piece of the jigsaw

We do have a number of players who can improve a lot going forward, going to be fascinating to watch
Click to expand...
Great point.

People are forgetting we have the second youngest team in the league, our players will continue to get better.
 
nelford_safc said:
Behave yourself. It's only a matter of time before the half a billion squad clicks and starts putting a good run together.

For us it's one game at a time. Enjoy the ride while we can. 17th is still the ultimate aim.
Click to expand...
That the spirit 👀. Slippers on, pipe in hand, getting warmth from the first burst of the Autumn radiator.

Na, fuck that, let's enjoy the moment and the sentiment of the OP.
 
Last edited:
Trauntrian said:
They'll get the Newcastle match in before departing for AFCON won't they?

There's only going to Brighton, Leeds and Man City where we miss a number of players.

The odd one or two players maybe will get to the later stages and will miss Spurs, Brentford and Palace, but it won't be many.
Click to expand...
Well it starts the 21st, and officially I think players are supposed to link up 2 weeks beforehand, but there's some leniency where the Prem's concerned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top