“Sunderland are a lower league club”

Status
Not open for further replies.


Black Cat Gypsy said:
That's a stupid statement. What you are saying is you should just accept your lot. Should Man Utd except they are a mid-table PL club just like every other club outside of the top 6?

We aren't a League One club, we are a PL club. That's not being arrogant, it's been ambitious. The attitude that we are an average League One side are doing more damage than those of us who still see us a PL club.

Our attitude should be a PL club in League One looking to rebuild, lay the foundation and get back to the top league. Not a lower league club who takes it on the chin because we have "no devine right" to be promoted.

We aren't even fighting or given ourselves a fighting chance. But rather just accept our lot.
Click to expand...

I second every word of this, well done BCG, 😎
 
doodlebugs said:
yea,local press are a joke regarding Sunderland's problems,don't know if it's got owt to do with the echo not being a local paper now or what,but our club's owners seem to be getting a free ride with what they're doing
Click to expand...

It’s just frustrating that while the local journalists from the national papers write ad nauseam about Ashley, his lack of investment and lack of interest in NUFC, we’ve had consecutive owners now that have run our club with very little scrutiny indeed.

And whilst we are languishing in the third tier, scrabbling about looking desperately for investment and on field results, we now have to read articles about sad stories from empty seats at St James Park, just a matter of weeks after they’ve spent £40m on a single player and after they’ve defeated last seasons Champions League finalists and beaten Manchester United at home. Yes their situation is unpalatable to their supporters and Ashley should be scrutinised, but there has been a complete dereliction of duties from the written press when it comes to looking at Sunderland. It’s a pat on the head, isn’t that sad approach to Sunderland before they quickly get back to writing about how shameful Benitez was treated and how the Gallowgate doesn’t glitter as it once did twenty years ago.
 
nowtgoodeverhappens said:
Many on here think we should be walking all over this league because we are Sunderland, regardless of the standard of players we have.
Click to expand...

but because we are Sunderland we also have the best facilities, the biggest budget and the biggest income. With that in mind, we should be in pole position to get out of this league.
 
The Sheepfolds End said:
It’s just frustrating that while the local journalists from the national papers write ad nauseam about Ashley, his lack of investment and lack of interest in NUFC, we’ve had consecutive owners now that have run our club with very little scrutiny indeed.

And whilst we are languishing in the third tier, scrabbling about looking desperately for investment and on field results, we now have to read articles about sad stories from empty seats at St James Park, just a matter of weeks after they’ve spent £40m on a single player and after they’ve defeated last seasons Champions League finalists and beaten Manchester United at home. Yes their situation is unpalatable to their supporters and Ashley should be scrutinised, but there has been a complete dereliction of duties from the written press when it comes to looking at Sunderland. It’s a pat on the head, isn’t that sad approach to Sunderland before they quickly get back to writing about how shameful Benitez was treated and how the Gallowgate doesn’t glitter as it once did twenty years ago.
Click to expand...

one of the strange things about the mags is that,yet,if it hadn't been for a Sunderland supporter they wouldn't have ever been in the position where they are now,if only Murray hadn't told Hall to fuk off eh,what might have been,saying that this is Sunderland and we'd probably have found a novel way to fuk things up
 
The Sheepfolds End said:
He’ll already be writing his next article on Ashley, or Benitez or how that feeling of being ‘a step Away. Just one step. We’re there. The stairs of the Gallowgate. The steps that lead to a lifetime of nervous anticipation. The steps that lead to Milburn. To Keegan. To the entertainers. They’re there. In front of me. The smell. The feeling in the air’ has been stolen from them.

And whilst they dine on nauseating nostalgia and how nasty Mike has stolen their dreams and there are six thousands empty seats each telling a story of heartbreaking sadness, Sunderland slide to third division mediocrity with all sorts of issues to get stuck into and shine a light on. Bollocks to them.
Click to expand...

To be fair, if as a group of supporters you'd have shown more discontent and how shoddily your club has been run over the last few years you more than likely would have gotten more column inches exposure. If the journalists aren't made aware of your malaise they're hardly going to have the impetus to write the volume of articles you have seen about Newcastle.

As it is, it seems the main concern is not being 'mag-esque' and having a stiff upper lip, sitting idly by while your club goes into the shitter even more than it currenly is.
 
Last edited:
Grumpy Old Man said:
And the biggest expenses. We're no more profitable than any other League 1 club.
Click to expand...
But we don’t need to be more profitable. I’d hope we were fully utilising the budget.
We just aren’t using our advantages properly.
We pay more than everyone else and yet still haven’t signed the players we need.
The whole footballing side of the club is totally dysfunctional and needs a total reorganisation.
 
Grumpy Old Man said:
The problem is that, because we have a PL infrastructure, we have a fixed cost base which is also miles ahead of other League 1 clubs. Once you combine the two, we're still a bit better off, but nowhere near as much as people might think. The cost of the AoL alone is probably as much as some clubs' total overhead base.
Click to expand...
I’ve not argued that we should be rinsing millions, marra - and never will. This was always an opportunity for us to establish an intelligent football operation with the added advantage of an amount of additional financial muscle acting as a security blanket. Donald has completely failed to use this time to our advantage and now is faced with the very real possibility of having to put the club through a painful period of change without the benefit of that financial advantage in order to make us competitive. It’s incredibly frustrating - particularly since we’ve seen no evidence whatsoever that he can even see the issue let alone prescribe an appropriate remedy.
 
Sima said:
To be fair, if as a group of supporters you'd have shown more discontent and how shoddily your club has been run over the last few years you more than likely would have gotten more column inches exposure. If the journalists aren't made aware of your malaise they're hardly going to have the impetus to write the volume of articles you have seen about Newcastle.

As it is, it seems the main concern is not being 'mag-esque' and having a stiff upper lip, sitting idly by while your club goes into the shitter even more than it currenly is.
Click to expand...

There are certainly merits to your point, sections of our fanbase will cheerlead us to the Vanarama or whatever it’s called nowadays. But when we did express our discontent, whether it be walk outs when 4-0 at home on a number of occasions or people withdrawing their support, we were often mocked in the media and by television. When there are empty seats at St James Park, it’s reported in a very different fashion and, with all due respect, your fanbase have not experienced anywhere near the lows that our club has. The local media do not scrutinise the ownership of our club as they do with Newcastle and I think it’s a dereliction of their duties as local sports reporters. SAFC is as important to the city of Sunderland as NUFC is to Newcastle (in fact, given that Newcastle has a lot more going on, Sunderland probably relies on its football club even more).
Grumpy Old Man said:
And the biggest expenses. We're no more profitable than any other League 1 club.
Click to expand...

The expenses are because we have a more expensive squad and more expensive facilities to maintain; both of those things should give us a significant advantage over other clubs in the division.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hawyatt Earp said:
Article in the Athletic from Caulkin:


Finished the article with this:

"At one point in the game, Aiden McGeady, the Ireland international, shot too high and the ball hit a moving car beyond the open end of Oxford’s ground. It felt like nothing in particular and it also felt like something. There will come a moment when Sunderland stop being the biggest club in League One and simply become a League One club, no different from the rest. Perhaps it is already too late. Perhaps that was it."

How depressing
Click to expand...
And when that day comes, all the rest of the teams in the league cease to have two cup finals a season.
 
We may be a League One side, but we are playing League One opposition. Is it too much to ask that, given our advantages as a club, we should expect to be a good League One club?
 
The Sheepfolds End said:
There are certainly merits to your point, sections of our fanbase will cheerlead us to the Vanarama or whatever it’s called nowadays. But when we did express our discontent, whether it be walk outs when 4-0 at home on a number of occasions or people withdrawing their support, we were often mocked in the media and by television. When there are empty seats at St James Park, it’s reported in a very different fashion and, with all due respect, your fanbase have not experienced anywhere near the lows that our club has. The local media do not scrutinise the ownership of our club as they do with Newcastle and I think it’s a dereliction of their duties as local sports reporters. SAFC is as important to the city of Sunderland as NUFC is to Newcastle (in fact, given that Newcastle has a lot more going on, Sunderland probably relies on its football club even more).

The expenses are because we have a more expensive squad and more expensive facilities to maintain; both of those things should give us a significant advantage over other clubs in the division.
Click to expand...

I'm sure if there were organised protests (yes, I know ours are a bit of a mish-mash due to either attention seekers wanting their own group) with dialogue with journalists in advance and publicity on social media, again, in advance then it would be written about.

It's no good walking out when you are 4-0 down as that's just being reactive to what is happening in the time it has taken to reach that point. You have to line things up in advance.

We are derided in certain quarters for what we do (some justified, some not). But our message has got out there and with the right structure yours will too. It's not a dereliction of duty with journalists in my mind, why should they be proactive writing about your plight when as a supporterbase you're not doing the same? Agree or not, but you don't get the scrutiny we do because you aren't as high profile as we are but with the right dialogue between supporters group and local journalists you would get your exposure.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top