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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.
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Not sure you've held off long enough there tbh lad.
 

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.
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People are free to disagree but believing will help this to be true. HTL.
 
I’m as positive as anyone abojt the club but there’s no doubt about it anything above 12th is a unbelievable season unless the rest of the league are as poor as what some of the teams we’ve played so far have been against us. Unfortunately the mags are at least 2 Lebanese ahead of where we shoufk expect to be this season and can’t see us finishing above them. Thankfully there’s 5/6 teams were more than capable of coming above and another 2/3 that could potentially be hit and miss this season
 
Ale taster said:
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Laughing because I can't disagree with anything you've said. The longer this reversal in form continues (and I firmly believe their European involvement will continue to affect their league form) the more twitchy their black and white arses are becoming.
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The only thing that really worries me about December is if we get an ineffectual ref, or worse one who decides he's going to be the talking point.

The mags some how, some way, seem to have absolutely charmed lives in terms of referring decisions, lack of bookings and getting away with their very, I was going to say robust but actually it's, unsportsmanlike style of play.

I'm all for proper football with physical play and hard, but fair, tackling.

But I would be concerned that we might be on the end of either, rough stuff that doesn't get penalised or decision against us that the ref isn't consistent with giving the other way.

I genuinely think that some players for us will be targeted by them looking for bookings, hoping to lead to a red card. We've all seen how they like to dish it out, but then roll about like git massive fannies when given a taste of their own medicine.

We're a million miles from the team that played them in the cup not long ago, both on and off the pitch, and I'm sure our lads won't be intimidated by them or overawed.

I just hope that the ref also isn't swayed or influenced by the occasion or the antics of the mags.
 
They’ll finish above us but I can see a few seasons of mediocrity for them, ie. 8th - 12th this season and the next few. Won’t be long before the likes of Tonali want to leave and they clearly haven’t replaced Isak.
 
People are saying SAFC have had 6 easy matches so far, but when you think about it, every other team in this league finished above us last season, every single one of them, I think we've played some remarkable football from the very bottom of the pack!
 
DonaldDownTheWing said:
This season? Not a chance. They’ve a champions league squad who’ve not quite adapted to life without Isak yet and they’ve played last seasons top 2 in the first 6.

It cost them half a billion to put together, Howe is one of the best coaches in the league and we’ve had a couple of world class goalkeeping performances to get us to where we are currently.

Posting about being “NE top dogs” after having 6 PL games in 8 years just feeds their argument about us being obsessed.
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They have a good manager. Must be the least slagged off mags manager ever and fair to say I've never heard any mag flag off regis. Two likeable blokes at the same time. A first?
 
I’ve been following S.A.F.C. for 61 years. We’ve always been the North Easts Top Dogs and always will be.
BiffaBeercan said:
People are saying SAFC have had 6 easy matches so far, but when you think about it, every other team in this league finished above us last season, every single one of them, I think we've played some remarkable football from the very bottom of the pack!
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We defended very deep against Forest and got away with it. If we defend like that more often than not we will not get away with it. I hope we can vary our tactics away from home.
We have some talented players and it looks like we have a great team spirit and a great leader on the pitch. I’m optimistic we can beat the drop.
 
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Given our December fixtures I would be dreaming if we were anywhere near "top dogs" At the start of next year, people are dreaming all sorts of things because of the fantastic results up to now.
 
Will e said:
Given our December fixtures I would be dreaming if we were anywhere near "top dogs" At the start of next year, people are dreaming all sorts of things because of the fantastic results up to now.
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When cicumstances allow it we dream, and so we should.
We'll also handle any defeats come our way this season with dignity. We're used to it.
Support won't fade either way.
 
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