DonaldDownTheWing
Winger
I don't perhaps agree with how you've worded this, but I get what you're saying. It seems like we've put up with mediocrity and half-arsed attitudes for too long at our club. We've seen the club stagnate whilst others have absolutely thrived. I mean, you look at some of the clubs that have really kicked on and done something ambitious to really better themselves over the last twenty or so years, whilst we've just bobbed up and down, just happy to survive sometimes. Look at Bournemouth, look at Brighton, look at Brentford, look at other clubs that have been in our predicament when they found themselves in League 1 - Leicester, Wolves, Sheffield United.
All of those clubs are now way ahead of us in the pecking order. Look at clubs like Birmingham and Wrexham, who are showing real ambition and will most likely be in the same division as us next season.
Also, think about the big picture. The ones on here tonight that are saying, "Aye, they've spent 500 million just to win a League Cup... Aye, they've spent 500 million and won a League Cup, but do you really think they're going to want to stop at that? Hell, no. And the more sustained success THEY have, the more it's going to effect US, being the closest league club next to them. The more success that they end up with, the more irrelevant we'll end up becoming. Do you really think that if they have a run of success over the next decade or so, that you'll be seeing loads of kids running around the north-east wearing Sunderland tops? If we lose the next generation of fans, we'll become a nothing club. Unsustainable. Destined to scratch around the lower leagues for years, whilst having to put up with that lot dominating, if not nationally, but certainly in this immediate area.
And then what? Irrelevance? Oblivion? You look at clubs like Oldham, who thirty years ago were a Premier League club. But having Man Utd a few miles away, and the way they were dominant in the 90's lured a whole generation of supporters who may have grown up in Oldham, away from their local club, to support a club that was successful, that was ambitious. Where are Oldham now? The National League.
This is the worry for many supporters right now. Them having success up the road can only be a bad thing for our club. And unless the club starts to show a bit of ambition and determination to get us to a level where we could realistically compete, maybe not for silverware, but at least having a go at staying relevant, it's only going to get worse. Rightly or wrongly, label some of us as bedwetters. Call us hysterical. But at the end of the day, a lot of us are very rightly worried for the future of the club.
I’m poor at saying things and I’ll never be a diplomat. That’s why I disagree with so many on here.
Thank you for putting it eloquently