The happy clappers have had their time


Well all know it's not good enough, but the fuck do you want us - the supporters - to do about it?


I love this club to bits. I'm extremely upset this morning after what has been probably the worst weekend of football ever. I hate them bastards and everything about them but they are at the same time irrelevant to us. What do you want me to do? Wrap it all in until it somehow magically gets better? What if it never happens? Am I just supposed to abandon a huge part of my life and something that means so much to me and my family? And if by some miracle it did get better, and I come crawling back - what would that say about me? I'd like to think I've got a bit more back bone that that.

I'm as far away from a happy clapper as you can get, but I'm also loyal to the club that I support and will not be changing the habit of a lifetime as I continue to support it.

Nailed it.
 
Plenty fans don’t do that. Do you not basically want all fans to agree with you?
Despite all his grandstanding throughout the thread, to me this is what it seems to boil down to for the OP. He has an opinion about the ways things should be, but a sizable number of people disagree with his views, and some even mock him for them. Naturally he finds this very distressing, so he starts threads about how it's about time everyone started agreeing with his views and doing what he says, as if that's how that works. Egotistical doesn't even begin to describe it.
 
It's that easy like..... we can magic up promotion. Nobody wants to be where we are or accepts mediocrity. That is ultimately up to the owner, what do you want us to do about it ? shout at some shops ?

I disageee that nobody accepts mediocrity. On here there’s plenty of fans who will regularly say “we used to be in league one” or “we finished 16th last season”. There’s a long list of excuses to justify where we are and imo, nothing should excuse it. It’s not good enough.
 
This board has only had the club 4 years and in that time they have got us promoted once and likely into the play offs in the league above twice, while lowering the average age of the squad, tying our better players to long term contracts, investing in our infrastructure and putting our finances on a more stable footing.

Just some facts for context.

They are doing a decent job in all fairness by any sensible metric putting your toddler foot stomping emotions aside.

They are doing as well as you can in this football climate.

You start every season with 3 - 6 teams having from 30 - 90 million more than the rest just fore existing.
 
Said this for years. We are a blue collar town with fans who want to see honest graft on and off the pitch from the club. Sadly we have half-arsed ineptitude from the owners, the stadium of light is dropping to bits, the owner can’t be bothered to turn up anymore, our players are on the beach, and yet some of our so-called supporters are happy with this. They are happy to play second fiddle to our local rivals, rotting away in the championship like a bloated corpse.

I don’t pay my season ticket money for complacency. I pay it because I want to contribute to helping SAFC get promoted in some minuscule way. At least that’s how I convince myself to keep going :lol:
I walked past KLD outside the west stand 10 mins before kick off, 2 home games in a row before Cardiff game. He was walking into the ground with his brother. Agree with most of your post tho mate.
 
I’ve never said they aren’t entitled to their opinion and never will, as you say people can think what they want. People disagree and then debate, it would be boring as fuck otherwise.

I do think the club have had an unbelievably easy ride though. 8 years outside the PL and people are still happy with 4th the championship, despite this being the worst period in our history ever.
pardon me i i've read previous post i've qouted wrongly but isnt what you are saying there wanting people to stop defending the club on this message board?

I agree with you that the last 8 years outside the prem have been unacceptable, problably even long than that. But you cant force a person to invest there own money into something if they dont want to.
 
I disageee that nobody accepts mediocrity. On here there’s plenty of fans who will regularly say “we used to be in league one” or “we finished 16th last season”. There’s a long list of excuses to justify where we are and imo, nothing should excuse it. It’s not good enough.

What is it that you're suggesting?

And why is it not good enough?
 
pardon me i i've read previous post i've qouted wrongly but isnt what you are saying there wanting people to stop defending the club on this message board?

I agree with you that the last 8 years outside the prem have been unacceptable, problably even long than that. But you cant force a person to invest there own money into something if they dont want to.

You can’t force them no, but they may feel inclined to spend a bit more if their loyal customer base was more vocal about their displeasure.
 
Who has actually said this? Or is this just the latest phrase to be thrown at anyone taking a level headed view with where we’re at? We aren’t the only ‘big’ club to spend a bit of time outside the top flight and since 2022 we’ve been making forward steps. All we as actual proper supporters can do is continue to support the team and hope for the best.
I'm responding to a post saying we're 4th what more do you want. Which is surely case and point.

But it's been 3 seasons now of any discontent shown about anything. People throw up the well we were in league one for 4 seasons so stop complaining, be happy with what you've got.

As a fanbase for as long as I can remember. Be happy with what you've got has been our mantra. I was born during the first Prem season, first game in 98 and had a ST during the Reidy 7th place finishes.

Since then we've been a disaster of a football club and any Sunderland fan that's been happy with what they've had for 24 years I just can't get on board with.

In the time since I've been going. Leicester(3), Blackburn, Boro, Portsmouth, Birmingham, Swansea and Wigan have all won domestic honours and all played more European games than we have in our history.

We've reached one final. These clubs all had more in that time Blackburn,Portsmouth,Cardiff,Wigan,Southampton and then the same Bradford,Millwall,Tranmere,Stoke,Hull,Watford

Then we've had three top 10 finishes which you don't get anything for. Also 3 missed opportunities to get into Europe, seeing as we were 2nd at Xmas in one of Reidy seasons and 6th under Bruce until we went on absolute dogshit run and only ended up 10th after the mags cocked up a 3-0 lead to WBA and drew 3-3(jumped from 12th to 10th in the 90th min of the game)

Southampton have had four and got into Europe twice, Burnley had 2 and got into Europe, Brighton just about to have their third season. Our top 10 finishes are nothing special and something we shouldn't still be harping on about.

Yet our fanbase has just meekly accepted this season after season. We never protested once in the entire Short era despite just clinging on for dear life every single season. We spent that entire time just laughing at the mags protesting Ashley as they were fed up of mediocrity.

Anybody trying to rally up a different mindset to how we are as club should be applauded rather than being abused for wanting something different.

If our board cared as much as some fans did. We'd have got in a striker under Mowbray or some backup defenders and gone up then. We've had a similar issue this season not investing in the Jan window, everyone falling for Le Fee(and being happy with that) when the window was dogshit.
 
Last edited:
Quite the opposite, I’d like fans to demand more. Not jack it all in, we’ve all had to live through the worst period in the clubs history and I think fans deserve more than “the best non parachute payment” title.

Everyone who goes week in, week out is the heart and soul of the club and I think they deserve more. I also think they should demand more.
How? Come on... how? As I asked in my last post, what do you want us to do about it?

If it's not vote with our feet - which I wholeheartedly and fundamentally disagree with as already mentioned - then what is it that you propose we do? What is going to make our situation any better? And in mid-March no less.
 
I propose a fan wide refusal of acceptance of where we currently are. This season is probably too late to make much of a difference to what happens come the playoffs.

The minute this season ends, the fanbase as a whole should, in my opinion, leave those in positions of power in no doubt that anything other than automatic promotion next season isn’t acceptable.

We have too long gone into seasons “waiting to see what happens” imo. Managerial appointments, transfer business & on pitch results haven’t been under anywhere near as much scrutiny at they have.

I am genuinely baffled by any genuine supporter who accepts us being out of the PL for the best part of a decade.
Why are you wanting a protest when we are at the highest position we’ve been at since 2017?

This board has had 4 seasons so far (at the close of this one). So far they have registered 1 promotion and 2 play off places (assuming we maintain this season). On top of this they have lowered the average age of the squad, made profit from players in the transfer market, put our finances on a relatively stable footing, tied our better players down to long term contracts…. What are we specifically calling for their heads about? Is progress just not fast enough for you because you want it now and will stamp your feet and cry until you get it?

Absolutely childish and embarrassing way to go about supporting Sunderland. Get a grip of reality mate. Just because you stamp your feet and scream doesn’t mean the world will bend to your will.
 
What is it that you're suggesting?

And why is it not good enough?

I’ve answered the first question a few times already. For a start, people stop making excuses for why SAFC being outside the PL is acceptable and the fanbase puts more pressure on the club to get back there.

It’s not good enough because our natural, historic position is midtable in the top flight. There’s not another team in the country, outside the PL, that gets 40k+ weekly, or has a 49000 seater stadium.
 
Doesn't affect us.

Imagine being that stupid.
How did Boro winning it affect us? It didn't. It made zero difference and nobody thinks any better of them for having won something in the last umteen years.

We need to concentrate on ourselves. We have an almost polar opposite long term plan to the Mags. They sold their soul for cash, we have someone who wants the club to run on its own merit and slowly grow.
There's just no point comparing the two things.
 
Last edited:
How? Come on... how? As I asked in my last post, what do you want us to do about it?

If it's not vote with our feet - which I wholeheartedly and fundamentally disagree with as already mentioned - then what is it that you propose we do? What is going to make our situation any better? And in mid-March no less.

I’ve answered this already. It starts with stopping making excuses for where we are.
 
Since the OP isn’t going to give us one, here’s my suggestion.

Everyone should go out and pay for an underground geological survey to see if there are any untapped oil wells we can take advantage of. You absolutely must spend every single penny of the revenues on SAFC should you strike it lucky.

I’m willing to chip in £25.78 towards the costs.
 
Why are you wanting a protest when we are at the highest position we’ve been at since 2017?

This board has had 4 seasons so far (at the close of this one). So far they have registered 1 promotion and 2 play off places (assuming we maintain this season). On top of this they have lowered the average age of the squad, made profit from players in the transfer market, put our finances on a relatively stable footing, tied our better players down to long term contracts…. What are we specifically calling for their heads about? Is progress just not fast enough for you because you want it now and will stamp your feet and cry until you get it?

Absolutely childish and embarrassing way to go about supporting Sunderland. Get a grip of reality mate. Just because you stamp your feet and scream doesn’t mean the world will bend to your will.

8 years outside the PL. Factually it’s the worst period in our history and still you come up with a list of excuses as to why it’s okay.

The hierarchy will read this board (and I know they do) and think, “see, they’re happy with where we are”.
 
8 years outside the PL. Factually it’s the worst period in our history and still you come up with a list of excuses as to why it’s okay.

The hierarchy will read this board (and I know they do) and think, “see, they’re happy with where we are”.
This board has made progress every season bar one. I get that we won stuff in the 1900s, but that was 100 years ago. You’re grasp of reality is akin to a toddler having a tantrum.
 

Back
Top