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30 Aug 2016 12:22:26
So here we go again! Of course, club must be practically bankrupt- as reflected by a summer transfer season that has seen 17 players leave and only six arrive, but impact on first team squad is especially depressing. Three regular members of the team gone, three more with injuries that might keep them out till we are once again established at the foot of the table.
Only three first team players in - two on loan and the other on a one-year pre-retirement contract. And again desperately trying to find anyone who will come here at the last minute, when quality is poor and prices are highest. It can't be Moyes' fault, because he has not been here long enough and besides, we have seen it all before. But if you are a struggling team and you don't send clear messages that you intend to improve by making early and quality signings, then you can expect to be left scrambling for the players nobody else wants as the window closes.
Did not Sam tell us in June that the club would make sure that we were not in this position again? Maybe he would still be here if he had been able to make key signings at the beginning of the summer, instead of being made to wait till the end of season 'sale' of left-over stock!
Short has presided over so many false dawns that it is impossible to believe any real progress is possible till he goes. We are a poor side, with an even poorer administration- little wonder no-one wants to come here.
1.) 30 Aug 2016 13:25:17
Totally agree, we are again a laughing stock of a club, no more excuses or complex reasons for this load of crap, the fans have been taken for fools once again!
2.) 30 Aug 2016 18:44:53
Agree to both above comments! the simple truth IMO is we aren't offering the sort of money the clubs or players want so its Poundland shopping again and as history has shown that's a recipe for relegation! what more annoying is that other so called big clubs like Stoke lol . cash spend vast sums on the quality of player that will keep them in the premiership! I feel sorry for Moyes as he's trying to sign these players but restricted by the penny pinching management of S. A. F. C . again as already said this club is a joke and run by people who don't care about the club and more importantly . THE SUPPORTERS . we deserve better!
3.) 30 Aug 2016 22:54:41
I see we are now after a French midfielder to replace Lens? so why do we find a replacement FIRST before we sold Lens? . AND does that mean Kone will now be transferred to pay for this Frenchman? . time will tell! We always do things back to front at this club!
05 Oct 2015 10:26:39
Big Sam, Dyche, now Pearson strongly fancied. Of course I understand why we keep producing lists of managers who might bring discipline to the over-rated, overpaid losers that are still leeching on the club
(Johnson, Fletcher, Defoe, Bridcutt, Roberge) those who try hard but just are not good enough ( VA, Cattermole, Graham) and those who have recently and unaccountably been added to the gravy train (Coates, Kaboul, Borini). But none of the names excites, none of them really conjures a different future for the club. Surely, even Short can see that his own Short-term thinking has paralyzed the club? While it is true that has put millions into it over the past five years, he has done so grudgingly and usually too late, so most of what has been spent has been mere frittering, thrown away on bargain buys, with few solid investments Had he spent it all at once to give any of the managers we have had (well OK, maybe not PDC) a decent squad to start the season, then we would not have been in this position. In fact, given the dividend for finishing position, we could easily have had another £30m in the coffers from the Premier League over the past four seasons. I don't blame Dick for giving up, after being forced into the bargain basement again despite apparent assurances things would change. No one seriously believed Kaboul, Matthews or Coates represented the improvement in quality he asked for- the major attraction of all them was the price, and if you pay peanuts.
The tragedy is that we could have got Evans, for the money paid for Kaboul and Matthews, and that has been the trouble all the time Short has been in charge- habitual penny pinching, then occasionally throwing away large sums on second -rate players with third rate attitudes. Borini looks set to be the newest in this procession- Johnson, Fletcher, Rodwell.
Maybe that 'buy 'em cheap and stack 'em high' business model works in Short's other dealings. After all we can see the same at Newcastle, where the owner also seems able to make money out of everything but football, and is ruining another fine club trying to impose his business approach in an environment where it simply won't work.
After sixty years supporting this club, I now believe we would be better off going down, if that means losing Short and most of the squad he has assembled. I can't see any of the potential managers 'succeeding' under the present regime, so the sooner it is cleared out the better.
1.) 05 Oct 2015 11:51:41
Full agreement about the three managers listed not exactly making your mouth water with excitement. Big Sam is football by numbers with a shocking style of play, Dyche (who might become a good manager) is simply not there yet as he is in control of a small club who were relegated anyway despite his efforts and Pearson is simply another fruit cake / time bomb waiting to go off! I would steer clear of all three. The only problem is who else is there that could come in and turn the club around?
I also agree with your player assessments bar Borini's attitude as every report suggests he trains hard, is 100% committed and on the pitch shows effort. He is however not quite good enough but I would take a full team of players with the same work ethic as his!
Congerton is working his notice and reports suggest he is leaving because promises were broken to him which in turn meant promises to Dick were broken. One quote said Vergni, Scocco, Bridcutt and Buckley were all forced through by Poyet against his will as he stated all were not good enough. This type of financial loss and wages has meant more players could not be signed.
Evans for £6m, where were we when this became an option? Why did we not just stump up £10m and have Virgil signed before Southampton came in? Penny pinching when quality rather than quantity was required!
And now back to the squad. PDC realised straight away that there was a 'Rotten Core' of players. Unfortunately his management style was not up to dealing with them so they moaned to Byrne and off packing he was sent. The interesting thing here is Dick dropped among other JOS, Brown, Catts, Fletcher, Johnson and Larsson, all long term players, all probably part of the rotten core. Players rather than managers should have been moved on!
There are signs of life from the new signings, M'Vila in particular, but with the rest of the below average and over paid players at the club it will take a strong manager to drop and get rid, a strong Chairman to swallow the financial loss and hopefully new players who want to play for the club and put football ahead of drinking and playboy lifestyles! Maybe look at at youth and do what Villa and Southampton have done and promote from within. Surely Robson, Gooch, Watmore, even Mandron, must be able to offer more than what our first team are!
It's a long road ahead but I will be there, with my season ticket, and three of my young children with theirs, to support and back the team.
2.) 05 Oct 2015 13:52:03
Good post,spot on in fact,I hope the "Rotten Core" have not driven Advocaat out.This situation should have been dealt with a long time ago and good managers would not have been sacked,all of them cannot have been wrong,surely not?
3.) 05 Oct 2015 18:23:48
Congerton and Short BOTH have a lot to answer for and the question needs to be asked is how much influence did DA have on the recruitment of some of these rubbish players brought in! or was it Congerton? the Brown situation is interesting as he wasn't injured so why was he not brought in when out defence was so dire?
27 Aug 2015 19:37:56
Continuing rumours about De Guzman and Toivonen, and while both would be good signngs adding drive and goals to the midfield (Toivonen has not been as a striker recently) it is in the back line that we most need reinforcement before the deadline. Certainly, have players who can hang onto the ball helps, but we have a selection of backs who cannot even organise themselves to defend set pieces, let alone take up intelligent positions in open play. I was hoping that a decent centre-back- competent and less than thirty years old and a left back might be in the frame. The way Jones is shaping up Brown would be a better choice at right back. Yes, he is slow and he gives away silly free kicks, but he does have some positional sense and at least challenges for the ball.
1.) 27 Aug 2015 21:13:24
Noctonflier,I think De Guzman is most certainly pulling a "Borini".Remember the time we wasted on him last year.Surely the club have wised up since that little episode,look elsewhere or we won't get anyone in,4 days and counting to save our season.
2.) 28 Aug 2015 10:33:32
chris-s! 'four days to save our season'? what do you expect this club (which isn't giving any money to DA) to do in the next four days. we will maybe get one or two in through the door but I can guarantee you the business we do in the next four days will not be season defining purely because we probably won't do anything massive. de guzman is good better than what we have but toivenen isn't exactly prolific. The improvement in form from the squad we have will save our season if anything.
3.) 28 Aug 2015 13:54:46
So we really don't have much more than the very ordinary group of players that drift closer to relegation each year, that much is clear. But while we have got used to seeing clubs with much smaller support attract better players- often ones we wanted ourselves, surely losing out to Bournemouth is further indication that no-one worth having sees this group of players as one they would want to join. It beggars belief. However much you have spent 'unwisely' Mr Short, you have presided over the descent of this club into absolute mediocrity.
4.) 28 Aug 2015 15:17:37
Toivonen signed, de guzman is off, apparently he's going to play Toivonen as attacking midfield.
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31 Jan 2017 23:21:52
Usual story- immediate competition strengthening with targeted purposeful signings, while we seem to have no plan and sign on another collection of geriatrics and rejects who can't get into other teams. I suppose that our abysmal form over a prolonged period is a factor, but then surely that is related to fact that we have pursued this idiotic sticking plaster transfer strategy ever since Short took over. I can't think of more clueless management than we have had over recent seasons, both off and on the pitch (Big Sam excepted, as he might have changed things, though in truth he got very close to the new season without any decisive move so there is little reason to believe he would have). This time we will surely go down, and it is hard to believe that Everton FC 2008 will get us back up either.
Congratulations Mr Short- you have made a lot of second rate losers very rich, while steering the club to the verge of bankruptcy, and bringing year after year of gloom and frustration to some of the best supporters in the land.
1.) 01 Feb 2017 10:37:30
Well put, spot on.
2.) 01 Feb 2017 14:41:06
Its like you say the transfer strategy is poor because we are down the bottom every season. I feel sorry for Moyes this season. Had limited time (and funds) in the summer due to big Sam leaving at the worst time.
The players haven't performed leaving him unable to bring in any quality we have cried out for. Couple the league position with the fact we had to sell before we could buy and Moyes has almost had his hands tied for the entire window bar the last week.
I agree the transfer policy in the past has been poor but short has put money in to our club every season but unfortunately the people he has given the money to have made poor decisions (de fanti, poyer etc)
01 Sep 2016 09:20:29
Woeful window- like so many others in recent years-with the most obvious gaps remaining unfilled. That we could avoid signing a striker or goalkeeping cover is testament to the continuing incompetence of those trusted to steer the ship. But more profundly depressing is that Naismith- who has not scored many more goals in his carreer than top strikers do in a season- seemed the height of our ambition (if we wanted a loan deal from City, why not Bony? ) .
But the new low has to be the treatment of M'Vila- a player who gave his heart to the club last season and did as much as anyone to keep us up. Of course, Rubin Kazan may be a difficult outfit to negotiate with. and if the rumours are to be believed they will end up paying between £2m and £3m in wages to m'vila as his contract runs down to January, so clearly money is not their main concern. But when we have a player who has shown so much effort on the field and such commitment to the club off it, treating him so badly, failing to ensure that he knew exactly what the situation was and maintaining close contact with hime at all times should have been a clear priority. The apparent failure to do this shifts the behaviour of the club's management from shameful incompetence- which we are used to- to shaming disregard of a loyal and very popular servant. There are many fans whose hearts will bleed with Yann. We have not liked the way Short's regime does business for some time; now I think many will realise that they really don't like Mr. Short, or the people he appoints to run the club.
23 Aug 2016 11:44:19
'Bare bones' seemed fair description, even though there was almost no-one on the long list of departures worth keeping, which means we have had a bare bones squad with an awful lot of fat over the past few seasons! But with little more than a week left we need to see some swift action- especally if Kone is to be allowed to leave as well.
I think we need two CBs even if he stays- because O'Shea is injury prone and not getting any younger and McNair is just not ready. Ideally I hope we keep Kone and sign Mawson and one other, then we might have enough cover at CB to get through the season. It looks like Manquillo might be on the way soon, but we still need fullback cover. Love may develop, but exposing him at this point won't help him- or the team. Jones is bare bones oersonified. So that means we need to keep Kone and sign three more defenders- one who can play anywhere across the back line. That still leaves us short of class in midfield and upfront, and I can't see us making five or six signings so there is going to be a gap somewhere. personally, I would try to bring back M'Vila- even though he would not play for a month or so- and look for a big unit to play alongside Defoe and give us some aerial power in attack, which we have not had for several seasons now. The creative midfielder would just have to wait, and maybe- if we can put together a few wins before January, we might get better options then. But without attention to the back line I think we will be gone by Christmas, and we can't expect to unearth a Kone and a Kirchoff every year. So get the chequebook out Ellis; there is no point bringing in a manager who can really build a team here if you didn't intend to let him!
1.) 23 Aug 2016 18:04:37
Papa can play left back apparantly. Roswell will be the cover for cb so probably only sign one cb. When mvila gets here and Kirchoff and catts are fit Rodwell won't get a sniff in midfield so he will be cover. Won't sign a big target man to play along side Defoe as we play him by himself with three behind him. Cover striker, cm (mvila) and a cb is probs all we will get tbh so three signings and possibly a goalkeeper now mannone is injures to cover Pickford.
17 Aug 2016 10:32:39
Though it is encouraging to see a player with Januzaj's potential come on loan, the overall transfer policy seems unchanged from the one that has so nearly doomed the club over recent seasons- dither for most of the window, then pick up what scraps you can at the end.
Of course Moyes is correct when he says that all the problems cannot be solved in one window- but given that we had established that we needed at minimum to strengthen the defence-cover at CB and FB and a RB who could slot into a premier team- needed additions in midfield, where someone that can hold onto the ball comfortably and someone that can creativity were desperately needed, and up front, where Defoe represent about three and a half of the four strikers most PL teams seem to want, progress has once again been woeful. No, we could not expect all these problems to be solved in one summer, but have we actually solved any of them?
We are still threadbare at fullback. The midfield- without M'Vila and with Catts out for a longish spell is considerably weaker than last season- despite the flair that Januzaj might bring- and up front Defoe is a year older.
I don't think that anyone expects Sunderland to splash the cash- we have seen that Mr Short, unlike Prufrock, does indeed measure out his life in coffee spoons- but surely it is not beyond the collective wit of the club's management to see that we need at least one experienced fullback (and not another seeking early retirement, we have provided enough of them with pensions) two midfielders- one to replace M'Vila and bring order to the midfield, one who can beat a player with a pass or a dribble, get wide and cross accurately, and a substantial presence upfront, just to stay where we are until Moyes can reshape the squad into one capable of copmeting for a top half finish?
On my count we have 'lost' about 14 players from the payroll, of which only M'Vila is a real miss, and have acquired four players with a total of 12 premier games between them last season- hardly the kind of strngthening that was promised at the end ofthe last campaign.
So, is it asking too much that we try to sign a couple of players somewhere close to their prime- not youngsters who may or may not develop, not ageing defenders, but players in their mid twenties who have been regularly turning out for their teams in a competitive league? Come on, Mr Short, you have two weeks left to demonstrate you actually want this club to move on, and you know if we lose to the Boro' it will be panic time again in August, and another bloody grind till May ahead!
05 Aug 2016 14:43:32
I don't think we can continue to blame FA for the continuing failure to land a single transfer target. Despite the 'assurances' about available funds, it is hard to believe that M'Vila would not be signed by now if the purse strings had been loosened. And the recently rumoured striking targets cannot be realistic given the failure to and much cheaper targets. So here we are again, scraping about, and worse still rumours that the ludicrously overpriced Sakho is back in the frame! Hard to see how plus Sakho N'Zogbia and Pienaar minus M'Vila, DY and (the most consistent player on our books last year- though for some reason he never got much of a look in here) Giaccherini represents progress. The fact that big Sam was able to sign three excellent players in the January window is even more impressive given the disastrous windows we have experienced over the past four years. Once again we have been unprepared to spend early and heavily on players that would actually improve the side, and could end up frittering away the usual £20/ 30million on four or five players we will be looking to ship out on loan in a year's time when nobody wants them. New manager, same old problems.
30 Aug 2016 18:40:04
Just gets worse! Of those with an equally poor start, Palace, who have already strengthened thoughtfully added Loic Remy today, while Burnley took Bamford from Chelsea. Of those we expected to be scrapping at the bottom as the season progresses, 'Boro nipped in for Chamberlain, while Hull have signed Mason and Keane, as well as a GK Marshall, and Swansea have picked up Mawson- another player we were rumoured to have an interest in. Meanwhile we have failed to land taregets from Seville, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool and God knows where else in the space of 12 hours! come the end of the season we may well be wondering why we let one of our more creative players and (given we have so few players who seem to know where the net is) someone we have to regard as a regular goalscorer and source of assists go out on loan before we had recruited anyone who could do either to replace him. Is there any chance we could send Short on loan to a Turkish club, or Bain to the Conference South.?
Does anyone manage the club's transfer strategy? Does the club even have a strategy, because there has been precious little evidence of one for a good six seasons now. The continuing failure of the club to match the passion and commitment of the supporters- either in the boardroom or on the field- is a disgrace.
26 Jan 2016 17:17:22
2013/ 14, 59 goals conceded. 2014/ 15, 53 goals conceded.
so far this season, 46 goals conceded in 23 games- at that rate it will be 76 by the end of the season! And no sensible centreback signed over that period, just a combination hasbeens, misfits and loans who don't even get a game. Meanwhile, we continue to parade a centreback pairing who have combined age of 72 and do a good imitation of a revolving door. Yes, we really need another winger, absolute priority.
I suppose Sam's luck had to run out sometime, after all, it is not as if he seemed to know what he was doing since he arrived. We have had it, and the bloated squad of losers we have won't get us back up either. Short may have spent millions, but he has always spent it grudgingly and too late, so we have never signed much more than those no-one else wanted, though we have still paid over the odds and paid silly wages. Total re-building job required, while the gap between Premier and the rest gets ever bigger.
28 Aug 2015 13:54:46
So we really don't have much more than the very ordinary group of players that drift closer to relegation each year, that much is clear. But while we have got used to seeing clubs with much smaller support attract better players- often ones we wanted ourselves, surely losing out to Bournemouth is further indication that no-one worth having sees this group of players as one they would want to join. It beggars belief. However much you have spent 'unwisely' Mr Short, you have presided over the descent of this club into absolute mediocrity.
19 Aug 2015 20:35:02
Yes, and I hear we are after Toure and John Terry too- as soon as we have swept up the crumbs from Division One and made sure there are no more Premier bench-warmers available!
This window has been a complete disaster- so much for the carefully constructed plans to recruit 'quality'. It seems either DA did not actually ask for a transfer kitty, or Short simply lied to him about the availability of substantial new funds. Whatever, we have seen management so inept (off and, unfortunately so far, on the field too) that maybe we should be looking to bring some expertise from Kids Company. Camila Batmanghelijdh certainly seems to know more about getting her hands on funds than any manager we have had here, and it seems she has recently become available.
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