14 Sep 2014 20:46:08
I just need someone to explain to me why there continues to be such frustration towards club, manager, chairman, director of football at present on here. I go home and away and there's absolutely no doubt it, we have a long long way to go in our journey to being a successful Premier League club but crikey me, there's so much good going on, both on and off the pitch. Tottenham were v impressive and we showed a real strength of character to dig in for a draw. isn't it a great thing that we are trying to play such an attractive style of football? We seem more insistent on criticising the current failings of what is a very early process, I don't think Poyet is daft enough not to see them himself. Considering the yo-yoing in the leagues and the struggles for survival every year, this is an exciting time where plans/direction is absolutely clear. Even saw the youth team the other day and some of the kind of football they've started playing was outstanding. If we get thumped 4-0 or lose a few on the bounce, I absolutely understand your frustration, but 2-2, 8 goals in 5 games, new players with pace, energy, really warrant feelings of such frustration and disappointment?

1.) 15 Sep 2014
. . . BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE ARE NEVER HAPPY!!! I also agree we are not going to trouble the Champions League draw next summer but after perennial false dawns someone has to grasp the nettle and turn this club into a successful one. As you say there is a certain style of play Gus is trying to adopt and slowly it is coming into focus. Let me give you an example. I sit in the South Stand [after moving this season from the North] and there was a passage of play in the second half where Spurs were pulling us all over the place, and after a tackle by Vergini won the ball and was looking for the choice of pass to play the ball out of defence the voice of tactical awareness and undoubted vision from behind shouted out "WILL YER WELLY THE HO**R FORWARD MAN!!" in his best Sunderland accent. A real touch of class in his phraseology and constructive in his motivational skills.

2.) 15 Sep 2014
Tottenham were pure quality, just brilliant

If that was them up against us 6 moths ago it could/would of been EASILY 5-0, there is character and a don't give up attitude in our ranks, we just need to stop giving away pathetic, easily avoidable goals, fair enough a 30 yard screamer but clearing it off a team mates back is a head in hands moment for fans

3.) 15 Sep 2014
15 Sep 2014 07:44:07
Because it's easier to criticise it takes no thought process. People forget Gus and lee joined the club when it was rock bottom, we somehow managed to stay up! Then they had to clean up the mess from other managers, most the team left through out of contract, loans returned and fringe players kicked out. Then had to start rebuilding the team on a budget. Another bunch of players has to start learning to play together. Yes we still have a lot of work to do re the team ie defence and strikers and will rely on keepers and midfield this season but we have a good base to start building on.

4.) 16 Sep 2014
16 Sep 2014 17:54:54
Or because, however you look at it most of the weaknesses we hoped to cover in the transfer window went unfilled, and while we cleared out a lot of dead wood and made one or two potentially good signings, we look no stronger at the back, are weaker up front and while we have more competition in midfield we don't seem to have signed that creative player who can win us a match with a couple of moments of genuine class. The management performance over summer was at best 6 out of 10, and the performance so far on the pitch is a rather ordinary 3 out of 12. Not really what were hoping for, and the the lack of pace, close control and passing ability in he centre of the defence makes Poyet's perseverance with play-it-out-from-back a strategy that could cost us dear. Yes, he is a huge improvement on Di Canio, but he still has to prove he can build a side to compete in the Premier league.

5.) 17 Sep 2014
17 Sep 2014 08:12:55
Sorry Brandon but couldn't disagree more. We have several playmakers in the ranks now and a far more settled unit. Your expectations are unrealistic, it was right to trim the squad because we had deadwood everywhere and when your not in europe you don't need hundreds of players. You may want hoofball but I certainly dont. We'll see who's right at the end I suppose but i don't blame Di Canio anyway, O'Neill nearly ran the club into the gutter. Di canio served a purpose in shaking the club up although clearly had to go when he did.

6.) 18 Sep 2014
18 Sep 2014 11:47:53
I agree that O'Neill was clueless. But if you think that supplementing a defence consisting entirely of two ageing CBs- neither of whom have particularly good fitness or disciplinary reords- by signing two fullbacks with only about a dozen premier games between them in that position and young CB who managed only a couple of Liverpool PL starts in 3 years was a 'reasonable' strengthening of a defence that conceded more goals last season than any team that stayed up, I do not. Similarly, we failed to add to a pool of strikers who scored fewer goals than all but four of the survivors, and was weakened by the departure of Borini. That does not strike me as 'reasonable' management either. I like what Poyet has brought to the club, and I certainly don't want to see us desperately hoofing the ball upfield only to see it come straight back (like it did against Spurs, despite ambitions to 'play football'), but if you want to play like that you need to bring in players who can do it. So I repeat, a very ordinary start, both on and off the pitch.

7.) 18 Sep 2014
There is a club twelve miles up the road will make you very welcome Brandon.