midds

I certainly think we'll see more of the ball next week than we did today. Arsenal keep it really well and we never really got into the game today. Sunderland will lose possession much more and we will create more chances than today. Doesn't really count for much if we've not got the ability to put a few of them away though...

All things considered Ryan Taylor did much better than I thought he would. By his own dreadful standards he played reasonably well today.

Hope I never see Ba and Shola up top together again. The inability to hold the ball up in the first half from these 2 was ridiculous. Just kept coming back at us and we were really lucky to go in level. Shola will never ever win me round. I've seen far too much of him in a black and white shirt and the fact he's leading the line at the start of his 11th season here is a sad indictment of the state of the squad and that's 100% down to the management and lack of investment.

Was impressed with his pace and movement today. Was busy enough to latch onto things and make the odd thing happen to rattle them a little bit. Certainly got more potential than I initially thought.

Needs to calm himself down this week as he's going to get it big time next Saturday. They'll deliberately target him and try to get a reaction out of him. We need the choirboy back for one afternoon. We can't afford to go down to 10 men.

1-1 won't be far away. As per. I'd take a point like.

What a load of rubbish. I don't know a single person who claims the derby is 'just a game'. I can only guess you are not from the North East and don't have a clue what it means, ridiculous post. Show me one single Sunderland fan who claims the 5-1 didn't hurt and I will show you a liar, of course it hurt, only a idiot would argue otherwise, any derby defeat hurts, whichever team you support. It was more a pisstake of your position/posts tbh. You mention the 9-1 quickly enough without mentioning the fact we won the league that season. When you finish above us the individual games don't count but when you win them, even though it's over 100 years ago, you still try to milk it. Edit: not going to reply to your replying post btw.

Mega-chomp.

Lose the derby = not important, just a game, who finished higher?? Win the derby = biggest thing in the world, nothing else matters.

A more competitive higher profile league? In that case so can Swansea. I want it to be true, I really do, but I just can't see it. I can believe we've made the bid but can't see him in black and white. Swansea aren't reportedly bidding for him and neither are Man U, Man city, Liverpool for that matter but we are. If he wants Premier league football then we at the moment offer his only route here. He has the choice to stick with Lyon or accept our offer if he wants it bad enough. Well we'll see soon enough.

It helps to have a short memory though, I suppose they did 'win' the last one. "broke black and white hearts". Apparently.

N'Gog is worth £-2M then? I think he's dreadful tbh. Id have be asking for someone else in part ex if I'd been Coyle. Just not N'Gog. N'Gog's Premier League scoring record is actually better than Sturridge's was before his loan with us. 12 games later and one is worth about £20M. £4M seems like it might be worth this risk. Maybe, maybe not. I'd rather not take the risk on him either way. Could be just what you need? None of my business tbph.

There's no worse feeling than losing a derby you were convinced you were going to win.

A more competitive higher profile league? In that case so can Swansea. I want it to be true, I really do, but I just can't see it. I can believe we've made the bid but can't see him in black and white.

In all seriousness, why would this lad sign for us? What can we offer him that Lyon can't? Convince me.

N'Gog is worth £-2M then? I think he's dreadful tbh. Id have be asking for someone else in part ex if I'd been Coyle. Just not N'Gog.

£10m? Not a bad deal.

RMC have been pretty reliable/accurate in the past with our dealings. Doesn't mean it's going to happen like obviously...

Any links yet? edit: cheers!

It's called investment. It's no surprise our fans see it as an alien concept.

Let's just call this a trial run for next summer/January/week*. It's going to happen sooner or later and we all know it. *Delete as appropriate.

Nee stink without shite. He earns about £4m a year. Imagine that off the wagebill.

Why would Harper retire with a year left on his contract? Could see him as player/coach in the future.

'Movement' could mean he goes out on loan for another season? How long has Forster got left on his deal?

Their best side in 50 years will surely outdo Reidy's 7th place 10(?) years ago?