Benwell Lad

Yeah it was very open and used to attract crowds of hundreds, if not a thousand plus, especially during school holidays. That was after the Magpie Group take off. Benwell often had a few dozen passers by just walking in and watching, right up close to the games etc, hearing everything that was said and interacting with players and coaching staff freely. Pretty amazing really in comparison to today.

I'm going for Grumpy Old Man. Similar condescending manner.

You'll have to tell me which part of that, or anything else for that matter, is "inaccurate nonsense" ? It's obvious you have red and white eyes, there's nothing wrong with that, but you need to develop thicker skin and stop being so sensitive id you're going to post on a Newcastle forum as a Sunderland fan. Telling us your name from RTG would be a great start.

He's very fickle, continuously spitting the dummy, then returning when it suits. But that is a trait of many Sunderland fans. Sunderland boy made good and former chairman Tom Cowie nailed it decades ago.

They really didn't. Professional teams don't throw games. Granted their focus may have waned, but that's a bad sign at any level. It may have caused a downturn in performance, and that coming from a starting base of never beating anyone convincingly was enough to see them lose to teams in lowly positions. Nor were they capable of instantly switching it back on when the important games returned. They struggled and were very lucky in all three play off games.

Amazing to think that anyone could just wander into the training ground and watch the full session, practice games, set pieces etc

Have the people on here who fancy them to stay up really factored in that they were fourth in a very poor league last season, 24 points off automatic promotion, looked very unconvincing in the play off games and had the fans shouting for the manager's head even after they'd reached the playoffs ? Additionally they've lost one of their most important (albeit very limited) players and the only one I saw who looked like he truly had PL potential (Watson). Similar levels of optimism applied to ourselves will have us nailed on to win the Champions League.

It's not quite as comical as Giacherini in mackem twang but there's definitely shades of it in Habib Diarra.

Drinking Cruzcampo, listening to Dualipa under a super moon.

Quite decent and entertaining to watch Wolves. Man Utd must have taken pity on the mackems and not wanted to put them in a category of their own at the bottom

Whaat ?? He tried to maim two of our players man Mind that lunge at Izak was a perfect microcosm of where the two clubs are in football standings.

O'nien could seriously hurt someone. He's a reckless snidey player to cover his inadequacies, and will be so out of his depth in the PL his recklessness could be dangerous. He also does horrible things like kissing opposition players and laughing about it. There's a clip of him on youtube jumping on someone's back after he had been done for pace (not unusual for him) and that was in the lower leagues.

Of course strange results can occasionally happen but recently even teams which have been promoted automatically, on merit over the season, have struggled terribly to bridge the huge gap in quality. Sunderland finished 24 points behind the automatic places and 16 behind the team in third position. In both play off ties the other teams looked better than them, but they somehow fluked it, assisted massively by horrendous errors which led to them scoring. They may fluke a win against West Ham as well but their players are light years away from being PL standard.

It really is just the epitome of a farage reform town.

Blaydon is solid black and white Newcastle territory as is most of south Tynedale, the Derwent Valley and North West Durham. They always have been. It looks and feels like a Newcastle suburb, which is hardly surprising considering it's on the edge of town.

It's going to be pretty tough to take next season, only being the north east's second club and having a global profile way below our neighbours from the Wear.

The kid who has gone to Brighton is the only one I saw who remotely looked like he could make it in the PL to me and even that is based on potential not readiness. And let's be honest €33m or £27m is hardly game changing money when you were 24 points off the promotion places.

So, X and Germany's equivalent of The Sun. We'll see. I believe Trump has no intention of negotiating his 250% tariffs either, but if Dortmund have seen something which even most Sunderland supporters say they haven't then you never know.

Ah you're back ? Interesting timing, I thought you left in a huff, though I may be confusing you with someone else. Were you the one who used the phrase "generational talent" about another Sunderland player ? If so I'd think that a team having a midfield which included a generational talent and a £40m rated payer, in last season's second division, would have finished closer than 24 points off the promotion places and 16 off third. Apart from a very fast start, that midfield seldom dominated a game and pretty much scraped through the remainder of the season. Nor did they rise to the play off occasions but you somehow won them so fair play. Point taken on the pathway consideration. Also can you tell me which currency broker you use ? A twitter post a page or so ago in this thread quoted £25m and now you say €40m ?? Anyway, well done if you think it will "free up a fair bit f cash for PSR", but based on last season you will need to spend £100m plus just to get to Leeds level and they're third favourites for relegation.

Can I ask those on here who rate Bellingham and think they'll get good money for him what they have seen to indicate that ? The times I've seen him he's never stood out or dominated a game in that league, so what makes anyone think he can do it at a much higher level ? Birmingham virtually gave him away and no PL or even top Championship club was interested. If I change my surname to Messi will I be worth a lot of money ?

Must be so annoying, being used in the development of other teams young up and coming stars, knowing that you will never have players like that when they develop fully, especially when you're such a massive club.

Having watched most of our Fairs Cup games along with 59,999 others in SJP from under the tin shed of the loudest and most rowdy end the ground has ever had, seen Wyn Davies being brutalised by the Italian captain Fachetti when the ref wasn't looking but battled on and scored regardless, along with a whole batch of other never to be forgotten, legendary, historical NUFC moments, I would say it was one of the best times in the club's history and an amazing achievement.

It's almost gone full circle again this season.

Southampton at home was a Herculian effort after the sending off.

Prefer Athletico or Real Madrid. Much nicer place.