Benwell Lad

As soon as another club offers him a way out of Sundlund. A bit like Bent I suppose.

Prevents real progress when you become too dependent on loan players year after year. It's what small clubs do.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM SUNDERLAND AFC 6th in league......blah blah.....caring club.....blah blah......Darren Bent....blah blah.............very disappointed.........blah blah..........next level......blah blah....falling attendances.....blah blah.......6th in league....blah blah........higher than Newcastle....blah blah.........revenge....blah blah........move forward....blah blah....6th in league blah blah....magic carpet ride...blah blah........and so on........ Amazing thing is how many of them just swallow it hook line and sinker, time after time.

Will Bruce be selecting a special post match song for the next time they play Villa ?

Apparently the club shop is offering to change any recently sold "Bent" shirts to "Straight", free of charge as a gesture of good will.

A lot more truth in that than any mackem would be able to bear.

Was "Benty" at Sunderland long enough to be classed as a legend ?

http://www.wsc.co.uk/content/view/6390/38/ Bruce has been well and truly shafted, but as a man of little integrity himself, he deserves no better.

So do you think he's worth £18m? He's not worth £18M but the fact that their manager has been shafted, the impact it will have on his team mates and that once again it's proven that Sunderland find it very difficult to attract and then keep top players despite doing relatively well this season will have an impact on the business much bigger than £18M. I'm sure Quinn and Co. would prefer that this debacle had never happened even at £18M.

Amazing how many macums have turned this into a positive thing - Saint Niall doing it for the future of the club etc etc. Absolutely in denial (for now). Reminds me of the episode of the Simpsons when Homer eats the Japanese fish.

Any ideas what I should do with it? Extra portion of cheese on your next bag of chips ?

not aimed at you in particular mate but since you mentioned it. why is it that all of a sudden its deemed a good idea to sell your players when they're out of form? are we so ridiculously impatient these days that we cant wait for a player to get back in form again? i agree that 24m is a bit over the top, but i keep reading people saying stuff like this, dont get it. Spot on. Sunderland just lost their top scorer, record signing and probably best player. They didn't want him to leave. Yep, that's great for them that. All depends on how they use the money. If they manage to find a goalscoring striker who can link up well with Gyan/Welbeck and add quality in another 1/2 areas, it'll have been a good deal for the mackems Welbeck isn't their player and appears to be crocked. But regardless of that, what if the next expensive signing (and everyone is going to rip them off now btw) decides he's had enough in only 18 months? What if he doesn't score for a few weeks, should they sell him too? Only Rooney and Drogba have scored more Premier League goals than Darren Bent in the last few seasons. Will £18m get a striker of that calibre or other players to fill the void? Will they even be able to attract players of such calibre? It's an awful set of circumstances for Sunderland. Even at £18M there is nothing positive for them about this. Fans will get over it, but the impact it will have on their reputation amongst professionals in the game will set them back years, with Bent unable to settle and bailing out at the first opportunity.

Must say, I've never heard anything but good things about JC at "street level".

His interview last night was excellent, just confident enough without being cocky and very humble about the size of the club and job in hand.

Well it is the FA we're talking about, they've been very soft on Sunderland previously. They do have a lot of "previous" from this fixture and indeed others when they get a big crowd.

Yep. Can you imagine if they hadn't got that jammy last minute equaliser

Yes, but it was the usual "party line" stuff they say after pitch invasions at the SoL trying to deflect from the ongoing problem they have with crowd control there. It's normally followed up by an official club statement about being a family club etc etc, and no real action is ever taken. The rest of Bruce's statement was very much trying to play the incident down. Really the issue is not specifically this latest incident when the 17 year old attacked Harper, but the fact that it happens time and time again and everyone at the SoL from the stewards to the Managing Director turns a blind eye to it. Next time it could be a real nutcase with a weapon.

Oh no they're at it again ! Just when you're thinking it may be time to let up on the piss-taking they come out with this ;D ;D http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=559797

"Brucie, Brucie give us a song" ;D

Would imagine it suits both parties at present to "suck it and see"

So Bent isn't unsettled - but he's been there 18 months - asked for a transfer in the summer and done a runner to a team in the bottom 3 at the first opportunity. Aye... alreet.........

Apart from the professional competencies of the coaching staff, in Steve Stone and John Carver we have two blokes with black and white blood in their veins. Great news.

From True Faith. Now the Mackems and their weird friends in the media are all attempting to whitewash the assault on Steve Harper by one of their gimps at the North Stand of the SOS. This has been going on for years. We know that in every derby game they manage to score, their human litter blows onto the pitch like the empty crisp packets that are such a feature of Flat Pack Mackem Park. At our previous visit, a couple of gimps got in front of Shay Given and Quinn-Keane played that down to “high spirits”. Now Bruce is doing the same calling the arsehole who assaulted Harper a “kid” as if that makes any fucking difference whatsoever. There were a couple who ran in front of the away enclosure, one with a flag with the inflammatory FTM emblazoned across it. Our fans did well to treat this arse-wipe with the contempt he deserved by laughing at the badly dressed twat. But it was provocative and the intention of course was to invite Mags onto the pitch. The only part of the ground adequately policed and stewarded was the away enclosure. Had it not been, you can only speculate what may have ensued. The simple truth of the matter, is that Sunderland AFC is consistently failing to keep its spectators in the stands at moments of high drama in derby games, its is consistently failing to provide protection for the players and although Steve Harper is reportedly uninjured, the attack upon him was not unexpected and has been inevitable to those of us who have been regulars at derby fixtures at the SOS and observed the gimpish behaviour of their fans. Ironically, the pitch invasion came after a period when the SOS fans appeared to have been on a sponsored silence. For all of the ra-ra-ra from Sunderland; manager, players and supporters about the white hot derby atmosphere and the bear pit of intimidation awaiting United, what we really experienced was a crowd which sat on its hands for most of the game and was comprehensively dominated by an away enclosure which was gloriously nasty, abusive, witty and full on from the first moment to the last. It warmed the heart of every Geordie! Sunderland fans like their team it seems are full of wind and piss. Though to be fair they have the hardest, most passionate and full on support on the internet. Shame about the real world though isn’t it? The media also need to sort themselves out in their reporting of post match scenes of disorder outside the SOS. After the game Mags headed straight for buses and waited patiently for the Metro back to NE1. There was barely a word raised in complaint at any delays and the crack between Mags and the Police was good natured banter. All of the bother outside the SOS was completely at the instigation of Mackem charvas and that has been confirmed by eye-witnesses from the R&W side of the NE argument. It does not do for the press to frame the disorder as coming from “fans”. This is not how it used to be 30 years ago when there was pagga all around Joker Park. This was Sunderland fans causing the trouble for Police, Newcastle United’s support was 100% innocent but for a few broken seats inside the ground. The FA should act decisively. Only a points deduction will force Sunderland to improve their amateurish stewarding of derbies and their knuckle head fans to behave like people who can walk upright. Ten point deduction NOW!

A mackem ST holder who would never normally have a kind word for anything NUFC described Williamson's performance as "class". High praise indeed.

Better. And not just because he plays more games in a season than you'll get out of Woodgate in five seasons.