Benwell Lad

I see that, based on no information other than that they were also once in the 3rd division, many of them now believe they are on course for emulating Burnley qualifying for Europe,or even Manchester City. If anyone dares to provide a more sober assessment of where they currently are, or displays just the merest hint of scepticism about why they have been given away to someone with a non league background they are instantly rounded on by the baying masses There's delusion and then there's mackem levels of delusion.

He's holding off two players with one hand and Nobby Stiles who was hard as fuck with the other. Fucking rock of a man. Yeah, quiet, gentle and polite but an absolute rock of a man.

Class!

If they were looking for non league owners to take them over were the people from Gateshead or South Shields not interested in having a go ?

They're a strange bunch like. Their billionaire owner who had enough money to cover their operating losses out of his own pocket has been replaced by bloke who has been trying, unsuccessfully for years, to buy promotion from the conference. Cue unbridled rejoicing on Wearside

Nah, League One is shocking, they're gonna be one of the biggest clubs by far. I'd have been surprised if they weren't challenging for the title even if nothing had changed. Substitute those two words for Championship and I'm sure that's pretty similar to what was being said by most of them about 12 months ago

Assumptions that they should easily win promotion from the 3rd division because of how much they can spend on wages compared to other teams, would by the same logic have had them around 7th in the Premier League and promoted first time from the Championship.

They're getting very excited about a deal which is essentially giving their club away to a bloke with a mediocre record in non league football. At least Short had enough money to cover the operational losses and they won't be going away any time soon.

I didn't notice any booing but there were audible groans as pass after pass was misplaced in the second half. It started to make the players look edgy in possession. Always said that if just a couple of hundred people out of 52,000 boo, it gets noticed and unfortunately becomes a story.

Even if the debt has been "cleared" by the outgoing owner I'm sure that any cautious fan would want to see the small print before getting too carried away about the future. A more realistic assessment of where they are may be that the club is not just worthless, but a huge amount has had to be paid to the owner of a mid table conference club for him to take it off his hands. Most of their underlying problems will remain, bloated overpaid squad, stadium and structure too big for their needs or means against the backdrop of going from Premier league income to League one income in two seasons. They may be jumping out of the frying pan straight into the fire.

Think you've got to look at the defensive four as a unit rather than as individuals and as a unit they've worked pretty well during the second half of the season. A very good central pairing, a steady away unspectacular but defensively sound left back and a defensively suspect but very fast right back who loves getting forward. There are deficiencies but probably more positives. When considering replacement/upgrades, how they will fit into the chemistry of the team will be just as important as their individual qualities.

The ongoing "our fans" myth is quite puzzling. Mind it's not just them who spout it, even on here and more generally in the press the mythical great support or large fan base is sometimes referred to. Of course relegation and an awful home record are going to have an impact on most clubs but have any other club's fans deserted their team so quickly and in such huge numbers before ? While the self congratulating and back slapping continues they have lost twenty odd thousand attendees in barely a couple of years, when their adulation of Fat Sam and his bunch of mercenaries was blinding them with thoughts of top half finishes. But the reality was that even then, season after season, they had the stadium with the most empty seats in the league, couldn't even fill it with freebies and only ever got near to selling out once a year when Newcastle came to town. This season even when their team desperately needed them in crucial relegation away fixtures (e.g. Reading recently) they failed to back their club and got nowhere near selling out their allocations. Their very own Tom Cowie called them out as fickle when he was in control of the club many years ago and really nothing has changed since.

Will they still be serving hot dog sausages in burger buns in the 3rd division?

It's been one of their things for a while as well, when they think they've got the upper hand it's all about Sunderland but when things go plop for them it's about the state of north east football

It's about to become known as "doing a Sunderland"

In typical mackem style I see that a lot of them have now decided that the Premier League is not that good and being a lower league club is the new cool thing. However when Newcastle were relegated from the PL they somehow managed to squeeze the word "premier" into virtually every piece of marketing they did, probably stopping just short of changing their name to Sunderland Premier FC. Then of course they later decided that the league immediately below the PL was nothing more than a pub league! They really are a strange bunch.

Using the mackem logic that they relegated us did Man U win the title for City ?

Know what you mean, but I think "rough" does us an injustice. We're very hard working, competitve and well organised, and refuse to roll over for anyone nowadays.

Has looked like a top PL player for a while now. Huge asset to the team.

I think that overall the current squad was underestimated by many and criticised for being "Championship quality". Sure they were a championship squad but one that won the Championship and with the limited additions all adding something, we have for most of the season looked better than relegation strugglers and quite often like a mid table team. With more sensible additions, and most importantly with the current manager and coaching staff in place, mid table security should be a given next season, and with more ambitious investment looking at top 8 should be an achievable objective.

.....and there in a nutshell is what has gone badly wrong with professional football over the last decade or two....

So they were doing mock funerals decades ago and also stabbed a police horse long before punching them became fashionable

Did their magnificent "our fans" #bestintheworldmarra boo them off yesterday or did they stay with them to the end ?

Robert was just one of those lovable loonies we get playing for us from time to time. Amazing player though with game changing qualities.

They really are a curiously misguided and delusional set of supporters. One thing is the constant self congratulatory "our fans" thing. Like all clubs they have a few who follow them home and away through thick and thin but the reality is that 20 odd thousand "our fans" have deserted them as soon as the going got tough. Can't recall that happening so quickly anywhere else. Then there's the current crop of takeover rumours. So many of them in misguided naivety seem to think that their appalling, possibly terminal, financial situation will just evaporate overnight when some MLF or other orchestrates a miraculous buy out. They're a strange bunch.