Benwell Lad

That's an excellent piece. Personally I hate modern day TV punditry, more often than not given by ex pros who are not very bright and are incapable of doing anything else. I just switch it over when they come on. Especially galling when it's BBC and against a back drop of cuts they're paying a fortune out of their budget to keep these hangers on in cushy jobs when most of us would just prefer extended highlights instead.

Mackematics, mackem logic etc and the "our fans" notion that they are somehow better than other football supporters seems to have no limit on truth bending. They're currently comforting and back slapping themselves, with the excuse that deserting their team en-masse is somehow acceptable because they've suffered years, if not decades of misery, but correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't it barely a year and a half ago they were giving it out large and "getting the rave on" ?

Always was the problem at Sunderland. The attendances they claimed were at the higher end, but match receipts, which is what really matters, came in behind clubs like QPR and Norwich.

How's the wheelbarras marra

That f*cking thread man, priceless! For any mackems reading, I'll save you the bother of bouncing round your tragic little RTG echo chamber: "[insert place name here] is about [insert spurious ratio here] mags to lads fans. And all the mags are all non-attending plastics who only started supporting in [insert year here, around 25 years ago], but all the lads fans go to matches [ignore appalling attendances here]" Just cut 'n paste for the next ten years you useless f*ckers... Mackematics is a truly curious thing Never more so than when being used to explain how all their supporters attend games while no Mag ever attends theirs

Most La Liga games, apart from the obvious few look like they're played to half empty stadiums nowadays. I just thought it unusual that the derby match was so empty in a 40K capacity stadium when Barcelona can get twice that many at home. The latest TV deal here looks like it is moving towards the Spanish almost wall to wall weekend coverage. It could have a similar impact.

Lee Cattermole. Contract to 2021. Premier league wages. Burst out laughing. WTF? http://sillyseason.com/salary/sunderland-players-salaries-85625/

Dummett is very athletic like. It's what helps him defensively. He also seems to have a good knack of reading a dangerous situation quickly and making timely runs to intercept something.

Lee Cattermole. Contract to 2021. Premier league wages. Burst out laughing.

I watched the recent Barcelona derby on TV and was really surprised at how empty the stadium looked. Is that normal or was there a particular reason for it this time ?

Dummet has been good since he returned but us improving defensively with him in the side was a given anyway. In his absence we mainly had Manquillo playing there and even if they were equal in ability, which they're not, having a left footed player playing left back is always going to help.

They've only played us once this season. No s***. I mean the 15/16 season too, beating us 1-3 at SJP and us only narrowly beating them away. Yeah they looked decent that one game but alongside Everton they are the worst side to play at SJP this season imo. Mind somehow we ended up losing to both games although we were by far the better side in both. They had a few out injured as well at SJP. West Ham were terrible at SJP too. Don't think Stoke were that good either. We were rubbish second half v Bournemouth this season Yeah forgot the Ammers for some reason. They were really bad, probably worse than Everton and Bournemouth.

Wow! Journalists twisting the context of something to make an eye catching headline

He's going to be a very good CB, indeed he already is. He has the attributes needed as well as very decent passing. He proved that in La Liga and will do it here as well. We just sometimes need to be a little patient with players coming from a different league, especially like in his case where he had an unfortunate start.

They've only played us once this season. No shit. I mean the 15/16 season too, beating us 1-3 at SJP and us only narrowly beating them away. Yeah they looked decent that one game but alongside Everton they are the worst side to play at SJP this season imo. Mind somehow we ended up losing to both games although we were by far the better side in both. They had a few out injured as well at SJP.

The list of big name, big reputation forwards who get very little change out of the unspectacular Dummet continues to grow.

He's definitely Rafa's man, one of the first names on the team sheet.

Classic centre half stuff today. Love him.

I think it's probably the easiest position to go unnoticed in, tbf. You're not out on the pitch showing off skill and flair regularly like a winger should be doing for example. And the basics are still the same across all leagues when it comes to goalkeeping as well, you're not a center mid jumping from the Czech league into a match against a top PL side who would be just burning by you. Spot on. He just looked so comfortable in what was probably a big step up for him.

It was just one game tbf. Really? That makes it even better.

Superb today and very good overall since he returned.

Respect to the Czech league but how can someone come from there and look so good against a top PL side with most people not even knowing who he is ?

Not a natural defender but gives us something different and never less than 100% effort.

Shola is an intelligent, decent, honest fella who has been trusted by and well liked by just about everyone who managed or played with him. It speaks volumes. I would love him to have a role within the club at some time in the future.

They can avoid administration as long as it suits the current owner but you have to wonder if it would be the best thing for their fans? Death by a thousand cuts with Short or just crash and burn? Of course there's no guarantee that things wouldn't get even worse post administration but at least they could try and start again.