Benwell Lad

How do you know that, bimpy? Got to say as someone who goes to every home game that's not really true, SJP is probably no better or worse than any other top sports venue. I don't notice the SD stuff being any more visible than any other club's major sponsor, maybe someone with an axe to grind would see it differently. For sure a top Premiership stadium is an excellent fit with Ashley's core business interest so he's going to milk it. Be daft of him not to. He can advertise what he likes as long as he's prepared to pay the going rate for it. Sure. But the post was a reply to a comment about the appearance of the stadium, not about who's paying what.

How do you know that, bimpy? Got to say as someone who goes to every home game that's not really true, SJP is probably no better or worse than any other top sports venue. I don't notice the SD stuff being any more visible than any other club's major sponsor, maybe someone with an axe to grind would see it differently. For sure a top Premiership stadium is an excellent fit with Ashley's core business interest so he's going to milk it. Be daft of him not to. Regarding the atmosphere, it's held up pretty well considering. Nowt like the old days but quite good compared to other modern all seater grounds. Ironically it was better versus West Ham and Fulham than against Hull, despite a bigger crowd and away following. It's difficult to explain, look at Man U, they're champions, play superb football and have the biggest crowds in Britain yet the atmosphere is often crap and they're looking to try and artificially create one.

What Hansen said is plain stupid. Quite a few years ago I was talking to someone who made a good living in football management about a young Chris Waddle who was playing for us in the 2nd division at the time. He told me that he would never play at the highest level because good defenders would push him onto his right leg and stop him playing. That turned out to be utter bullshit too.

Amazing many macums, as usual, will follow di Canio over the cliff like lemmings, just as they have done with Quinn, Keane, Bruce and O'neill before him, while it's increasingly obvious to anyone with two brain cells that he's an egotistical gibbering idiot who is totally out of his depth and will never be able to manage top flight pros as long as he's got a hole in his arse. I guess another 15 or 19 pointer may be too much to hope for ? yes 15-19 points maybe too much for them to hope for.

Amazing many macums, as usual, will follow di Canio over the cliff like lemmings, just as they have done with Quinn, Keane, Bruce and O'neill before him, while it's increasingly obvious to anyone with two brain cells that he's an egotistical gibbering idiot who is totally out of his depth and will never be able to manage top flight pros as long as he's got a hole in his arse. I guess another 15 or 19 pointer may be too much to hope for ?

Heard she's doing a great job of turning water into wine at the training ground canteen but is just taking it one miracle at a time for now.

West Ham was nearly 50K with pessimism and a poor following by their standards. The current mood of relative optimism and a decent Hull following will take it to 50K plus.

No way. Possibly.

Nee way. Pardew is responsible for poor set pieces. The rest is down to the players themselves.

Willo is perfectly ok as a 4th choice CB. We'd struggle to do better because :- a) the club wouldn't pay more for a 4th choice, and :- b) a better CB wouldn't be happy to be 4th choice.

I like these posts. Don't we all ! However the way they made Man City work for their victory means I'm keeping my feet on the ground.

Certainly won't be easy. We're better than them but expect them to fill the midfield and show little adventure. Hope it doesn't end up like that Blackpool game a couple of seasons back when there was a similar level of optimism floating around.

I think personnel had a lot more to do with it than any pre conceived plan. Replacing Simpson and Williamson with Debuchy and MYM (i.e. players who are comfortable on the ball rather than players who are not) and getting Colo and Santon fit, thereby having 4 footballing defenders, gives us a much better foundation for playing it from the back and through the midfield. Even Pardew's harshest critics must concede that he was pretty hamstrung last season in terms of back 4 selection. What Danny Simpson who spent his entire youth career at Man Utd the world famous hoofballers. See every excuse made for him total nonsense in regards to the style of football. Now he did have injuries and more games to play, but that still doesn't excuse, explain or justify playing long ball at all. And at the start of the season he made his mind up to play that way and stuck to it, nearly relegating us. A team that has Marv, Cabaye, Santon, Cisse, Ben Arfa, Colo, and even Tiote who of course played for the famous long ball merchants FC Twente, in it, to play long ball was just plain bad management, no more no less. Injuries, Europa, hoofball, Set Penises = Long ball as the only option, fuck a duck it does. So essentially you're saying that there is no difference in the ability of a team with a back four of Debuchy, Colo, MYM and Santon to play from the back, as opposed to a defence which includes any 1,2 or 3 of Williamson, Simpson, Perch or Taylor and that it was the manager's preference to play it long, rather than the players' inability to do otherwise ? Not sure about that like. You would think it works that way but it doesn't. Looking at how Brighton play, Watford etc. Teams with players with lesser ability than ours, but their managers want them to play football on the floor. It's about how the manager wants the team to play. Managers like that dont play hoof style because of injuries or players with lesser ability. OK. You think Williamson, Simpson etc are as capable of playing from the back as our current back four. I don't. When you are equal to or better than the opposition in terms of ability it's relatively easy to knock it around. When you're not it isn't. I'm sure however they would be able to play it from the back at a lower level, against lesser players.

I think personnel had a lot more to do with it than any pre conceived plan. Replacing Simpson and Williamson with Debuchy and MYM (i.e. players who are comfortable on the ball rather than players who are not) and getting Colo and Santon fit, thereby having 4 footballing defenders, gives us a much better foundation for playing it from the back and through the midfield. Even Pardew's harshest critics must concede that he was pretty hamstrung last season in terms of back 4 selection. What Danny Simpson who spent his entire youth career at Man Utd the world famous hoofballers. See every excuse made for him total nonsense in regards to the style of football. Now he did have injuries and more games to play, but that still doesn't excuse, explain or justify playing long ball at all. And at the start of the season he made his mind up to play that way and stuck to it, nearly relegating us. A team that has Marv, Cabaye, Santon, Cisse, Ben Arfa, Colo, and even Tiote who of course played for the famous long ball merchants FC Twente, in it, to play long ball was just plain bad management, no more no less. Injuries, Europa, hoofball, Set Penises = Long ball as the only option, fuck a duck it does. So essentially you're saying that there is no difference in the ability of a team with a back four of Debuchy, Colo, MYM and Santon to play from the back, as opposed to a defence which includes any 1,2 or 3 of Williamson, Simpson, Perch or Taylor and that it was the manager's preference to play it long, rather than the players' inability to do otherwise ? Not sure about that like.

Our recruitment and transfer policies have been much maligned by the press and fans alike recently but we have brought in some fucking excellent players in the last few years and this guy is another illustration of that.

I think personnel had a lot more to do with it than any pre conceived plan. Replacing Simpson and Williamson with Debuchy and MYM (i.e. players who are comfortable on the ball rather than players who are not) and getting Colo and Santon fit, thereby having 4 footballing defenders, gives us a much better foundation for playing it from the back and through the midfield. Even Pardew's harshest critics must concede that he was pretty hamstrung last season in terms of back 4 selection.

Getting a gate of just 39K against a top team like Arsenal for a Saturday 3pm, with a big away following and the usual freebies etc must be quite worrying for them. I have also heard that they are offering full corporate packages at staggeringly cheap rates. Article below highlights a possible rift between those who still pay and those the club foist freebies on. Quite understandable really and makes you wonder if the club should just bite the bullet and take the reduced gate as such measures may well be counter productive longer term. http://www.rokerreport.com/2013/9/17/4738196/sunderland-take-loyal-support-for-granted

Saturday? sorry, meant home games

How long is it since we played 3 consecutive home league games with Saturday 3pm kick offs ?

or- had a good season, but wasnt backed when we had the extra workload of the europa. Depsite this did well to get to the quater finals, though league form and performances suffered. Board then decided to do something and invested heavily in January. Now those players have had a pre season, and pardew has them on the training pitch midweek instead of travelling- we will do better? Easily forgotten or brushed over in amongst much justified criticism of the way we played last season. We got to the last eight of a European competition which we came out of with heads held high and in fairness he had to outplay a couple of very astute top coaches along the way.

No team outside the top 6 have a first choice XI as good as what we put out on Saturday. Amazingly we also had experienced players on the bench who would give options and provide for contingencies. Just another couple of sensible summer acquisitions could have really consolidated a push for 7th.

Savour every moment of him. Having seen Jimmy Smith, Tony Green, Gazza and Beardsley in our shirt, such players come along once in a generation. Never take them for granted.

To be fair outsourcing of IT systems, online systems, accounts, ordering etc is common in retailing. Riding on the back of someone else's technology rather than investing in your own often makes very good economic sense.

He was quoted in Sunday Sun saying he did NOT call O'Shea to apologise for publicly criticising him despite O'Shit saying earlier that he had. Bedlam.

As manager he should be pointing out the abject performance level to his players, BUT behind closed doors. Producing the "Paolo di Canio show" and doing all their dirty washing in public is just insanity. It's a good laugh though