Benwell Lad

Saw the link on .com seems to be in keeping with their moral stance against Wonga which also includes no longer selling club shirts. Absolutely fine - albeit slightly hypocritical. Looks like they accept any advertising themselves without too much moral questioning. Examples such as :- Plenty of cheap alcohol offers despite a lot of their readership being under 18. Remember lads, alcohol causes a lot more misery in the NE than short term loans ever will. Various gambling organisations. As above. Strangest of all they seem to be happy accepting Murdoch's shilling by plugging Sky TV. No doubt it won't stop them having a whinge when we end up playing games at stupid times. Keep up the good work lads but people who live in glass houses and all that.......

Typical Yorkshire twats.

The club was maxed out. Ashley could hav bode his time and saved himself £100m. It's ironic he's so focused on cost control when you consider the reckless abandon with which he bought the club. I can't really get my head around it. Did he not just see a window of opportunity to get what he wanted and acted quickly to avoid possible competition or Freddie being able to bend the Halls' ears ? Freddie was on his sick bed at the time iirc.

Mignloet and Sessegnon out. Rose returned. Bardsley, Cattermole, Vaughan, Gardner etc remain. Has Joe been doing a bit of fiddle work for them on the side ?

A bit more interesting debate about the fat one of late, and gladly it seems to have risen above the "wish he was dead" level which has become almost predictable post transfer window. Especially loved the foreign correspondent who said he didn't spend anything on NUFC but if he did he'd stop. Ashley must be quaking in his boots! Thing about Ashley is he will not buckle under pressure, it's not in his make up. He will only leave if a) he totally loses interest. or b) he receives a too good to be true offer. Scenario (a) may already have arrived as far as attending games is concerned, but he may enjoy playing the business side of the sport from afar. Scenario (b) has never looked like happening yet and remains unlikely. It seems almost a rule of N-O that if something is repeated enough times it can then be quoted as fact, but there's no way Ashley will be making any money out of NUFC - quite the opposite. However it's undeniable that it is a very good fit with his "core assets" in terms of global marketing. He'd be reluctant to give that up. Although many claim to be so desperate to see the back of him they'd take any alternative, be careful what you wish for. Most would compromise their principles for the greater good of the game to have an "Abramovich" or "Sovereign State" in charge and sugar-daddying us to success, but other alternatives could be quite scary. Just look back at the "arm punching delight" when he arrived, of some who are now his biggest critics, to illustrate that change does not guarantee anything. When change comes it has to be progressive and not just at any cost.

That really does look like a dreadful squad of players. Feel sorry for whoever has to pick up the pieces when di Canio goes. They keep setting the "transfer window alight" but just get worse and worse.

Seems to me like he does everything Tiote does defensively but with a minimum of fuss. His distribution is so much better and he won't spend half his time inhibited by a booking hanging over him.

They were pretty terrible like, even before the sending off.. and even worse at Southampton apparently, really jammy point according to most.

Good if true, although in honesty I know sfa about him. What I do know is that young Jak is not ready and as the end of last season proved a third keeper may come in handy.

We all know our "board" is considerably less than perfect, but our transfer policy over the last few years looks incredibly sane and efficient in comparison to Sunderland's shambolic approach.

Thought he was excellent yesterday.

STFU

Probably cause a shit storm on here but Santon compared him (favourably) to Mourinho in yesterday's programme

Don't know if he's the best but all things considered I wouldn't swap him for any other.

Canny read. Loved this bit :- "A note on the goal first. Sometimes in football, there are moments when you just have to stand up and applaud. David Luiz's golazo last season against us, that 40 yard thunderbolt, was one of those moments. And Hatem Ben Arfa's stunner today was also fantastic. There was nothing that can be done against a run and shot like that; look again, below. Riise does the right thing and gets Kacaniklic over to double up on the man, meaning that if he goes inside or outside, somebody will be pressing. However, despite some close pressing from the Swede, Ben Arfa pulls of the most ridiculous of shots from that angle- he's running away from goal! It is a goal that is undefendable."

Me too. Superb attitude.

Only Sunderland could appoint a crap fourth division manager who thinks he's bigger than the club despite terrible results and only macums could so stubbornly support such a person.

What a special, special player he is.

Would a fair assessment of Sunderland from the end of last season to the end of the transfer window be that they have lost their three best players and gained a load of mismatched shite, but still have a fucking loony steering the ship ?

It was more than 200 booing. Sure, certainly couldn't count them, but the point is a valid one, a minority booing will always make the story. Anyway seemed like a bit of a love in at the end. Probably gone by Tuesday.

Fascism tends to get people excited but seldom succeeds.

Enjoyed the mutual love in as he left the field and went down the tunnel. Re the booing, 200 people boo = audible. 46,000 people don't boo = inaudible. The story is the booing.

Ruiz's free kick was canny. I'll amend that to say from open play. They really were as bad as any team I've seen against us for a good two years. They're even worse than they were last year. ...and the almost match winning save he made from open play with his legs just prior to us scoring.

Looked like he really enjoyed it today and milked the applause at the end. Really looks like a player.

it gets faster every turn, hard to keep track these days, appears to catch its own tail now. Love it mate