Teasy

Sunderland's next game is absolutely massive and not just because its a very winnable game. Because only two teams in Sunderland's current position (9 points after 16 games) have survived and on both occasions they won their 17th game.

As if he'll start Ben Arfa

Woeful.. really?! Seriously, tried to hard to make things happen himself, but did improve us when he came on, to call him woeful is

They're also talking complete bollocks about easy wins against us at home every season, unless they now consider last season to count as their entire history.. They've played us at home six times in the last ten years. Our record from those games is three wins, two draws and one loss. As it is we're playing them at home tomorrow where our record against them is even better. Obviously though records are their to be broken (like last week vs man utd) and it'll be a hard game.

They got Dynamo Kyiv, they did get Benfica the next round though.

Fair enough in hindsight it wouldn't have ended up changing much but it was still annoying losing a game which was there for the taking, as was the group.

We should have played a strong team in the final game, at least we were already qualified (unlike Swansea) but we still had a great chance to finish top of the group. Instead Pardew player a entire second team.

Dunno about that like Get battered off them and finish high in the league, or beat them and battle relegation? Anyone choosing the later is fucking mental.

He obviously had a really bad game vs Hull (didn't see much of it it since I was at work), but overall his ball retention isn't bad at all, for instance his pass completion on average is 5th highest in our squad. Obviously running at players risks losing the ball, but on average he beats his man and retains possession about 70% of the time on those runs. Their's always going to be more risk of losing the ball when you're trying to make something happen and I think he could definitely pick the times he trys the make things happen better and try to play it simple more often. But I also think there's a definite exaggeration/false assumption from some people that he loses the ball loads when in reality he loses it less than quite a few others in the side.

We play completely differently with HBA in the side and you can't ask him to do a job like what sissoko or Goufran has been doing because he can't. HBA gives the ball away too often but yes he can create magic. Too often for what though? What kind of ball retention do you think a winger/attacking midfielder/striker should have?

They spent 153 million on transfers in the past five years, or nearly 50 mill net, putting them 8th in the nett spend table. His decision making is there to be questioned, but they cannot complain they haven't been royally backed by their owner. We were heavily backed financially by Shepherd and the board over many years, during and after SBR era. Throwing money at the problem alone, clearly is not the way to go, especially for clubs spending well above their means. And we challenged for top honours and got into the Champions League. Whilst mindlessly throwing money at a problem will not solve it, neither will stopping to spend money. As I said, the can have no complaints about the way Short has backed them, and every managerial appointment they have done has been greeted with a nod of approval, even their DoF/Udinese model was. Their problem is they are just a nothing club with a culture of failure deeply ingrained in them, and long may it continue. The day Short has had enough is the day the will slump down the leagues never to be heard of again. backing alone isn't in any way to judge someone its decision making and shorts decision making has been mighty rubbish If you think that I wonder how you rate Fat Mike's..? all over the place. Some ideas and theorys I can get and understand but they're followed up with awful execution. Others are just plain bad ideas. Examples, having a director of football to focus on the transfer negotiation and strategy and also be a backer of the manager with an experienced football man giving advise to the suits and ashley-good idea thinking Denis Wise or JFK is that man-horrible execution. Having the club financially stable and be able to support itself without large amounts of cash injected to cover losses-good idea, doing so soley by focusing on keeping costs down instead of trying to grow commercial income (the one area of income that is solely the boards responsibility) -horrible execution. Overall then, who do you reckon has been the better owner? Well Short backs his manager, but their's far less of an advantage in backing the manager if you can't get any decisions right, including the appointment of the manager you're backing. In fact it can be detrimental to the club in that case. Ashley makes some amazingly bad decisions, but he makes some correct ones in there to which have paid off. Short stumbles from one disaster to the next, shoveling money into the fire as he goes. Also when it comes time for him the go I doubt he's going to forget the money he's put in. For all Ashley's shitness I wouldn't want Short in his place.

Everloan are doing really well here.

What a tit.. Flamini that is.

Ridiculous that some people basically gave up on him earlier this season, people need to be reminded time and time again that players often need to adapt.

True. He's the only player we have who can beat his opponent, which tell us how poor our squad actually is. How many squads in this league have even one player like Ben Arfa who can beat 2 or 3 players with ease? We do need more flair on the wings so it is a weakness in our squad (mind Pardew doesnt even use the flair we do have), but that certainly doesnt make our squad really poor overall.

Sarcasm. But it did actually come from Pardew the way I assumed? I've never seen the comment and people keep referring to it, always meant to ask. Edit - Never mind found the comment, should have just googled it in the first place.

What is this sovereign state thing about? I'd assumed it was a pardew comment about clubs whos owners have bottomless pockets. But people seem to use it in the strangest of context sometimes.

Remy one side, Obertan the other, so he gives it to Obertan

Game over, Pardews utterly clueless subs finally coming back to haunt us. Points chucked away..

Deluchy!

Off work for the last 7 days and I go back on Wednesday until 10pm, fucking bollocks.

Agreed I think a quality CB, CF and winger would give us a very good squad possibly even capable of challenging for a top 4 spot. Like you say though that's not going to happen, certainly not in January (still hope we can get 1 or 2 though). Speaking of adding to the squad. I remember a few months ago when someone (hans?) was saying we needed a minimum of 7 new players including 5 first teamers to have a decent squad capable of challenging for Europe.

He probably went into The Strawberry and was incensed when he found out they didn't serve syrup "that's it, I'm off".