afar

Why oh Why does Bein sports drop the feed every game at about this time

Yedlin did well but had so much time to put in a much better cross, nearly paid for it at the other end. Would have like to have seen Mitro replace Gayle instead of Perez, would have given us a better option.

That Keough looks like he's from the 1940's !

We are pushing for a second right now, get it and it's game over imo.

What a strike !!!

Anya is a worry, why didn't we buy him, looks very lively.

Has to be a booking, that was a dreadful dive

I don't like that team selection at all but I'll assume that Rafa knows best here.

Can see Hughes being the first PL team sacking of the season, they've really got problems there.

I would be shocked if we didn't end up top 6, as would most of the country. I don't think Huddersfield are a team that just got off to a great start and will fade, I think they will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. Wolves could be a dark horse for an automatic spot, I saw a bit of their game with Brum and they looked pretty good. The other 3 I went for were Sheff Wed, Bristol City (I think we'll look back on our win there as a really good result) and Norwich. I didn't put Brighton in there because really outside of Knockheart I was very unimpressed with them at SJP, they may still sneak in the playoff race though. Villa for me are too disjointed right now, need a lot more work, that could change if they change things around a little in January with a few good signings, but doesn't look like a balanced squad at the minute. Fulham and Reading along with Brighton as I already mentioned are others that could be in the mix when we get to the business end.

I think the status quo will return this year to the PL, Man Shitty, Manure and Chelsea will all be back at the top, they've all invested in top of the line managers and spent silly money. Arsenal will as ever be there or thereabouts, I would expect a little more from Liverpool this year with Klopp settled in now. So I can't see the likes of Spuds, Everton or the champions competing for the top 4, could be wrong but last year's wide open race was probably a one off and the familiar tiers will be restored, it could be an interesting year as the 3 heavyweights will all be expecting to win it. At the bottom the battle for the drop will be a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be, as it looks like Hull, Burnley and Boro have a chance to stay up after all.

Don't they have some Scottish/French kid, I bought him from them in FIFA 16 and he's awesome. Maybe they've played that game and thought they are set there in the future

Even this doesn't make sense. Good to know the standard of British sports journalists is still at rock bottom. I'm completely confused, I read the article and it's worded that basically they pay 6 million a year while he's with them. So if it doesn't work out for them, they could go and sell him next summer for say 15 million, and pocket 9 million on the deal while we've only recived 6 million for a player another club were prepared to pay 30 million for. It makes no sense whatsoever ! And this clarification doesn't make any sense either. I think they need to implement a rule that states football clubs need to explain the full details of all player transactions the minute they happen. It's just causing confusion when papers can just make up stuff to paint a good deal as a bad deal or vice versa. In the NFL, everything is made public, from the details of the compensation given (in terms of draft picks traded), the salary the player is on to the bonuses he's paid.

At the start of last season, I was thinking the same thing about us, we struggled in terms of results but I thought we were unlucky not to have a few more points on the board. Sometimes the results you get early on are a good indicator as to what your team is all about, it was for us last year. Moyes's teams tend to get better during the course of a season, that should be something you hold onto. Your squad though looks woefully inadequate IMO, it was last year, an injury to Defoe and you would have been relegated quite comfortably. Your squad looks even weaker.

I'm going with the round pegs in round holes approach: Sels Yedlin Mbemba Lascelles Lazaar Hayden Shelvey Ritchie Atsu Gayle Mitro In this division we should be playing with two strikers most of the time, no need for a number 10. I would like to get Diame in there too but in order to do that would mean we would have to revert to a 1 striker formation, swap Shelvey out for him or put a square peg in a round hole. The truth is (and this has been already clearly identified by Rafa), is that we need a fair amount of squad rotation considering the number of game we have, we'll also need to mix up the formations a bit. I think the current squad offers us the ability to do that.

It's a lot of transactions, got to hand it to Rafa, just look at the names of those going out, so many of them are players really that should have been moved on years ago or players that didn't have the desire to be here or heart to play for the club. The job of clearing out the dead wood was made that much easier by the relegation of course. On the incomming side, obviously if we were in the PL still there would be a lot of questions on the quality, but there's some gems in there too and all seem to offer a passion and desire to want to play for the club that was lacking in those that left. I think the squad is more than strong enough to achieve promotion and that's the main aim, we've also got a huge chunk of change sitting in the bank to add to the squad to make sure in January. Very pleased with the summer work in the end, I was nervous at first got to say but we got there eventually.

Their support must be completely underwhelmed at their work in the window. Looking at the Ronny gill site the other day before they brought in a couple more players, they had a piece on the NINE first teamers they had on international duty !! http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sunderland-afc-internationals-nine-first-11816005 If you read the article you find out that 5 of these NINE are U21. I went on NUFC.com to see how this compared with Championship side Newcastle, and it turns out we had 10 full internationals. That's a relegation fodder squad

Icing on the cake to a great window I think. I'm not one of those Sissoko bashers, I genuinely believe he's proved well worth our tiny initial investment and was without doubt one of our better players (in a barren period) for the club. However we've moved on and in Diame we've got a similar player. 30 million is way beyond his worth, he's 27, which is still young but his problem is that his game is based on power and pace, with age he'll become less effective unless he adapts. Honestly no bad feelings towards him, he was brought in at a time when we were looking to maximise profits rather than perform well on the football field, rom that perspective he's become a huge success. He also had to work with the likes of Pardew, Carver and McClaren during his time with us !! He got his CL move he sought so he's going to be a happy man tonight, so are our book keepers Need to invest this money though over the next two windows hopefully buying players for the tier above. Great work this window, transformed the squad from a bunch of players who couldn't care less to a hungry group who should still be a class above what they are up against this year.

I'm a little surprised thought someone would have panicked and splashed the cash for him, too late now for movement I think we would have heard something surely that a club was closing in by now. Gonna be interesting to see what happens for here on in with him.

Ashley could be a great owner, that's been mostly my frustration with him in the past. All the ingredients are there, self made rich, doesn't want publicity not someone who courts day to day involvement. He's just continually surrounded himself with people who haven't got a clue. The appointment of Rafa and giving him the reins is a start, if he can continue along this path of sound football decisions then I will be more than happy to support him. Some of the things a lot find indefensible are not as important to me though, for example living in Canada I had no idea who Wonga were and still to this day don't care. The renaming of St James', I can understand the pain that put a lot of people through but if it had meant an extra player was bought with the income coming in from stadium branding personally I wouldn't have been too concerned, not of course that that happened.

I guess Barnsley aren't expecting to keep up their good start ? Wonder if the same rules apply in the champ as they do in the PL to players not being able to play against their parent club ? If so, rafa could be trying a Chelsea and loaning out for him to nick goals against our promotion rivals.

It's the classic looking at a player and who they play for rather than the player himself. We did the same thing with Obertan, oooh he played for Manure, he must be good !! Levy approach is to buy all the good English Talent and sell on the ones that don't work out, but give them a few games in the first team and/or some high profile loans, to increase their value. It's a sound approach, one we tried and failed miserably to follow. They obviously have a good scouting system and know when to pull the trigger on a deal and when not. His approach to buying though must piss off other owners and chairmen, it's always low ball and installment/incentive payments. I think a lot of other owners have woken up to his gameplan though and he's having a harder time pulling off the deals.

That is my one concern about Sissoko still being here, good point, but I think Rafa is good enough to spot if there is a problem with that and strong enough to deal with it.

He was on the edges of that amazing Wigan squad that was relegated but also won the FA Cup, his run of good form came around the final time, he played well in front of a big audience that's where this notion that he is anything comes from. His move to Brom should have been the chance to show that, that short period wasn't just a run of form, but he's failed to impress Tony Pullis and he's been hawked out to everyone despite the manager having been quoted as saying they are desperate for new signings.

I'm not arguing with you on the meaning of the word, it's the context it's used, that is where I'm coming from. Lets use a more obviously example: Mike Williamson was an average player for NUFC, but would not have been a Reasonable signing for Barcelona !! (Names used for exaggeration purposes only please don't quote me as comparing NUFC to Barcelona, or Mike Williamson to a football player !!)