afar

We need to move on a GK or two before bringing another in IMO. We've got too many as it is.

According to the Mackems, all their players have relegation clauses in their contracts so they are not in as bad shape as we believe, Not sure what their source is for that however and if you are signing for Sunderland are you really going to accept a clause like that, it's always likely to happen.

CB's should have the best pass rating in any team, as most of their passing is fairly straightforward however you can see if this is true what is appealing to Rafa, he want's his team to bring the ball out and build from the back.

Unlike a certain young Serbian Striker on our books. That's why he would be a good fit for Rafa's system and Mitro is not.

Although I agree with the general sentiment and said so in the other thread. He's pretty far down in the queue to start at Chelsea and we will put ourselves in a strong position with him if he is a success and he becomes a hot property, just like Lukaku was for Everton after his initial loan he was always going to sign there. Rafa's not stupid though so I'm sure he has a plan.

It's an excellent sign, and exactly what we need.

Wow, are you David Moyes ?

I am not a fan of developing other clubs assets, Sunderland have tried that model for years and it's been a huge problem for them. Having said that with the market the way it is, no way even with 100 million we can plug every single hole we need to, so as long as he's the only one we are loaning then that's fine. Ideally we negotiate an option to buy, highly unlikely though that Chelsea will go for that. If they were prepared to sell him, I would pay money for him now, convinced the lad will be a big star. I would hope not, unless Gayle is on the market.

Paul Woolston is a England u17 international. We've also got a Finnish u17 international GK in Otto Huuhtanen whom we bought during last season.

What's facility fees ? Is it the amount they get for being on live tv games ?

McLeish says “I would go to Sunderland in a shot if I was offered the job. Derek has done a great job at Aberdeen but the opportunity to take one of the big jobs in England doesn’t come along too often. And Sunderland is a big job.” WTF since when has Sunderland been one of the big jobs ? Unless we are classing big as one of about 20 club managers jobs, hell he's had himself a much bigger job and of course was awful at it. And we are the deluded folks.

Surprised that none of the Palace, Hull, Boro and Mackem jobs have been filled yet. Especially for the championship teams as they have a shorter off season. Surprised also that Monk has not been snapped up yet by one of these.

Honestly any manager they appoint would be in that position. It's amazing how the comments about the champ being a pub league and p*ss easy have disappeared now they are in it. The expectations are still there that they will finish in the playoffs at least, at this moment in time with no manager or squad fit for purpose and no money to rebuild it, top half may be something of a stretch. Obviously they will get a manager in and will somehow add players to their squad but the thought process they have right now that this is somehow an attractive job because they are a big club despite the financial problems is to coin the term they like to call us "deluded". They need to remember we had a net spend of minus 30 million that got us up, they don't have the saleable assets we had and have more work to do fix all of gaps. If their net spend is anywhere near ours, they are screwed, it needs to be a lot closer to Villa's, who they were more similar to than us when they went down. Bottom of the table clubs who need a huge overhaul and have little to no saleable assets. What was Villa's net spend last season 50 million or something and that got them mid table ! The Mackems can't possibly net spend anywhere that much. There first target next season should be the 55 points or whatever it takes to gaurentee survival, unless they find another Wagner or someone or the owner decides that the best way to protect his investment is to throw even more money at it (which it is not).

Can't see us winning any straight fight with the team who'll be playing for the Champions League title.

Yesterday I read on their forum that it was all but certain to be McInnes, they had about 50 threads on the bloke. Guess things have changed, Giggs would be a disaster of an appointment I feel. I just don't see any managerial qualities in the bloke. Could be wrong and sometimes great players are able to translate that winning mentality from the playing field to the coaching side, such as KK or more recently Zidane but Giggs doesn't strike me at all as that type of person. Would be fantastic if this happened

What's his distribution like ? Isn't that Rafa's big thing with Goalies ?

When will the announcement come, I'm assuming now that both he and Anita will be let go ?

Sounds like they had someone else lined up before sacking him, it's interesting that the main reason cited there was that he wanted to sign British players and the owners obviously didn't. Wonder if he's a good shout for the Mackem job now.

It certainly is, our first target next year of course has to be stay up, but after that no reason at all why we shouldn't be aiming for top half. If we can't get to a point within 2 or 3 seasons where we are competing with Everton, then we'll have done very well, assuming Everton maintain their level too of course. Think it would take a huge change in ownership mentality to ever get back to the top 6 area even with Rafa in charge.

Seems like the season, for us, has been over for an age now. I guess with the early end to the champ season and the later start to the PL season, the players who were with us this season and will be with us next get a longer break, must be nice.

What about Krul, everyone seems to forget about probably the best keeper on our books right now.

I was so sad at the time. He'd got the goal that in all reality kept us from dropping down to division 3 at home versus Portsmouth, had an outstanding season in the promotion campaign, scored 35 goals in 70 appearances for the club including a hatrick in his last match, he wasn't old 27/28 or so. Didn't see the logic in it at all. But we tripled our money on him and replaced him with Beardsley who would go on to form up with Cole, the genius of KK.

I can't find Shintonghost's original post to quote, but he made the remark that we are crazy to expect mid table from our team. Simple question, had Rafa been in charge the season we went down with that squad would he'd have had the same results as McClaren or would we have been mid table or thereabouts ? The correct answer is not the first option there. It was not the squad that necessarily got us relegated that season it was the total ineptitude of the manager, I still maintain it was a squad more than capable of staying in the top flight. We've lost an aging Colo and Taylor from the back, Janmaat, Gini, Sissoko, Townsend (for half a season) and a well past his sell by date Cisse. We've arguably replaced them with better players, I would certainly take Clark and Lascelles ahead of those two in centre defence, hell our best CB that year couldn't get a game this season because of them. Janmaat and Yedlin are pretty even in my book, Townsend and Ritchie too, Diame is nowhere near Gini or Sissoko, however Gayle is a light year ahead of the Cisse of cica 2015. Hayden of today versus Tiote then, it's not close in my mind. People keep saying how we are not good enough, a huge amount of work needs to be done and how we'll need to spend 70 - 100 million just to stay up. That's all bollocks. I still think Rafa will change the squad considerably and spend close to that 100 million figure but that's because he's not happy just to settle for survival or even a low mid table spot. He'll be looking top 10 for sure and if you look past the top 6 teams in the PL along with Everton, there is really nothing there to scare anyone, you could basically put a blanket over all the teams from 8th down. Anyway completely nothing to do with this thread but whatever. Oh and by the way I'm supposed to be the pessimistic bastard on here

Why so many words in that acronym ? Why can't you guys just say the national team or the USA/American/States. It's the whole "waste paper basket versus bin" debate again, why use one word when 15 will do perfectly well.

I don't dislike Wagner at all, think he's a future great, think he'll be off back to Germany in the summer while his stock is still high, would probably be the smart thing to do, it's going to be an incredibly tough job to keep Huddersfield up next season.