brummie

At some point this season Sunderland are going to have to come to terms with the fact that, whilst he might have been enough to drag them out of the relegation scrap at the arse end of last season by installing sufficient quantities of "give a fuck" in the players, they are now for the longer term lumbered with a bloke who is a league one manager. The salvation from relegation is one thing, but the longer term is probably the cost of it.

There aren't many businesses who would ignore an impending, signed for, contractual guarantee of an enormous amount of money in the very near future. All transfers are paid in instalments, too, it's not specific to Newcastle. Nobody stumps up 20m for a player in one go.

Did anyone see that cocksocket Scudamore on the telly tonight talking about how the PL is "so competitive, because every team in it can beat every other one". Well, that's an interesting idea of what "being competitive" is. Yes, of course, the shit teams can "beat" the wealthier teams on a one-off basis, but the league is chronically uncompetitive in terms of actually winning things. That's why former successful clubs like us, you, Everton et al now have quite literally zero chance of winning the league. I can't believe anyone can say the competitiveness of our league is its main strength and keep a straight face. Let alone on camera.

Apparently Fulham are paying his wages, which the Torygraph says are 65k a week, plus a hefty loan fee, which is probably going to be 1-2m. That's basically worth 3-5m for us in terms of what we're saving / making over the year. Not too bad in the end, I guess, but really, I don't think PL clubs should be able to loan players. It's a bit of a joke, really.

I've no idea how much he's paid, but again, we're hardly going to be throwing around the sort of money on wages other teams can't match.

It'll have to be a loan. No team could afford a fee and the greedy bastard's wages Not that I'm still bitter or anything... I don't know how much we've been paying Bent, but I am willing to bet it's not a figure which would be beyond other clubs.

If he's going, I just hope it is a permanent deal and not some shitty loan arrangement.

Downing - in his one full season with us - did very well for us. I was disappointed to sell him, but on reflection, the fact we got £20m for a player who, by the looks of things, had just had the best season he's ever going to have was good business. Although the way we then spent it wasn't quite so good

Christ, we appear to have signed a player who can take a more than decent corner in Tonev. After going 1.5 years without scoring from a corner in any competition.

Benteke has looked awesome the last few pre season games. Just scored a lovely goal against Malaga. He's just so hard to knock off the ball.

Samir Carruthers on loan from us to MK Dons, and rumours Jack Grealish is going to Derby on loan. I don't understand that - I'd have put money on Grealish breaking the first team this season, he's that good.

I'll tell you my advice. Don't be picking any Villa defenders, because on the evidence of pre-season, we still can't defend for shit.

He had a good season for us, but I would in no way describe him as a hard worker. Ashley Young on the other wing worked twice as hard.

As I just posted on the Bent thread: From the Birmingham Mail's Villa reporter (very reliable usually) today:

From the Birmingham Mail's Villa reporter (very reliable usually) today:

Look at us, looks at us, we've signed a player. Pathetic. FIVE actually. We won't be buying any more till someone buys Bent from us, though, so come, JFK, get your finger out!

I have been very impressed with what I've seen of Nicklas Helenius pre-season so far. He's a tall lad, but has a very good touch and passes the ball very nicely.

Just watching our friendly at Shamrock Rovers, which is on our in house "television" thing (and bet365, apparently). I was wondering, does your in house video thing also have a truly awful bloke doing the commentaries?

Shola, Viduka, Harewood, Bent. What have we done to deserve this garbage. Harewood did a good job for us in the Championship. Ha ha, I'd totally forgotten MFH as we knew him (Marlon Fucking Harewood) had played for you, too. Look on the bright side, at least you didn't pay £4m for him, when you had a team knocking on the door of a CL place, a team who just needed a decent striker.

This.

I reckon Spurs will finish in the bottom third this season if they sell Bale, tbh.

Their dirty underhand tricks got them relegated - it's far from tenuous. Well, not really, given that Sunderland's form over the course of the season until then had made a pretty chunky contribution to them getting relegated. Still, I imagine it'd be annoying. I'm not too sure I'd be there, sufficiently angry almost 40 years later to be posting animated gifs of champagne corks popping when the other club got liquidated, mind.

Tbf they have been, offering over 40m for Suarez is no joke and offering for 25m for Higuain is no joke either. Because they have been rejected don't mean they have no desire to spend it. Rather than spend money, for years under Doug Ellis, we would do the same thing. Down here, we called it Dougonomics.

Incidentally, that Sunderland hatred for Coventry is the most tenuous reason for a rivalry, and I can't believe the still get all worked up over it. What a bunch of bell ends.

Funny club, Coventry They absolutely HATE us, hate us, but I'm yet to meet a Villa fan who gives much of a flying shit about them. I live a 20 min drive from Coventry, so am in their capture area, but in the 7 or 8 years I have lived here, I reckon I have seen at most 7 or 8 Coventry City shirts out and about. Far more Villa shirts. In fact, that's probably one reason they hate us. Highfield Road used to be a somewhat hair-raising encounter for us back in the 1980s. I've probably seen more aggro at that fixture over the years than any other away game I've been to. Anyway, whatever the rivalry, and this even extends to Bham City, there's a point at which my sympathy to fellow supporters kicks in and takes over from partisan disaste, so it is horrible to see them in this utter state.