brummie

I said that at the time. Although I appreciate the pain of losing a player who is one of you, 35 million for fuck's sake, that's the biggest transfer fee steal ever. Insane money.

On a broader note, it never ceases to amaze me how many things get pedalled about O'Neill just because they've been said so frequently, where in fact, they are totally incorrect. If you asked Mark Lawrenson, for example, what he thought MON's strengths are, I bet he'd say he was tactically astute, where, at least in my experience of four years watching his sides, he's amongst the most tactically naive managers I've seen in charge of us.

No offence, but that is absolutely incorrect. In fact, it is the total opposite of the true situation. O'Neill chooses his first XI and sticks with them regardless of form, and regardless of what else he has at his disposal. Furthermore, he decides the players he likes, and if you're not one of them, you're never going to get a chance (even if he's only bought you a month or two previously). That's the reason we'd start the same starting XI for weeks on end, and that's also the reason why we always faded towards the end of the season under him.

Christ. That was fucking terrible. Swansea looked like Barcelona. I don't think I can stand Aston Villa any more. Going from the win at Chelsea to this wretched performance was like going out on a Friday night, picking up Megan Fox, then spending several hours banging her in every orifice she's got, then on Saturday night thinking "fuck yeah, I'm going out shagging again" then waking up the next morning lying in a pool of sick with Sonia from Eastenders.

O'Neill is a very lucky manager. How many last minute goals is that for Sunderland already?

I thought that'd be appreciated ;-)

Best performance of the season from yous? I actually thought we played better against Arsenal, despite getting nowt. I'm very willing to say just how grim things are when i see them that way, but today and against Arsenal, we played some very nice stuff. Less possession today than against Arsenal, but we are showing signs of starting to play a bit of football. I hope it lasts.

Were good against Arsenal, but returned to dismal the next game. Slowly and erratically turning it around. Amassed a good deal of points while being shit first half of the season, too. Hope for a decent placing for them this season IMO. We were excellent against Arsenal and very unlucky, defended well at Stoke (where I'd have put money on a disaster from set pieces), and then played very well today. If I ever see Heskey in midfield again, I will kill myself.

I have to say, we were excellent today. Remarkably, we defended superbly (other than the penalty), but even more remarkably, Stephen Ireland was sensational. Fucking Chelsea fans booing at the end and making plans to buy Man City shirts, plastic cunt holes.

good on them for not relinquishing modric Watching Chelsea's total lack of creativity in midfield (again) today, I reckon they'll have another go at getting him pretty soon.

I hate to say it, but Spurs are a very decent side, and actually have a chance of winning the league.

Chelsea really are poor (by their usual high standards, mind, but poor nonetheless)

And John Terry handles on the line and gets away with it.

Ireland equalises.

Maybe, maybe not, I don't really know, but I suspect - and this is a general point about football fans, not you or I or newcastle fans or villa fans - that very frequently when we say things like that - if only he'd bought player x or y - there are good reasons why it didn't happen. All but a handful of managers in the league are dealing with limited budgets and owners who worry about wage bills more now than they've done in a long time. I reckon this January will see a really low level of spending in general, and that will reflect more clubs operating within their means. Given that, I reckon you're doing more than OK.

Pardew is one of a pool of managers who could largely be described as "meh" - totally unremarkable, might do a decent job if they wind up at the right club at the right time, might get you lumbered at the arse end of the table. Unfortunately, bar the top six, we're all fishing for managers from that pool. Strikes me that, though he undoubtedly has his failings, Pardew has done pretty well for you lot this far. Given that, I reckon your last line is spot on.

It's working, he's been very good the last couple of matches. We played excellently against Arsenal last week, despite winning. It's difficult to play anything resembling football at this shit pit, though.

Stoke are revolting. Every single thing about them, their horrible gamesmanship and their retarded fans. Just horrible.

Look at some of the stuff Stan Collymore has been sent on Twitter about this. He's stuck them in his favourites. I despair of the fact that people this fuckwitted and evil still exist. https://twitter.com/#!/StanCollymore/favorites

Doubt we'd have gone this far if they wouldn't. There's no inherent reason why they would be against it.

Apparently we are in discussions with Birmingham City Council about converting the lower north stand into a "safe standing" area. Being as nobody ever sits down in the lower north anyway, it is a decent idea.

Oh, and to think we bought Zat and then sold Cahill. Madness.

I always used to quite rate that Muamba. NRC is useful at times as he's prepared to stick a foot in and break things up in the middle. That's actually something we didn't replace when we let him leave in the summer.

Yeah, most of those are old/deadwood so the majority of them will presumably be released whether we get relegated or not. How has Zat Knight been? Does he still do that "look and point at something in the distance in order to appear authoritative" thing when he's a bit confused by the game unfolding around him? NRC does that, too. NRC also has the added bonus of being the least technically adept footballer in the northern hemisphere.

This is what I have been moaning about with regard to MON for ages. He can't be arsed to have scouts and shit, or to look at foreign players, he'll go for the massively overpriced UK based player every single fucking time. And that kind of thing is precisely how he ended up leaving us with a squad choca full of overpriced, too old, massively over paid English / played in UK for a while players that nobody wants to take off our hands. He did a similar thing at Celtic (Bobo Balde on 40k a week. In Scotland) and he'll do the same at Sunderland. Lerner did exactly the right thing telling him to sort the wage bill a bit and move some players on before he'd let him spunk 15m on Aiden McGeady.