Tsunami

That was woeful today. I’m backing Rafa for now as he seems pivotal to the takeover but otherwise he’d be on borrowed time. We were second best again and simply didn’t take the game to Brighton, we conceded ground and were very predictable. Shelvey should have been on by 60 minutes. Some on here are underestimating how bad we have been at home lately

I can’t believe that people are wanting us to sell Shelvey. Based on previous experience we’ll either not replace or get a make weight in. If the sale does go through we still need to get players through the door and I’d still keep Shelvey until at least the summer as we’ve no idea how they’ll settle. If the sale doesn’t go through and we sell him then prepare for trouble.

Winner at home in a 3-2 against Villa - I think.

So I’ve heard; not seen it yet.

I was ok with our tactics; they nearly worked. I wasn’t happy with the amount of times we didn’t challenge the first ball around the half way line in case we lost shape and the goal was very sloppy. Another 10 minutes and we may have found an equaliser.

By all accounts the Ref got Gayle’s dive right last night but generally, my view from being at the match was that all the officials were heavily swayed towards giving decisions to Man City. Every benefit of doubt seemed to go their way and if a player hit the deck in a challenge it had to be a foul. Maybe the tv showed otherwise.

Penalty that

I thought Spurs had fans queuing for tickets? Wembley looks dreadful there.

It was a really good free kick; unspectacular but far better than it looks. Doesn’t make him a PL player.

Merry Christmas to everyone; let the chaos begin.

Played my wildcard, to bring in Watford and Leicester defenders in, take out Lakuku, put Vardy in, complete shambles ?

Have they locked the fans out at Hillsborough?

7 defeats in 8 games with some very winnable games in there should say it all. We might get a lucky point from the next 3 games. We’ve been here before; takeover or not we’ve got a huge task ahead of us.

I’ve watched their winner a few times now and still can’t understand how they managed to get 2 players run unchallenged into our box. Clark got attracted to the ball but could perhaps point out that he’d expect runners to be covered. Perez watches Okazaki run past him and starts to race after him far too late. As for the rest of the midfield and full backs I have no idea what they were doing. Merino had been challenging for the ball and was out of it but the lack of awareness from others was staggering. It was an absolutely horrendous goal.

We’re beginning to follow a familiar pattern which leads to relegation. Not good enough players struggling likely to be compounded by a poor transfer window. Very worrying.

We got absolutely schooled for most of that game. Having said that we gave away some real soft goals. The most disappointing thing for me was we had loads of fans getting on the players backs very early on. There were howls when we weren’t playing defence splitting balls from our own 18 yard box or sprinting away from opposition players who were simply quicker. We’ve got a poor side and the level of support at times today was truly awful. We’re in a mess and we need something to go our way quick.

My dad saw White and Milburn regularly and has no doubt that White was the better, more complete player. Another omission is Shack; he may be a Sunderland legend and he held a massive grudge against us but he was something else by all accounts. My dad reckons he was phenomenal, far too greedy to be considered a team player but for individual skill and ability he was untouchable.

Gallagher has to be in, Stubbins not nominated, Len White my dad’s favourite player only 3%. I’ve no idea who our greatest 11 should be but some of those nominations are embarrassing considering some of the omissions. Still a canny side mind.

Loads of empty seats there.

There’s not a hope in hell that Ashley would accept 250M and Staveley must know this. If a sale isn’t agreed and that is the final offer then the whole thing has been a complete waste of time. Given the time and money invested in this process so far I can’t believe that Staveley will refuse to increase PCP’s offer. Seems most people think (based on bollocks all) that 250M is too low and that 300M would represent a fair price. Personally, I don’t think Ashley would want to accept 300M but it may just do the trick.

Alan Smith really shouldn’t be allowed to commentate on our games. What did we ever do to him?

How many times are they going to mention the penalty incident?

Well that wasn’t coming

Ffside and a penalty

WBA are bloody awful; we can’t keep losing to the sides in and around us.