Gallowgate Toon

Ritchie was a passenger for half of the season. I like him a lot but he's definitely someone to be upgraded upon. As always, the question will be whether we reinvest. I know Townsend left with a bit of a sour taste, but he's the best winger we've had since Ben Arfa by quite a distance, imo. Kenedy is a no-brainer who will be a very good player (potentially world class) & was important last season, but he wasn't on the same level as Townsend was for us. Having both of them would be a treat, in the short term. Although, I have high hopes for Murphy this year.

Hope to Christ we get a decent striker in, like. We'd have had 10 more points last season with a half decent player leading the line.

This would be a great tactical squad move, assuming Ki is Merino's replacement, if the money was going to be properly reinvested... Very handy squad player to have.

What a fucking pen

That'll have cost them, like.

They all seem jubilant about it but they essentially have a bloke who has 8mill that needs to clear a far more significant amount of debt. He'll surely have to take money from sales to achieve that, if he can't find investors?

Ashley won't get it. From his statement, he doesn't think the team is as bad as it is. Probably reckons we're solid enough now, personnel-wise, that he can bring in a shitey PFM and we're good enough to stay up with minimal investment once again. There's really not a lot of point in supporting us anymore anyway, but no Rafa will render the whole thing a waste of time, for me.

Southgate is such a drip. When will England appoint a manager with a bit of gumption and vision?

So fucking bitter. It's delicious. Rafa can't develop players, apparently, but the same poster said we have a poor squad yet we've just finished top half. Some lethal mental gymnastics there.

He needs a run of games, like. Completely different coming on as an impact sub compared to finding your rhythm from the start, especially if you've not played a lot of football over the last few months. He did a couple of decent things and has some athleticism about him. Looking forward to seeing what he can do when we're actually on it. It was massively frustrating to see 3 great crosses into the box after he'd gone off.

Well, that was shite. We looked pretty flat. Disappointing as I wanted to carry the pressure on that knobhead.

Small victories Sums the club up, tbh.

Sounds like the bloke that does the Videos every week. It is! Recorded in his mam's en suite.

Fuck me :lol: https://youtu.be/OnH84rPVtGE

It's been really sad to see how things have turned out for him. I really like him but time certainly is up.

Didn't geordiedean or some other total rectangle say he was shite for Watford and we were mental for trying so hard to sign him? Rafa or geordiedean? Hmmmmmm.

They'll be wittering on about 6 in a row for years and years. It's literally the entire highlight of their club's existence since '73. We battered them for years and years and years. I look back on those times fondly but, fucking hell, I couldn't imagine hanging my hat on that as the pinnacle of experiences I've had with the club. The gravy-stained 'fatty' patter is weird as fuck, like. They talk about us as if we're a different species doesn't Sunderland have the highest levels of obesity in the country or something?

That commentary is proper cringe, like, and just massively unnecessary. I was watching the BT Gazetta documentary the other week and they made a great point about Brackley's commentating and how he didn't take it too seriously - he didn't try and take over the moment & make it 'epic'. Drury sounds like JR during a Hell in a Cell match.

Really hoping we get to see him and Murphy on the flanks for a run of games, before the season's end.

Class.

I'd be looking to continue his progression as soon as we're safe. I think there's a very handy Premier League winger in there that, in the near future, can go on to do far more than the likes of Atsu and Ritchie at this level.

Spied The King walking past Harrods this morning with a fetching red cap on. Unmistakable lips.

Merino is looking a bit like Perez to me, atm. Does some of the difficult stuff really well but the simple things are erratic as is the decision-making. I hope he's just rusty.

Only thing I'm annoyed with today is a number of players not doing the simple thing going forward. Quite a few dallying or making the evidently wrong decision that really hampers us. Meh, we move on to these bigger games.

One sloppy break and they punish us.