John P

No, I thought Ritchie, Gayle, Diame, Hanley and Atsu were excellent signings for the Championship at the time. I also had high hopes for Gamez and Lazaar and thought that Yedlin would do a decent job after speaking to a Sunderland supporting mate. Ciaran Clark turned out to be the absolute best for me we looked a different side at the back with him in the team and he absolutely carried Lascelles all season Agreed, but those were the players at the time who I thought would turn out to be good signings. I had probably biggest doubts over Clark at the time.

No, I thought Ritchie, Gayle, Diame, Hanley and Atsu were excellent signings for the Championship at the time. I also had high hopes for Gamez and Lazaar and thought that Yedlin would do a decent job after speaking to a Sunderland supporting mate.

I don't think it is underwhelming at all. I think we will see us signing players at a decent price who can help us establish ourselves back in the PL. I think it will be next summer when we see the bigger type names/players coming in. Finding it really interesting on seeing who Rafa will bring in this season to help us establish ourselves. We won't be diving straight in with trophy signings. I trust Rafa to get it right and I'm not against signing these players if that's who he wants, but I think we also need a few proven Premier league level players rather than shopping for players who've done well in the Championship, as there's no guarantee they can make the step up next season.

The players we're being linked with (which obviously should be taken with a huge pinch of salt) are slightly underwhelming to be honest. I'm hoping Rafa has some top level players in his sights, players who have proven they can perform in the top European leagues.

Happy with this, good value deal and is already settled at the club. Let's hope he can replicate his form from the last month of the season.

Sticking with Moyes (if they do) would probably be their biggest mistake going into next season. Some clubs do well by sticking with their manager after being relegated (us obviously, Dyche at Burnley) but there are huge differences between those situations and Sunderland's. Rafa was loved by the fans and is a proven world class manager, Dyche was well liked and had a clear structure and plan at the club which didn't require a massive squad overhaul, and it served them well the next season. Sunderland have had a horrendous season, the manager appears to be hated by the majority of their fans and doesn't give the impression that he even wants to be there. He certainly doesn't appear up for the fight of promotion next season and undergoing the massive change in squad personnel that they will need. This could all change of course with a good start to the season, as this would more than likely go some way to getting the fans back onside, but if they don't get off to a good start things could really spiral downwards. Lovely, isn't it?

Can't believe it's actually going ahead. A complete and utter embarrassment. Morons.

Probably not, because Spurs are likely to sell him which means they don't have to pay us another penny.

So, Steve McClaren essentially got told how the opposition and Twente were going to play by the 21 year old captain and the coaching staff. Just happened to coincide with the biggest success of his career.......

Hope we sign this guy, I think he's good enough for a midtable Premier League team, which is hopefully what we're aiming for next season.

I've got the belly of a professional athlete

No matter how much of a prick he is, surely even Ashley couldn't help but get swept up in that atmosphere on Sunday, and that was just for winning the Championship for Christ's sake. Give the man what he wants, we'll all be better off for it.

Don't think I've ever seen Gibson play. Is he actually any good? Is he just a big strong bruiser or can he play out from the back as well?

Heard Barnsley fans saying 'that looks fucking class' and several variations along the same lines at the weekend. Hats off to these guys, done an outstanding job with this.

Last few games he's been the player I thought he would be in the Championship. Started the season well from what I remember, but he had a good few months where he was pretty poor, was getting pushed off the ball, seemed to have no pace etc, don't know what went wrong with him. Let's hope the form from the last month or two is what he takes into the new season because I can't help but like him.

That was the only moment when my girlfriend nearly blew our cover in the away end, she didn't hear the whistle and couldn't contain herself

The two Barnsley fans I spoke to were actually appalled by the fans that were celebrating the Brighton goal. Said the ones letting the smokebomb off were a bunch of out of control kids. I think we can relate to that element amongst our support like. Looking from the gallowgate up to the away section it seemed to be a minority that were jumping up and down in celebration. I'm in the Gallowgate as well and that's how I seen it. Looked like a couple of hundred or so nearest to where our fans were and someone at the back set off a flare and was arrested for it about 15 minutes later. He must have thought he'd gotten away with it The rest of them didn't seem too bothered about the Brighton score. In fact they seemed like a pretty boring set of fans. Just sat there in silence for most of the match. I was sat in amongst them and you're right, it was a minority of their support nearest to our fans who were singing after the Brighton goal. Tragic nonetheless. You're also right about them being a boring set of fans, where I was sat there was no singing the entire game and everyone just sort of sat in silence, barely reacting to what happened on the pitch and just sort of accepted the sound beating they were getting. Was a bit odd as I thought most away ends would be very vocal.

This plane nonsense can't be allowed to happen. Having 'banter' on it is bad enough, but this banner referencing Bradley Lowery is just plain offensive. I also thought the post by cp40 was a joke and can't believe it isn't.

Bump. Thought he was great when he came on yesterday, aggressive in the challenge and good going forward (missed chance aside). Shame that he's been permanently injured for the last few years.

What a great day. We could only get tickets for the away end, so we were just sat smirking to each other as our goals went in. I have to say that the Barnsley fans chanting 'you're going to win f*** all' after Brighton scored was one of the most pathetic and tragic things I've seen for a while. They were completely silent up until that point and it took another team scoring for them to wake up and find their voices. (When they were 2-0 down. Playing an already promoted team. And they support f***ing Barnsley......) However, I also have to give some of their fans credit when news broke that Villa had equalised as a fair few of them actually stood up and applauded. It took pretty much everything I had not to go mental at that point, but I don't think I'll ever forget the roar that went up as our players were trotting back into position after the Gayle goal. From where we were it seemed to start in the North West corner and spread around the whole stadium from there. It must be one of the biggest roars I've ever heard at St James', up there with the Jonas goal against West Ham and I was sat in the home end for that one. The noise and singing for the few minutes following that was incredible, and the Barnsley fans near us were commenting on how loud it was. A few of them stayed behind to take photos of the presentation too and were applauding our players, so they made up in some way for the large number of bellends that they had. Was a great feeling watching the celebrations from up high and being able to see the entire stadium full of joy. One thing that is blatantly obvious from yesterday is that if Rafa can bring any sort of success to this club in the next few years, the celebrations and atmosphere would be on another level. I've got the feeling that we could be in for something special in the next few years, and I know I'm still drunk on the joy of yesterday but, f*** it, this is football and I'm overreacting and this is how it's supposed to feel to follow your team. I'm off to watch all the videos from yesterday again.......

The second coming of Albert Luque according to Youtube. Get the bastard signed.

Watched the second half of the Ajax game earlier and it was brilliant, so open and entertaining. Ajax look to have some great young talent coming through.

Just been told I've got a ticket for this, well chuffed. Apparently Barnsley didn't sell their allocation so some more home tickets have been made available?

When Stifler sees a comment regarding the law, he pounces. Our resident law expert.

One very obvious thing to come out of this is that Joey Barton is godawful when it comes to betting.