Neil

I'm sure Sunderland fans will be whooping with delight at a potential £6m for a loan, until they realise: a) They're now another striker short, leaving them with an even less reliable strikeforce (this being a team who are already struggling for goals) b) They can't spend the money c) Even if they could, what's Bruce going to do? Improve the team? No, he'd go out and snare Macheda from Man Utd and label it a coup.

With his face like a basic equation.

Victor Anichebe.

M4, Neesy's quote in your sig - just reliving it and it gets funnier the more I look at it.

I think when looking at the past few years, Sunderland have "blown it", yes. Ellis Short comes in, plenty of money is available. They had survived in the Premier League and avoided going down the next year. Their rivals were relegated. What a chance to push on. What a chance to put some real distance between themselves and Newcastle. Instead, they're stagnating. Their rivals came back up emphatically at the first opportunity and were minutes away from finishing above them in their first season back. They were carried for 18 months by Darren Bent. They could serve up rubbish but know that if there was a scramble in the box, or a loose ball, he would be there. Since Darren Bent's departure, they have accumulated an astonishingly derisory 12 points in 18 games. Relegation form seems too kind a label. When you class Phil Bardsley as one of your best players, then there are serious problems. And they have no-one to blame but themselves. The money has been there and Bruce has decided to use it by creating a mediocre team full of mediocre players with incredibly little actual quality in it. Lee Cattermole ffs. Signings like O'Shea and Brown are lauded as big steps forward by the manager and fans alike, which is more a statement of the club's lack of ambition than one about the respective qualities of those players. The Wickham transfer personified stupidity. They needed a proven goalscorer, so they decided to spunk £8m on a future prospect they're not starting. David Vaughan. Craig Gardner. Seb Larsson. Yes, Sunderland is a shithole but surely Bruce must be looking a tad above these players? This lack of ambition combined with a poor start rightly has him under pressure. Buy a host of mediocre players and guess what you get? His interview yesterday was telling. A man under pressure telling of how his star striker has fucked off to the UAE. Yes, the season is long and 4 games may not prove much, but it sure as hell as illustrated Sunderland have real issues currently and I'm afraid Steve, you have no-one to blame but yourself. The gap to Newcastle has not been increased; it has decreased and is now in reverse - and I bet after what seemed like a golden opportunity to, for once, put their stamp on the title of 'North East Top Dogs', the lack of any progress will be eating away at a fair few fans.

Gotta love it when the timer goes over 100 minutes.

IMO this will be an accurate yardstick to see where you're at. I'd be more impressed if you won this game than any of your other results.

Not sure if you're continuing to do work behind-the-scenes... are the forum thread titles with new posts supposed to not be emboldened?

Well, you have to be worried for Norwich if they're losing to teams like WBA at home. IIRC, Norwich, Swansea and QPR have scored a combined 5 goals in 14 games between them this season so far, including the Carling Cup. Very worrying indeed. Fulham 1-1 Blackburn currently. Fulham were gash 1st half, improving now. Neither side will be in the top 10 if their starts to the season, and today, are anything to go by.

Nice one to all concerned. Great job lads.

According to RTG, Bruce also said on Sky Sports: "Gyan has no future here". Bet Gyan is gutted! Bit rich of Bruce to say a player doesn't have a future at Sunderland.

Hmm, loaded up NO again and got: http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php But now on this page, it's: http://46.105.126.209/nufcforum/index.php?action=post;topic=73457.300;num_replies=318

Great, Smalling now coming on, robbing me of a fair few Shawcross points.

Sociedad are all over Barca!

Sanchez out for 6-8 weeks.

Fucking Rooney.

Oh, it hasn't. Bizarre. 2-2 anyway.

What's happened there? Villa with an absolutely ridiculous pass nearly costing Barca. Eh? Why's that been disallowed?!

In fact, it's decided, a desperate wildcard is required next week. I can't afford to let everyone else keep raping me due to them having Rooney/Aguero/Dzeko.

ffs. I'm going to be out of contention before it even began.

Christ.

I'm not doing that bad myself but Rooney/Dzeko/Aguero/Young have all hit huge points when I didn't have them, hence I'm lagging. Surely it can't be as simple as having 2 or 3 of them then shit?

Smalling, you best not come on.

That's quite a task under the current regime.

"David, I choose you."