ponsaelius

Boring as fuck. Both a ground I've been too and a pretty tricky game.

I wouldn't want to sell Longstaff but the issue with FFP is it actually encourages clubs to sell homegrown players for accounting purposes. A big fee for Longstaff (25 mill say) would free up breathing space for a load of signings. There's no doubt the club are going to consider the sale of pretty much all of our players depending on the interest and fees involved. That's the reality of where we're at.

Worth it if it meant we could have 6k there but obviously should not be the norm. Just let people make their own way to the match.

I've seen a lot of the mackems have made out this was the 'first of the new derby' because of our ownership. Putting aside that daft argument it actually did feel to me noticeably different to all the other derbies in my lifetime. The tone was set from the first seconds when they gave the ball straight to us. It genuinely felt like a cup match against a lower league side, with us dominating the ball on opposition soil, killing the contest and ultimately winning with ease. It was a very weird experience tbh. I was nervous obviously but it definitely didn't feel like it had anywhere near the jeopardy of previous years because of the gulf in class. This inevitably also changed the feel of the atmosphere as well. Our support enjoying a lot of rather nerveless triumphalism, their support stoically singing 'sunlun till I die' for 90 mins as if the on-field result was secondary to off-field matters. Unless there is drastic changes in ownership or Sunderland can establish themselves as a mid-table PL side it could be decades until we have a normal derby again.

I liked Colo and would have been interested to see him in a good team but Schar is a better defender and footballer. Colo had basically years where he was a disgrace performance wise which massively soured the good years.

Can see why it's taken a bit of time given it's only a one year extension we're offering. I think it's the right deal TBF.

derbywinner as one word, delightfully teutonic

As always either a home draw against somebody absolutely shite or an away game at a ground I've not been to.

Tbf to the lad he is only 18. They played like the team of kids that they are.

They're a massive soft touch, which played into our hands. A Championship side of their level can make a real game of it against PL opposition if they're physically imposing. However they're a team of rather feeble kids, with no physicality in midfield, and no CF. It's the one thing that made me relatively confident rather than shitting a brick. However I was surprised by just how easy it was. If Joelinton stays on I think we win by 4-5 tbh.

Barton was shite/unavailable most of the time here, a key reason we were relegated due to his indescretions, then spent most of the promotion season unavailable. He had 6 months of good form in his entire time here in 2010, and while his attacks towards Ashley were accurate they were largely fueled from the fact he knew he was going to get binned off. The irony is that Ashley gave him the biggest contract of his career, on money far beyond his actual ability level.

In terms of Italian football both Ultra by Tobias Jones and Juve! by Herbie Sykes are really good.

Marske have withdrawn from the NPL. Looks like they've saved themselves as a club at least - and will be able to restart at a lower level next year. Likely a return to the Northern League I'd imagine.

Has he? He's been very consistent on his opinion on FFP for years.

Howe has been unlucky with injuries and suspensions, there is no doubt. We banked in the summer on adding depth at fullback, making sure we had four hard working wingers who we could run into the ground, and a midfielder who could cover both #8 as well as Bruno's role (in theory). Clearly the idea was to maximise the resources, facilitated in part by actually selling our one wild card, to double down on our style of play and make sure we had the depth to push it across multiple competitions. Ultimately we have tried to reinforce what worked last year - rather than look to enhance/augment what we've got and give us something different to win games. Whether that was signing a number 10/wide attacker who can play between the lines, a designated defensive midfielder to give us more control in transition, another striker who could offer more out of possession than Wilson etc etc - these were options that were available to us and we chose not to go for. I think it's not unreasonable to say at this point that it has backfired. This is partly through sheer bad luck in the case of Tonali and Barnes in particular. But our inability to change it up or find other ways to win games has made this season's crash far worse and also I'm afraid made Howe look increasingly naive. We've ran players into the ground and made injuries worse, which has increasingly made our fundsmental style of play ineffective, which has now increasingly made players devoid of confidence. Confidence that has been rattled further by crashing out of the cups and leaving the season effectively over by January. It is a vicious spiral and I think, mitigating factors accepted, Howe has to take blame and be questioned for it. Both for his input in transfer decisions (we know he will have had some) and how we have adapted this season to very different circumstances.

I'd agree with that. Some of his best play comes from carrying the ball infield. This has also been the case when he has been on the right (thinking of the Man United assist). So if kind if makes sense that he's looked better over on the left in this system.

The season is a write off and we're financially hamstring with FFP. I personally don't see us doing anything this window - with exception of maybe a loan deal.

The derby is undoubtedly huge even if it wasn't the derby. The FA Cup is all that is left of this season to play for.

Last few games have been genuinely worrying, tbf. There's something not quite right at all and we don't look like turning it around any time soon.

We all know there's been mitigating circumstances but the last three games have been atrocious. Really starting to worry tbh.

I'm worried for him tbh now. Wasn't up until today, but we looked desperate there. Players suffering from a combination of being physically ruined, mentally destroyed by the recent set backs, and now completely bereft of confidence. Unfortunately our style of play depends massively on physical intensity and Howe's coaching depends on motivation. Now we're in a situation where either tactical structure or technical creativity would pull us out of the mire and we lack both. He still needs to be given the season and to go again next year, but for the first time I'm actually quite worried he won't get it.

Feel for him tbh. He's playing with some shite.

I've been pretty diplomatic about this season and the way things have gone against Howe, but that was really worrying.

Very worrying this tbh.

I don't necessarily disagree in an ideal world, but in theory we've already gone big on Isak as marquee CF signing but we're struggling to get the best our of him due to lack of rotation options. Having somebody physically robust, with a good all round game, hungry and finally seemingly fulfilling his potential would be a huge help to this current squad. The main issue is that it's a different Bournemouth to when we signed Wilson and they'd be wanting daft money.