ponsaelius

Bah! Besiktas even won it late. How frustrating.

As much as I really don't rate Milner that highly, he's not really deadwood. As shocking as it is, he's one of England's best players at that mid twenties age bracket.

Hardly gonna finish 6th with current top 6 clubs though are they? It would takefairly sizeable investment for them to get to 7th or 8th. You wouldn't take it if it left the club financially crippled and having to appoint the likes of Alex McLeish to trim the wage bill, though. Also, getting into the top six now is entirely different to doing so in 2007. It takes a shit load more money, for starters, as in that time Man City have bought themselves a guaranteed berth in there. Tottenham seem to have made on of them theirs, too. Basically, you're now looking at Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Man City in six places at the top, and breaking that cartel is going to take an awful lot more money than MON spent with us. He's not going to get that much at Sunderland, not a prayer. Aye, that's basically what I'm saying. The fact we've managed to break it for even a few months in a season is remarkable in itself.

A lot of older generation Geordies that I know often use the term marra. I hear it mostly in and around Durham myself mind. Must be very much a generational thing. Just a bairn ya see.

Hardly gonna finish 6th with current top 6 clubs though are they? It would takefairly sizeable investment for them to get to 7th or 8th.

urgh, so close to a potential exit.

Actually, if results stay like this - two home wins in the last set of fixtures would still put them out I think.

Tel Aviv potentially bailing them out in the other game.

Very interesting read and very similar to what brummie's thoughts were.

Add the more rural areas of County Durham to that. Christ. Apologies oh great one.

Can't say I've heard many Geordies using marra. Seems exclusively a smoggie/mackem type thing.

It's what what "everyone" has said at all. Someone was calling him a "checkbook manager" a few posts back. He didn't call him crap though, did he? It was an observation that has some credence and evidence to it. It's a point about his limitations, similar to saying he doesn't think outside the box with regards to signings, or plays football a certain way. I don't think there's a single person on here that thinks Bruce is a better or even equivalent manager. That said, I'm interested to see how he will go about the Sunderland job for a number of reasons that I've posted. No different to people saying that O'Shea and Brown were bad or average signings over the summer when all their fans were creaming themselves about their experience and reputation.

Again, nobody has said he's crap at all.

Bit gutted we'll be without Gutierrez and Cheick. Interesting to see how we line up.

That's pretty much what everybody has said. I think his faults will stick out more at Sunderland than they did at Villa. It's a considered prediction, not writing him off just because he's signing for Sunderland.

Nobody has said he's crap, but he does have faults like the Villa fan (who watched a MON team for 4 years) has listed in detail.

Same

Oh without a doubt, but you don't have to be all that to be an upgrade on fathead. I think the success of a manager is largely dependant on the situation they find themselves in. We've seen how somebody who's a good coach and motivator like Pardew who is desperate to prove himself seems to be thriving in our set-up where he has perhaps failed elsewhere. Right time, right qualities, right people around him = success. Personally, I'm just interested to see how O'Neill fits into their puzzle. I'm not sure whether his ideals mirror that of the playing squad (ie fast players, counter attacking football, big target man). They don't even have an actual left winger for a start. Who will he sign if given cash to play with? Surely they've got to open him up to the idea of looking abroad for players? Even lower league bargains are no longer bargains anymore, look how much they paid for Wickham. Where is he going to find the type of players his success at Villa was built on (Milner, Downing, Young, Agbonlahor etc) for the budget he'll be afforded?

They're practically wanking themselves silly at the thought of signing Stilyan Petrov.

The Wycombe and Leicester days are like a bygone era now, seems mad considering it's only just over a decade or so ago. I think, rightly or wrongly, you need to utilise the foreign market now for players as there isn't the same value in domestic players. If he's given a small budget now with a similar myopic approach to transfers he had at Villa I really can't see them getting anywhere. Early frenzy and good motivation will pull them up to mid-table, though.

MoN might be the fans choice, and has some sort of tattoo that looks like a black cat, but in every other aspect he really doesn't fit the bill with the current situation. Im not sure what he's like at firefighting? Its a tough long job. He needs money, he doesn't train well and more importantly he like fast attacking players which sunderland have none of. Total new attacking unit, and they don't come cheap, especially when you are desperate in January. Aye, that's basically encapsulated what I was thinking too.

O'Neill did well at Villa playing with pacey wide players on the counter. Wonder how he's gonna set up at Sunderland?

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=649643 :lol:

Seems like he's gone to shit anyway. Will probably be sold since Krul appears to be a world class keeper in the making now.

Pretty sure you were saying he was amazing as recently as the tail end of last season.