TheBrownBottle

Yes; that’s 100% on the club and the owners in particular - he should’ve been sold much, much sooner; as soon as they knew. But we are where we are - and neither Wissa nor Woltemade look like they’re worth two-thirds of what we paid, allowing for the ‘Isak tax’

While two tiresome gobshites and a genius who can’t speak English doesn’t sound like a great lunch, I’m happy with the thought that a politically-outraged coked-up Diego would likely end up shitting on Trump’s dinner plate. Though it would likely be followed by Gervais grumbling about Maradona ‘cancelling’ Trump’s dinner.

It’s all relative, though - Osula cost a fraction of Woltemade’s fee, and if he’d turned out to be good it would’ve been a cheap gamble that paid off.

Bobby Robson ‘built a team around’ an ageing Shearer - he added pace in the form of Bellamy and Robert along with Dyer who was already there. KK did the same with Cole, who effectively was fed as part of a front five. ’Building a team around’ a forward is hardly a fan-led idea. Howe did that with Isak - we played to his strengths, which is all it really means. The team isn’t set up to play to Woltemade’s strengths - which is what opens up the question about whether we ‘build a team around him’ i.e. sell the players we have and replace them with players better suited to provide him with the best support and adapt our style of play, or we sell him and replace him with a player who better fits how we play at present.

Rogan Taylor suggested precisely this in the 1990s, along with clubs manufacturing their own kits. The laziness and the incompetence of the commercial teams involved in football is what stops it - they get patted on the back for agreeing ‘massive’ kit deals with Nike, adidas etc - which is about as difficult as opening a couple of emailed tenders

There’s as many anti-NUFC slogans as there are Sunderland-supporting ones - which confirms that this is real and not AI

Yes, beating Qarabag twice, this iteration of Benfica and that Belgian side is right up there with Clough and Paisley’s achievements.

UEFA seem pretty convinced it’s the same competition. As do all the clubs who compete in it - unless of course Bayern are going to remove three of the stars from their badge. It was rebranded and the format has changed but it is the same competition. Same goes for the English top flight - or have we now won zero league titles?

Not sure if the OG post was tongue-in-cheek, though I think it is best to try and be careful when there are some well-worn racist tropes around use of the term ‘lazy’ (and I also think it has to be allowed that not everyone will be aware that there is a trope re the stereotyping of black people as ‘lazy’ - I can take in reasonably good faith that anyone saying it really does mean it in the usual sense). I’m not sure anyone on here is wilfully making that connection (I hope not anyway). I also think Wissa comes across as a bit of mercenary tbh - which I can live with if he performs. We’ve had plenty of players on the books where that applies - some have been great, some ok, some shite. His attitude with Brentford was shit, frankly, and should’ve sounded a warning (what happened to the ‘no dickheads’ policy?).

Chris Waddle, Kevin Brock, Nicky Butt, Damien Duff, Alan Smith, Mark Viduka, Laurent Robert, Marcelino, Michael Owen, HBA, David Ginola, Mick Quinn, Stephen Carr to name but a few off the top of my head are players I can remember getting flak for being ‘lazy’ - some of them were great players for the club, too. In terms of black players getting that sobriquet, Moussa Sissoko springs to mind. I’m aware of the racist associations with perceived ‘laziness’, and I’m also aware of the tendency for commentators to laud black players’ physical strengths while white players’ ‘intelligence’ is credited far more regularly, suggesting attributes are based upon race (which is textbook racism). But I don’t think folks thinking Wissa is lazy stems from this (though it might the case for some). Personally I think Woltemade isn’t far behind in the pisspoor lack of aggression and application stakes - but Wissa has looked unfit and lacking in the basic requirements for effort so far.

Most of the experienced players switched off for obvious reasons. The idea that playing against the shower we played midweek is indicative of anything isn’t to be taken seriously - ‘Champions League’ or not, they were shitter than the Bradford side we faced in the league cup earlier this season. If Howe picks the lad, it will be because he thinks he’s good enough - he looks miles away to me. I’d be astonished if Murphy gets the nod for a game as important as this one.

It’s not arrogant to suggest that Germany has the weakest side it’s had in a long time - I think Conjo was actually being generous - it’s possibly the worst Germany side since the 1940s. Performance in international tournaments supports the statement. In the sixty years after West Germany’s win in the 1954 WC (das wunder von Bern) Germany (or West Germany) never once failed to make it out of the group stage, and only once didn’t make at least the QF. In fact, the made 50% of the finals between 1954 and 2014 (when of course they won it again). After 2014, they exited at the group stage at both WCs - despite getting out of the groups never being easier due to the bloated nature of modern WCs. So the Germany of the last decade are historically shite in comparison to what went before.

The ‘it’s a WC year and they haven’t had a proper preseason’ excuses are already being drafted for next season

In fairness your mates are unlikely to actually be watching all of our games like we are. I’m sure seeing YouTube clips of him scoring with every touch seemed impressive - but we’ve actually seen this before in English football with players coming out of the traps and fading relatively quickly (Yeboah, Cisse etc). I give less than two shites about which country a player plays for - being Germany’s no.9 is meaningless if Germany aren’t much cop (and they’re not). Playing up top for Germany is not an indication that he’s a Gerd Muller regen. Not sure where and when he was regarded as the second best summer CF transfer. There’s plenty of time for him to come good, and hopefully he does. But to deny that there are indications that he won’t is to deny the evidence of our eyes. He isn’t doing the basics, and having the odd nice touch doesn’t make him Bergkamp reincarnate either. He needs to show a hell of a lot more than he has at present - it’s not about goals to me (though they help) but the fact he isn’t really contributing or busting a gut to get goals that is a problem. We don’t play with a SS so I don’t know what the lad is meant to do if he isn’t going to be any use as a CF - and we sure as shit shouldn’t be paying club record fees for yet another midfielder when he wouldn’t be one of the best three if everyone is fit.

😁 you never know, maybe he’ll surpass them all. But I’d love to see him channel Cloughie with Wissa and Woltemade - ‘get in there; that’s what I pay you for!’

Remember folks, European football was also invented in 1992 - it wasn’t just English football invented that season. So while some who think they actually remember football history might think ‘hang on, Tony Barton, Brian Clough, Bob Paisley, Jimmy Armfield and Joe Fagan matched or bettered that’, they are wrong.

Because the fitness requirements to be a spectator at a top flight football match are different from those to actually play in the match? I’d hope so anyway.

He was 21 that season - he’d just broken into the first team at the very end of the previous season. He scored 30 goals that year. He was past 200 top level goals (excluding internationals) by the time he was Woltemade’s age. They aren’t even in the same ballpark as one another - Kane was a far, far better player (never mind goalscorer) than Woltemade was at the same age. Certainly no-one was talking about how young Harry Kane was in 2017. It isn’t a fair comparison, but if folks are going to make it then Woltemade is not going to come near.

What would new stadium bring, and what would its purpose be? We know Ashley doesn’t give a shit about commercials - he shrank our matchday and commercial revenue. You also don’t need a super duper new stadium to survive in the PL - you would if you want Sheff Wed to be ambitious. But the height of Ashley’s ambitions would be finishing 17th. He’d do the bare minimum with a training ground too - nothing that a few wheelie bins filled with ice water can’t fix. Goodson did Everton ok for long enough despite being comparable in age to Hillsborough.

There’s every chance he’s harbouring the delusion that he got us promoted twice at the first time of asking - so how hard can it be? The ‘football men’ he surrounded himself with at NUFC were all gobshites too. But as ramshackle as Hillsborough is at this point, he won’t need a new stadium, just a spruce-up (for instance I doubt Hillsborough’s floodlights etc have been updated to meet PL standards), and any investment is a gamble. It is entirely possible that you spend less than £100m and end up with a club worth £300m in a short space of time.

There’s every part of me which thinks Ashley should be nowhere near a football club, and another which thinks he won’t buy Sheff Wed for any other reason than to get them into the top flight to help sell his tat before flipping them for a profit. It’s crazy that a club the size of Sheff Wed hasn’t been in the top division in this century; so I doubt their support would be unhappy.

It’s the FA and FL which ultimately impose it, but it’s based on a UEFA statute (though the blackout originated in England - Burnley’s old chairman Bob Lord pushed for it in the ‘60s): https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0277-159787c43c1a-3cf5b2cbb931-1000/regulations_governing_implementation_of_article_48.pdf

I’d rather they weren’t being ripped off to enjoy what should be their birthright. In the modern game, that’s too much to ask - so better to charge 400 people a premium. It should be duly noted that the club are happily demanding that the support pay inflated prices in line with ‘elite’ clubs while taking their sweet time about hoying the wedge at necessary investments.

Depends, it isn’t as stupid as it sounds. I remember seeing Juan Sebastian Veron and Angel Di Maria being mediocre.

Speaks more of a transfer strategy akin to a blindfolded man throwing darts at a dart board to me. No joined-up thinking.