Harry 209

"Xaka/Le Bris/Sodiki/Bollard just gets this club/city" What this popular modern football cliche essentially translated means: "Our players are currently performing satisfactorily".

Kid Icarus mock up looks dead right including blue stripes.

That looks like the 76-83 badge on the away to me. With the trefoil and hopefully a good sponsor this could be great.

Henry Creel: Cyril Louis Dreyfuss:

Also no sponsor on the shirts but all the other shirts on the leak have sponsors, so fairly sure a new sponsor is incoming.

Home and away per FH (definitely not Juventus as they appear further down in the leak):

The only thing worse than a sunderland fan is an Everton supporting sunderland fan.

Speaking of people obsessed with NUFC - the BBC's 'Fan's Voice' for sunderland, Gavon Hendarson, had this to say on the BBC Sport website this week: "we are superior to our neighbours up the road who sold out to a Saudi-led consortium. And for what? Nobody likes them. No neutral watching that game wanted to see Newcastle United emerge victorious." To answer Gavon's question "And for what?", the answer is a major trophy and X2 Champions League qualification within 4 years. Which means more than being liked by Aston Villa and Everton fans if you ask me.

Give me some of whatever Sandro was on tonight!

Wow - their official FB page has just posted "FTM"!😃

A good and reasonable post on their official Facebook page: "It’s nearly a decade since we last faced Newcastle United in the league - a gap unmatched outside of wartime - and as the game approaches, we all prepare in our own way, balancing nerves, optimism, and expectation. Growing up in a Sunderland household, you learn early without ever questioning why. It becomes a weekly ritual, and when the two sides meet, the stakes rise exponentially. Trying to explain it to those outside the area is difficult. This rivalry is a feeling shaped by around 140 years on the pitch, and even longer off it. Its footballing roots stretch back to 1886, when Sunderland believed they had won their first FA Cup tie against Newcastle West End, only for it to be scratched from the record after a complaint about bad light, forcing a replay that Newcastle won. Yet it’s complicated. In the North East, friends, family, and colleagues often support opposite sides, and the region has had to stand together through tougher times. But this fixture allows us to be proudly tribal, to celebrate our city, and to show just how special it is to follow Sunderland AFC. There have been periods when one club has sat higher than the other, but the gap has rarely felt wider than in recent years. The fight to get back here gives this moment its meaning. On paper it’s just three points - in reality, it’s a marker of how far we’ve come. Whatever happens, we’re back, and the future is bright. Let’s enjoy every minute."

I've also heard a rumour that their flag display on Sunday will reference FTM but it will say "Follow the Mackems". I will absolutely piss myself laughing if it references us in some way.

This week has emphatically proven that their fanbase is wholly consumed by NUFC. There forum is devoted to us now. Over here you have a 15 page match thread and 3 pages of extra content on the SAFC thread. Over there you have dozens of new threads dedicated to NUFC (including a new one called "Geordies and mags that aren’t from Newcastle thread" which is FOURTEEN pages long), literally thousands of new posts, and that doesn't even take into account the stuff they hide behind the members only thing (which I assume is where most of the discussion is). God knows how much NUFC content they are hiding there. They can't argue any other way anymore. After many attempts of manufacturing an identity over the years, they do actually now have a very strong identity.The indisputable fact for SAFC is: FTM IS OUR IDENTITY!

Their forum is 99% talking about NUFC now, up from the usual 90% talking about NUFC. They arent obsessed with NUFC and Fly2U says he can't name a single NUFC player:

I had a look at that Twitter page someone posted above, they look pretty legit and they are flat out saying we have already qualified: https://x.com/FootRankings?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

Why you not bothered about the result, are you thinking we'll definitley beat PSV? They looked good against Liverpool.

"FTM IS OUR IDENTITY"

NUFC fans should look at some unexpected results by lesser teams against the big 6 and be grateful for this result.

Burnley have only been turned over once this season, this is a good win. Most of their games a quite tight.

Good stuff from the Chronicle last night reviewing Miley's performance: and Gordon's:

Waving a geet massive flag with a cannon on it behind the goal (by a person who sits there all game waiting for a goal to be scored).

The 'SoL Expansion' thread over on RTG is peak delusion. I don't know why they just can't accept that the SoL is about the right size for them, if possibly a few thousand seats too big. The evidence is there right in front of everybody's eyes, they can't fill their stadium even when they are the best they've been in living memory and are in a Champions League place.

Just watched MotD. The Stadium of Empty Seats.

You coukd only get the correct printing done at the club shop, that one was probably done at Dixons/Monument/McGurk Sports