Sunderland

[madras]

surely the opposite to Di canio would be mahatma gandhi (he plays for atletico goianiense in the same squad as john lennon)

[Guest reefatoon]

surely the opposite to Di canio would be mahatma gandhi (he plays for atletico goianiense in the same squad as john lennon)

 

Is that the same team that sold Jimmy Saville to Rotinhell Hotspur?

[Ryan]

 

surely the opposite to Di canio would be mahatma gandhi (he plays for atletico goianiense in the same squad as john lennon)

 

You just read this months FourFourTwo?

[Thomson Mouse]

Interesting stuff from a true ITK....

 

http://www.thesecretfootballer.com/articles/13468/black-cats-on-the-booze/

 

Black Cats on the booze

 

There are problems at Sunderland – big problems. The squad simply aren’t good enough on the pitch and, of even greater concern, they have too many players that do not have enough respect for the game.

 

It is no secret in football circles that there is a drinking culture at Sunderland that extends right through the core of the team. I’ve witnessed it in full swing as I’ve been in the same places drinking with many of them.

 

I can vividly remember being in Marbella when one Sunderland player ordered a Nebuchadnezzar of champagne for £75,000. Seriously. A waiter bought it out on a trolley and it took three of them to pour it every time he wanted to top up his glass.

 

And last season, after the team had been hammered on the Saturday, a friend sent me a picture of half a dozen Sunderland first-team players all holding up cigarettes and pints of beer in a pub during an all-day session on the Sunday.

 

You may also be shocked to discover how much some of these players are earning. There are whispers of £50,000, £60,000 and even £75,000-a-week contracts knocking around. The worrying thing for Sunderland’s owners is that if the team are relegated, which club would want to buy their players, both in terms of taking on a contract of that size and the quality of the player?

 

I knew that the players had not warmed to Paolo Di Canio. It would have been a most inconvenient culture shock for many of them on the day the Italian strode in with his double training sessions and penchant for fining players at the drop of a hat.

 

I heard that on the day the former West Ham United striker left his job as the manager of Swindon Town, his former players went out to celebrate.

 

Last season, the owner of a huge club told me that he was chatting to somebody at boardroom level at Sunderland who told him that they’d offered Di Canio £3 million to keep them in the Premier League as well as full settlement of his contract if he was sacked. The maths stacked up of course; it was a £5 million stake to win £100 million.

 

For all that, Di Canio, ultimately, sealed his own fate. Maybe he knew that the players had gone over his head and complained to the owners that the Italian was the wrong man for the job. When Di Canio walked towards the fans at West Bromwich after the 3-0 hammering on Saturday, I thought: “That’s it for you mate, I’m afraid”.

 

As soon as a manager makes that type of “What can I do?” gesture, either in an interview or to the fans, then, I’m sorry, he’s a dead man walking. The sympathy vote does not work in football and only serves to highlight – very publicly, too – an insecure ego.

 

I am reminded of Phil Brown berating his Hull City players on the pitch at Manchester City. He lost the dressing-room instantly – no pun intended – and, as a result of that, he lost his job also.

 

The Sunderland players, the core of that team, clearly have no interest in changing their ways. There are examples of this behaviour throughout football, perhaps most notably Fabio Capello’s insistence that the England team needed to knuckle down at tournaments and concentrate fully on the job in hand for the time that they were involved.

 

It would no longer be a holiday camp and, after all, it was only six weeks out of their lives. Surely they could handle that? They repaid him with what was, quite frankly, a collection of hugely sub-standard showings in major competitions, despite the fact that they had qualified for each tournament pretty comfortably.

 

There was never any doubt that Chelsea had the players to achieve great things

 

England had the talent to put up a better show and that was the ultimate giveaway to an underlying problem between the players and the manager. And it isn’t like Chelsea, either, where replacing a manager that the players refused to work for – Andre Villas-Boas – with their perfect “Yes man” – Roberto Di Matteo – resulted in a Champions League triumph.

 

There was never any doubt that Chelsea had the players to achieve great things. Nobody is talking about a European Cup at the Stadium of Light, of course. Success this season is entirely about Premier League survival.

 

But the point is that Sunderland simply do not have the players with the quality or commitment to make the odds of that happening any better than the outcome of the toss of a coin.

 

[Dr.Spaceman]

Cattsformelike has to be the worst captain possible if this is the case.

[TRon]

It's good to hear Di Matteo would understandably, far prefer to come to Newcastle, but I don't really know that much about him. Difficult to learn much about him at Chelsea other than he has good man-management skills and likes passing football. He would be an upgrade on Pardew though, and I think he'd jump at the chance to manage here under our current structure. The problem is we wouldn't want him because Pardew is easier to keep quiet...because he's shite and he'll be out of a job if he says too much.

[Ketsbaia]

Steven Fletcher ruled out for 4-6 weeks. Probably the derby. Big blow for them.

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

Steven Fletcher ruled out for 4-6 weeks. Probably the derby. Big blow for them.

 

Whatever you do, don't mention the 'Dore.

[hithere]

Interesting stuff from a true ITK....

 

http://www.thesecretfootballer.com/articles/13468/black-cats-on-the-booze/

 

Black Cats on the booze

 

There are problems at Sunderland – big problems. The squad simply aren’t good enough on the pitch and, of even greater concern, they have too many players that do not have enough respect for the game.

 

It is no secret in football circles that there is a drinking culture at Sunderland that extends right through the core of the team. I’ve witnessed it in full swing as I’ve been in the same places drinking with many of them.

 

I can vividly remember being in Marbella when one Sunderland player ordered a Nebuchadnezzar of champagne for £75,000. Seriously. A waiter bought it out on a trolley and it took three of them to pour it every time he wanted to top up his glass.

 

And last season, after the team had been hammered on the Saturday, a friend sent me a picture of half a dozen Sunderland first-team players all holding up cigarettes and pints of beer in a pub during an all-day session on the Sunday.

 

You may also be shocked to discover how much some of these players are earning. There are whispers of £50,000, £60,000 and even £75,000-a-week contracts knocking around. The worrying thing for Sunderland’s owners is that if the team are relegated, which club would want to buy their players, both in terms of taking on a contract of that size and the quality of the player?

 

I knew that the players had not warmed to Paolo Di Canio. It would have been a most inconvenient culture shock for many of them on the day the Italian strode in with his double training sessions and penchant for fining players at the drop of a hat.

 

I heard that on the day the former West Ham United striker left his job as the manager of Swindon Town, his former players went out to celebrate.

 

Last season, the owner of a huge club told me that he was chatting to somebody at boardroom level at Sunderland who told him that they’d offered Di Canio £3 million to keep them in the Premier League as well as full settlement of his contract if he was sacked. The maths stacked up of course; it was a £5 million stake to win £100 million.

 

For all that, Di Canio, ultimately, sealed his own fate. Maybe he knew that the players had gone over his head and complained to the owners that the Italian was the wrong man for the job. When Di Canio walked towards the fans at West Bromwich after the 3-0 hammering on Saturday, I thought: “That’s it for you mate, I’m afraid”.

 

As soon as a manager makes that type of “What can I do?” gesture, either in an interview or to the fans, then, I’m sorry, he’s a dead man walking. The sympathy vote does not work in football and only serves to highlight – very publicly, too – an insecure ego.

 

I am reminded of Phil Brown berating his Hull City players on the pitch at Manchester City. He lost the dressing-room instantly – no pun intended – and, as a result of that, he lost his job also.

 

The Sunderland players, the core of that team, clearly have no interest in changing their ways. There are examples of this behaviour throughout football, perhaps most notably Fabio Capello’s insistence that the England team needed to knuckle down at tournaments and concentrate fully on the job in hand for the time that they were involved.

 

It would no longer be a holiday camp and, after all, it was only six weeks out of their lives. Surely they could handle that? They repaid him with what was, quite frankly, a collection of hugely sub-standard showings in major competitions, despite the fact that they had qualified for each tournament pretty comfortably.

 

There was never any doubt that Chelsea had the players to achieve great things

 

England had the talent to put up a better show and that was the ultimate giveaway to an underlying problem between the players and the manager. And it isn’t like Chelsea, either, where replacing a manager that the players refused to work for – Andre Villas-Boas – with their perfect “Yes man” – Roberto Di Matteo – resulted in a Champions League triumph.

 

There was never any doubt that Chelsea had the players to achieve great things. Nobody is talking about a European Cup at the Stadium of Light, of course. Success this season is entirely about Premier League survival.

 

But the point is that Sunderland simply do not have the players with the quality or commitment to make the odds of that happening any better than the outcome of the toss of a coin.

 

 

Sure that Dave Kitson is an oracle on all things Sunderland

[Incognito]

Steven Fletcher ruled out for 4-6 weeks. Probably the derby. Big blow for them.

 

Whatever you do, don't mention the 'Dore.

 

Quality. 

[Geordie Ahmed]

Just heard "bally" speak, always assumed he was a mackem

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

Just heard "bally" speak, always assumed he was a mackem

 

Nar.  He's from down south somewhere.  His son was in the year above me at school.  He also has a southern twang.

[Ryan]

Guessing that player ordering the big bottles of champagne was Bardsley, he was in Marbella with Simpson a few months back.

[Incognito]

Just heard "bally" speak, always assumed he was a mackem

 

Nar.  He's from down south somewhere.  His son was in the year above me at school.  He also has a southern twang.

 

Can remember him playing for Pompey possibly in the same side as Micky Quinn.

[hithere]

Just heard "bally" speak, always assumed he was a mackem

 

Nar.  He's from down south somewhere.  His son was in the year above me at school.  He also has a southern twang.

 

Can remember him playing for Pompey possibly in the same side as Micky Quinn.

 

I think we signed him from Portsmouth. I'm just guessing though. I was only 5 years old at the time...

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Forgot about that Phil Brown moment

[Yorkie]

Forgot about that Phil Brown moment

 

Rotten. Di Canio's reminded me of him pretty much every day he was Sunderland boss.

[hithere]

Forgot about that Phil Brown moment

 

Rotten. Di Canio's reminded me of him pretty much every day he was Sunderland boss.

 

Me too. In terms of 'it could be worse, Phil Brown could be in charge.'

[Lotus]

Forgot about that Phil Brown moment

 

Rotten. Di Canio's reminded me of him pretty much every day he was Sunderland boss.

 

Me too. In terms of 'it could be worse, Phil Brown could be in charge.'

 

Were you disappointed Di Canio went? Serious question tbw...

[Big Geordie]

Short asking the players who they want? That will end well!

[Fugazi]

Phil Bardsley will probably ask for Ned Flanders, for the pure frisk.

[OzzieMandias]

surely the opposite to Di canio would be mahatma gandhi (he plays for atletico goianiense in the same squad as john lennon)

 

The opposite of Di Canio would surely be Egil Olsen – communist Norwegian long-ball merchant who wears wellingtons.

[hithere]

Forgot about that Phil Brown moment

 

Rotten. Di Canio's reminded me of him pretty much every day he was Sunderland boss.

 

Me too. In terms of 'it could be worse, Phil Brown could be in charge.'

 

Were you disappointed Di Canio went? Serious question tbw...

 

I wouldn't say disappointed if I'm being honest. I just felt that he should have been given more time. Our players obviously missed the fact they only gad to train twice a week.

[jdckelly]

Short asking the players who they want? That will end well!

christ I know the players egos probably need a bit of a pick me up after months of Di Canio mocking them but thats too far the other way. Also doesn't reflect well on Short himself if he hasn't a clue who to appoint.

[hithere]

Forgot about that Phil Brown moment

 

Rotten. Di Canio's reminded me of him pretty much every day he was Sunderland boss.

 

Me too. In terms of 'it could be worse, Phil Brown could be in charge.'

 

Were you disappointed Di Canio went? Serious question tbw...

 

I wouldn't say disappointed if I'm being honest. I just felt that he should have been given more time. Our players obviously missed the fact they only had to train twice a week.