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Thomson Mouse

Thomson Mouse

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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

 

I'm sure it's fairly accurate TBF. He sees to know what's going on in wearyside more tha our lot, though maybe he can't speak French ;-)

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hithere

hithere

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There's a few obvious pissheads there like - Johnson being the worst apparently but I've brought that up before.

 

Been told it's a hardcore of Cattermole, Bardsley, Fletcher, Johnson and Wickham.

 

Although Johnson and Cattermole were both said to have embraced Di Canio's training methods before everything turned sour.

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Guest Haris Vuckic

Guest Haris Vuckic

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Ah right!

 

I've never heard a single good thing about Johnson like! Apparently he was on the piss straight after training. Properly as well. :lol:

 

It was a mackem who kept telling me things like that too.

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hithere

hithere

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Ah right!

 

I've never heard a single good thing about Johnson like! Apparently he was on the p*ss straight after training. Properly as well. :lol:

 

It was a mackem who kept telling me things like that too.

 

Actually attempted to build bridges with Di Canio apparently. Hence him being made captain the other week. Have been told by various quarters he is a massive p*ss artist like.

 

Although I wouldn't care if he performed to his capacity every week.

 

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Minhosa

Minhosa

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Ah right!

 

I've never heard a single good thing about Johnson like! Apparently he was on the p*ss straight after training. Properly as well. :lol:

 

It was a mackem who kept telling me things like that too.

 

Actually attempted to build bridges with Di Canio apparently. Hence him being made captain the other week. Have been told by various quarters he is a massive p*ss artist like.

 

Although I wouldn't care if he performed to his capacity every week.

 

 

Do you rate him Hithere? Given the chance to rewind, would you buy him again?

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Guest Haris Vuckic

Guest Haris Vuckic

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Ah right!

 

I've never heard a single good thing about Johnson like! Apparently he was on the p*ss straight after training. Properly as well. :lol:

 

It was a mackem who kept telling me things like that too.

 

Actually attempted to build bridges with Di Canio apparently. Hence him being made captain the other week. Have been told by various quarters he is a massive p*ss artist like.

 

Although I wouldn't care if he performed to his capacity every week.

 

 

Tbf I think for someone of Johnson's age or older - who has grown up in England - surely Di Canio must've been a player they respected?

 

Because he was a brilliant player and I imagine that buys you the initial respect you win as a manager.

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Troll

Troll

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There's a few obvious pissheads there like - Johnson being the worst apparently but I've brought that up before.

 

Been told it's a hardcore of Cattermole, Bardsley, Fletcher, Johnson and Wickham.

 

Although Johnson and Cattermole were both said to have embraced Di Canio's training methods before everything turned sour.

 

http://i2.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article1314592.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Steven%20Fletcher-1314592.jpg

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Guest Haris Vuckic

Guest Haris Vuckic

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:lol:

pleased you got it. I was worried it would be seen as my normal typos.

 

There's a lad on here who does it - though I can't remember him :lol:

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hithere

hithere

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Ah right!

 

I've never heard a single good thing about Johnson like! Apparently he was on the p*ss straight after training. Properly as well. :lol:

 

It was a mackem who kept telling me things like that too.

 

Actually attempted to build bridges with Di Canio apparently. Hence him being made captain the other week. Have been told by various quarters he is a massive p*ss artist like.

 

Although I wouldn't care if he performed to his capacity every week.

 

 

Do you rate him Hithere? Given the chance to rewind, would you buy him again?

 

I do. The talent is there. He just needs to be in a side where he's not the only attacking outlet. An overlapping full back would improve his performance ten fold.

 

 

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