Sunderland

I would change the rules for the play offs. If teams are still level after extra time the tie should go to the team which finished highest in the season.

 

For football reasons the two best teams through to the play of final, though Charlton made hard work of it against a very average side. Portsmouth are painful to watch with the long ball shite, i think we will see a good open final.

 

If the Doncaster fans hadn't tried to get at the Charlton fans in the Jimmy Seed Stand (shared, but segregated) after their second and third goals, hence the police intervention.
Posh Owner tweeted

https://twitter.com/DMAC102/status/1129500279517396992

 

I think it gave Charlton a distinced advantage, penalties in front of their kop.
Having said that both Marquis & Rowes penalties were poor.

 

Thats the kiss of death for that tie then .

 

First half of the play off final confirmed Charlie is ineffective as a lone striker.

 

Well done Charlton, they thorougly deserved that. Sunderland were dreadful

 

Sunderland were only favourites due to Mackems putting money on them. Charlton finished the season stronger and had Taylor up front. Money spent on Grigg could have been better spent. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though. Maja was a big loss. Lee Bowyer has done a cracking job

 

As I was watching the game the commentor mentioned about Maja going to Bordeaux as he was on less than £1000/week, strange one why let a young prospect like Maja leave for the sake of upping his salary.

 

Especially as a young striker who can score will always have a resale value. I bet they suffered from the fact they probably had players on 40k and he wanted similar

 

Just reading on Wiki (not the best for facts) but it does say Sunderland made Maja a better offer but he wanted to leave.

 

Recently watched the Netflix documentary. Felt for Grayson a bit. Anyone would struggle with that squad and that director, Bain was it? Seemed a total joke and not much clue.

As for this season, if you can keep a similar squad and add 5 or 6 quality players and you’ll be right up there. Like Millwall did when they lose a few years ago.

Get some energy in midfield. Cattermole/leadbitter May be heroes in Sunderland but they are so slow. Them two together is why I think you don’t create much. Compare that to Aribo and Cullen and you can see why they did so well.

 

You're correct with all of that I think. Bain was horrific and he took a healthy £1m a year salary from us and had to be paid £4m to leave the club at the start of this season. He didn't care one bit. I agree with Catts and Leadbitter - although cattermole offers a bit of edge, he's definitely found his level at League One. I've said for years he isn't a Premier League footballer and it took two back-to-back relegations for people to realise that. We definitely need some energy in midfield, it's what the fans were begging for all January.

On the plus side it's just been announced that the club are in no debt. When the new owners took over at the end of last season we were in £200m+ worth of debt. Always look on the bright side etc.

This. Refused to play too if we didn't let him leave. He left the club with no choice but to sell him. Also messed the club around and waited until the end of January to announce this, meaning we had to 'panic buy' and overspend on Will Grigg.

 

Have you announced your retained list yet?

I’d say strengthen the spine of the side. Another good CB, thought both have looked shaky when I’ve seen you on tv and at VP.

Another 2 cms with energy and legs and at least another striker. Can never have enough over 46 games.

And then just see who else you can pick up. Is Ross expected to stay? Feel he will get you out of this league next season but his football is very safety first, hence the tonnes of draws.

But I think everyone slating quality of teams in league one next season, will be surprised. Rotherham will be up there, yourselves, Pompey again if they can keep squad together. Peterborough will give it a good go.

Then you’ve got Lincoln who came up who will be very hard to beat and Mk dons who have a good manager.

It will be a real slog to get out of that league

 

To the first question: No, or not that I know of.

Are you sure you're not a secret SAFC fan? Everything you say is pretty spot on. It's really concerning that you've recognised all of that in the short space of time of watching us over (I'm presuming) a few games yet we couldn't fix those problems in January - especially the CM problem. Jack Ross is 50/50 with fans but he'll definitely stay. As I've said on here, we had a massive turnaround and he's coped with that fantastically with such little experience. Our board have set a target of 100 points on their newest podcast due to how many teams were on/should have been on 90+ points this season.

Portsmouth fans feel they're going to be selling all their big players which is a worry for them. All of our 'big players' are our high earners, so if they were to leave it frees up a lot of money, it will be a bit less distressing if that were to happen to us. I agree Rotherham, Peterborough, MK Dons and Ipswich will be up there next season with the addition of one or two surprises.

 

I have always liked Sunderland. Not sure why. The close run we had with them for promotion and then liked to manage them on football manager too. Thought you would do it this season but not to be.

Yes of course forgot about Ipswich. Will be a very good side.

100 points for this new season? Why? Need 90 plus and you’ll do it. Think it will be a more condensed league and Bolton start on -12.

Any rumours on new signings?

 

It was so competitive this season with so many teams reaching/being close to 90 points, 90 may not be enough next season.

Marcus Maddison is the big name cropping up. Out of contract this Summer and a massive Sunderland fan - he obviously has a great record at this level. Top of the assists chart this season and got 8 goals (according to wiki) all from midfield. Seems to be exactly what we need.

 

Maybe that's the kind of arrogance that saw you fail this year though?

It's great to be confident if your own ability but you're at this level for a reason and as you've just found out, all those fans in the stand mean feck all in terms of points.

 

It was a bit of a freak season this season though. I don’t think that will happen again. 90+ points should do it. 100 is unrealistic really.
@River_City_Bantam may be able to shed some light on that.


Maddison looks a good player.

Is anyone expected to leave?