Rayvin

This is what he's going to point to as evidence of him being "balanced" the next time he's carrying on like a bellend.

Aye, supporters of Schalke are going to wake up soon to find they've actually been in a previously unknown but deeply intense 30-40 year relationship with Sunderland based on a Schalke fan once having a pint with a mackem who he probably mistook for a Stoke supporter.

Also had no idea about this, but will start paying more attention to Schalke from now on

I always think there's another really significant distinction between the way we talk about them and the way they talk about us though - mostly their threads are discussing NUFC itself, so the club, its results, etc. Their focus and obsession is Newcastle. This thread is discussing their obsession with us, not so much Sunderland itself. Most of their games don't even get a mention on here. We don't talk about their players unless they turn out to be paedos, and only talk about the club directly if its doing something hilarious. If you took out all the discussion in this thread about their obsession with us, I doubt it beats 200 pages in full, even over however many years. None of their threads are focused on what we think about them, it's all directed fully at the club itself. That is the purity of their devotion to NUFC. This thread is schadenfraude, their's is a jealous love letter.

It's going to be a top ten consolidation season, not a European push. Which was all it was ever going to be really unless some absolute gems became available at quite low prices on the transfer market. We're a good team, the players all try, the system is great, I can't really fault any of them for effort - but we just don't have the depth to make sure we always have quality to cover when the key men are out. It's fine though, we'll improve. The thing that should really be satisfying to us at this stage is that the system of play works. It really does. The players have bought into it, and I think at this point we've been consistently good for about half a season, maybe more. That's not a flash in the pan or a purple patch, it's just the level we have now. It's been a great start for both Howe and the new owners. We just need to be patient.

I see we're laying the groundwork for a Miggy goal and assist today, nice one lads.

Maybe he's counting the one that will be wrongly ruled offside as well.

Tbh no, I was referring more to his handling of the questions and the sorts of responses he was giving, rather than the words chosen Wouldn't be drawn on anything around expectations for the season or setting himself up for failure.

Aye that interviewer is painful - I get that this is soft PR stuff but howay man, you can be a bit more real. EDIT - seems like an intelligent lad to me.

Also like the sentiment that we need to "get back to" kindness and compassion. Don't recall those being particularly strong sentiments in my reading of human history tbh. But aye, that is fake as hell

True but tbf I don't think he came out of that looking like the bitch

Also done.

I think it's Sunderland kind of by default but if this question was asked in 2 years time I think it could be someone else. Sunderland are nothing now.

His whole feed is talking about "our team" from a Liverpool perspective. He's one of them, not us. Don't think we're remotely on his radar tbh. Be interesting to see what happens when we're ahead of them.

Not quite sure I follow, I thought Caulkin was one of the good guys?

I still think people should be focusing on how close we came to quite comfortably dispatching them on their home turf with a second string team, rather than the fact we lost in the final moments. It's not like it was a boring game either, Klopp himself is apparently going to remember it for years to come

I struggle a bit with this notion that our gameplan "backfired". If we hadn't played like this, are we saying we might have avoided defeat? IMO we got the best outcome possible out of that game in terms of the tactics we took in. Our tactics didn't cost us the game, they nearly won us the game.

Really looking forward to Palace at the weekend now much easier run of games coming up.

I mean that's the thing though, as much as those comments might have hurt in the past, they're entirely impotent now. We will, eventually, properly take Liverpool apart. We may not do it every time, we may not do it at Anfield (although I think we will). But we will, possibly even this season, properly do them over. It's coming. They know it, we know it, there is only one way this goes from here. They will have to acknowledge us eventually, even if they do so though gritted teeth and lamentations of faux concern about Saudi Arabia. It's going to hurt them a lot more than their bitching now can hurt us. Same for Klopp too, the bellend. He's going to have to choke on it too.

Having been going back and forth a bit in the guardian comment sections and Liverpool fans on there are fucking furious with us There is some relief, some celebration, but more than anything there is rage and fear. Man I'm going to make sure I squeeze every last drop of enjoyment out of it as we eventually start turning over these dynasty clubs on our way upwards. The rage, the vitriol, the cries of indignation. Maybe I'm a bad person but I am going to absolutely love it.

The thing is as well, Howe is going to get the last laugh there. After that game, for the first time in a long time, I am actually looking forward to the next time we play Liverpool. And you can bet Klopp won't be.

Yeah Klopp always struck me as a decent bloke but I'm now starting to understand that this is only to teams that are no threat to him, and which his side regularly turns over. When you're competing with them he's an absolute weapon.

I genuinely think they're going to be scared of us ahead of that game

What is that even meant to be?

Agreed - and maybe why we're going to see wider use of the squad more generally. The way this is set up, we need to use the squad more broadly, which is again why we need to take our time growing the team properly rather than just getting an A grade first team (which we more or less have).