Alex

Yeah I know. However I still think they were much better in their old format even after the advent of the CL.

It would have been televised live too. Whilst not many people had television most fans who couldn’t get to Wembley could’ve probably managed to watch it somehow. At the very least a lot of people including neutrals would’ve listened in. I think the league is rightly bigger now but I think one of the major things for making it less of an occasion was having it on the same day as other PL games after the CL final was moved to a Saturday. It was nice it being after the season finished again this year. Although I assume that’s a one off because of the mid-season World Cup

Mentioned it on here that Charlie Crowe talks about it in one of his books. It was 50/51. After they win the replay they only won one more league game until the final. They won their last two but they were after the final. They finished well behind spurs in the end but still came 4th

What’s kind of daft with the European trophy set up is that the UEFA Cup and the CWC were great competitions. And now they’ve gone back to 3 competitions but with the Conference diminished compared to the previous two (and the Europa League probably is a bit too). I know the CL had to happen but I reckon you’d improve things by having a return to a UEFA Cup / CWC that were both straight knockout competitions. This probably won’t happen because UEFA seem obsessed with a league format in every competition. But these early league games seem to have no interest at all for the neutral

pretending to be arsed about those things because of football makes him a paragon of virtue of course.

Completely forgot it was last night tbh. Canny for West Ham. Don’t really mind them in the grand scheme of things. We’d have been over the moon. Also worth it for the Weirdside seethe

A Norwegian white male fascist pretending to be a Norwegian female Muslim fascist 👍🏻

The irony is Dan Neil would have to leave Sunderland for that to be right (not that I think the mackem has any chance of being proven correct).

I think Gordon was signed as much to be a utility player as anything else. His physique, athleticism and ability to cover the front 3 positions plus midfield is a great thing for a side in Europe and still lacking in depth.

Sunderland and Boro have had better academies than ours for fucking decades. If the biggest club in the region can’t even pick up the best local talent it’s not a great sign. I realise it’s not just about nurturing local talent and hasn’t been for ages, but we haven’t been very good at signing and developing kids from elsewhere either

They call it dirty money but it’s actually completely legit

They were pinning their hopes on that being something that was going to invalidate the ownership iirc. Despite it being largely irrelevant

Probably pissed off about Wood and Shelvey as well. I would be

The other thing is that he’s just too wee (like Prince was)

Shola as well 👍🏻

He’s not going to Arsenal, Sheila

He was fucking dogshit against West Ham at home and someone on Twitter was arguing Howe was making him play as a DM. This was based on a stat of him having made some tackles / interceptions. He was clearly playing LW but as you say people seem to love making excuses for him. I don’t really get the fanboy / girl mentality tbh. It might be different if he was a club legend but he isn’t anywhere near that yet. I’m much more arsed about the team performance funnily enough. Also, oddly, he seems to play better from the off and struggles as an impact sub. Whereas you’d think he would be effective in that role.

Tremendous attributes

Yeah but he hardly bowls any more, is susceptible to short-pitched bowling and has a terrible record against them.

Moeen being mooted. Aussies will be licking their lips

For blackface?

That’s a pretty generous way of portraying 12 league starts (and 14 starts in all competitions).

I agree with you. I think the “we’ve got our club back” as a slogan is perhaps a bit cringey. But in trying to be clever, he just looks like a fucking moron. No one is in any doubt as to who owns the club. What anyone with half a brain cell would realise is that people are talking about having players and a manager etc. that connect with the fans. Having an entertaining team winning football matches, providing one of the best seasons in living memory, being a professionally run club from top to bottom, etc., etc. Basically everything we could only dream about under the previous owner. The saltiness from him and the other cunts you mention is delicious tbh. Especially given it’s essentially down to hypocrisy and jealousy

It is if you take about 3 matches to get up to speed on top of that. He might be alright for now, but if we continue to progress as planned the squad places become more precious if you’re competing on more fronts. Also you’re not seriously suggesting that if he’s been out for 4 or 5 games Howe will stick him straight back in the starting XI are you? Because we know that’s not likely so it makes the point moot about him playing the c. 75% of matches he was / might be available for