GrahamTaylor5

It is hard to blame the players. I don't care what people say about their wages and dream job etc. when you are in a negative environment, it impacts on your performance. I have worked in one before and it is depressing how it sucks you in. Part of me wonders how much of Ashley's toxic atmosphere impacted on Bruce (to a further degree, I am not a fan of Bruce). To start with, I enjoyed a bit of attacking football e.g. the cup game at home we lost to Leicester on penalties. I think Willock will have come in and managed to keep his head down and keep going but one you are sucked in it is hard to lift your head.

To be fair, Pfizer is pretty cold.

I think Manquillo was great when he came on and I think it says a lot about Lascelles when Clark coming on feels like a relief rather than a calamity of a decision. I just hope his hamstring keeps him out for a while as I think it is the one hope we have to build a bit of stability at the back.

It was nice to see the players not wet their pants when we went a goal up.

Either he got his foot or he didn't. He did so it should be a pen.

I don't get it. May be soft but I just don't get it.

To be fair, he could probably be the difference between them finishing in the top two or the play off places. Have they not been trying to build a young squad that will push on and improve? It feels like they never seem to learn from past mistakes. Even if they do manage to go up, I wouldn't be surprised if they went straight back down. Watching Sunderland till I die was a mixture of finding it amusing and feeling slightly sorry for them. I think it was the fact that it wasn't filmed/ directed in a way to try and make them look bad which I feel made it even worse for them.

With Rafa gone, Everton may slide further. Although we are not doing well, I feel the stars are aligning for us this year. I don't think we can underestimate the damage that Ashley and Bruce have cause and left and you only have to look at Sunderland to see the damage that does, even if it is amusing. It may be that Everton are in a similar boat. One can but hope.

As a professional player, would you not believe in yourself that you could be the difference and you could help dig the team out of the mess? I cannot believe this is anything other than paper talk. Not saying that I think he wants to come, but being worried that we would be relegated makes no sense. He would keep the same wage as well. There is no loss for him in the scenario. It would make more sense that Manchester United wouldn't want to do business with us to slow down our hopeful improvements in the future.

To clarify, I do not blame Howe.

I worry that the rot has finally started to take effect. I worry that the addition of players may be , not too little but, too late. We have been so bad for so long. So lucky for so long. That has to have an impact. How Lascelles gets close to a championship team let alone captain a Premier League one baffles me. I still think we could pull off a survival but my stance on Howe maybe being able to do it without any additions is definitely changed.

That is not true. We are in the position to play hard ball. It is not deadline day, players want to come. It is not just Trippier who has shown this, Botman has shown desire. We hold the cards. There is more than Botman who can improve our back line. We need to stop any panic as a fan base and trust the process. I started to doubt when Bruce was in charge for Tottenham, I was wrong. I worried when we seemed unable to find a replacement, I was wrong. I didn't actually think someone like Trippier would come here. I think we need to trust the process as they have actually shown in a short spell their capability to make good decisions.

There will be hell on over there. This will be the reason their (third tier) season gets derailed.

I think anyone who believes we are in the proverbial needs to watch Manchester United vs Burnley tonight to remind themselves of the teams who are supposed to be pulling away from us.

Marcelino must be at peak by now

Who is this Alfonso? I've not heard of him before his Trippier tweet this morning.

I just saw that. Imagine if we pulled off half these signings. It would be an immense January. I Can't believe that I am wishing away the rest of my holiday.

I think it would more short sighted not to make a move like this. We won't need all the other 30 plus players so we don't have to sign them. We will hopefully be moving onto a new criteria of player and this is what we need to facilitate the move. I see this as a step one rather than a new policy. I also see this as having a reasonable player/set of players to attract the next phase. I would be keen as a cb to sign for a team that enables me to play next to Trippier as well as be the next big thing than just be the next big thing with Lascelles one side of me and Krafth the other. It would be different if we had new owners with a reasonable wealth and we were using him just to stay in the league with no plan on how to develop this in the future. I think the fact we have interim personnel for this transfer window tells you about the fact that the transfers are for the interim. At least I hope that is whatnit means.

McClean, he is a proper footballer. Not like those lot in the Premier League or the foreign leagues. Lots of fans would want to be promoted but the Sunderland fans have realised that League One is where the real men play.

I don't understand who watches this person or why. He doesn't offer any insight into anything that is happening, he doesn't summarise or collate the insights from different sources, he doesn't offer comedic value. What am I missing? Then he seems to just stalk the players. I would understand if he was a 13 year old but I just do not get it at all.

We should hear back withing 18 months.

This is why I am not in full blown panic about us. Tottenham should restore the lead in the second half. I cannot see where the rest are going to pick up the points. I think relegation will be a very low bar this year.

With what Longstaff was saying yesterday, and with how he has played under Howe, it makes you wonder if Howe just came in and saw that he was a decent player who is not a striker. Not on the same level but I wonder how well Shearer would have played as a left back? He had a decent header and a good cross but he would have been wasted.

I think Raphina is linked with Bayern for €50. I wonder if their goals are to remain financially stable or to develop their squad.