acrossthepond

Embarrassing.

Definitely, de Jong should be brought on.

Waddle definitely just murmured "Well, they have got a 12th man today, Arsenal" after the ref chested the ball down.

On the other hand, he's not nearly as biased against us as other pundits are.

Astonishing bit of cheating. What the fuck is he playing at.

Very poor refereeing, I don't think any of the cards have been deserved. A yellow for Mitrovic would've done, there was no intent. Nothing in the fouls by Sissoko and Mbemba.

Fuck me, not sure how I missed this the first time but I've just spent the last half hour laughing hysterically at this shit, bairn woken up and all. Brilliant stuff

He's French Moroccan you divvy. How unlike you to not know every single detail about a Sunderland player.

Surely a yellow, I've never seen a clearer attempt at a rugby tackle.

After the first few minutes we've been the match of them. Mbemba having a great game, Mitrovic has been surprisingly good as well. Perez/Haidara combo is working out quite well on the left. Obertan is obviously not even close to being PL standard and should be replaced at halftime by Thauvin. Taylor has been decent too although he played Rooney on.

So, about that.

Probably crocked himself somehow because he didn't want a third successive relegation on his CV.

Obertan has no football intelligence either. All the athleticism in the world and no idea of how to use it. It's painful to watch sometimes. Marveaux is a worthless waste of a footballer. If we'd had him in our midfield last year instead of Colback we'd have gone down. I'd prefer it if I never saw him wearing our shirt again. He might've flattered to deceive at a club like Liverpool or Tottenham, he'd look good in routs, but we don't have the quality of player to carry him.

I think Bigirimana was totally wrecked by Pardew, although rumours of his mystery illness persist. Seeing him played at RB gives a good idea of how McClaren rates him: not at all. Vuckic was a good prospect but his horrendous injury record effectively finished him at the top level. He might end up a good Championship midfielder yet.

Agreed. Godspeed gentlemen.

Tree Ryder.

Gouffran was good when he joined us, he's just been completely and totally Pardewed. He started as a pacy winger who would drive at goal and put pressure on defenders. Chipped in with a few goals too. But Pardew turned him into a worthless central midfielder whose only attribute is to jog around looking like he's carrying an injury.

Dreadful is definitely a bit too far. As other posters have said though, we've seen his limits now. He's not ever going to be any better than he was last season. In last season's utterly dire team he was good enough (more than good enough to be fair to him), but if we have any intention of moving up the table he should definitely be a squad player rather than a guaranteed starter.

I'll go on record as saying we won't sign Thauvin. We've been linked with him for something like three years and the bloke simply isn't interested. I'm not sure we're even interested. I think it's just hacks digging up this undying 'link' and going "need a few sentences about NUFC, let's throw something in about Thauvin" every six months or so.

You only have to abstain while you're fasting, so yes, I'd reckon he probably did. It's a myth that you can't have sex for the entire month.

Very pleased with this signing, hope Austin is still on as well. Two 8-figure fees being spent suddenly gives a little credence to the idea that we might be competitive this year, although both have also been signed with resale value in mind. Mbemba (sp?) was also absent from training and hopefully he's next through the door. He was named in the Belgian team of the season, as well as Mitrovic, and I read a belgian pundit saying he's the best defender in the country. As well he might be, considering he admits to being 4 years older than his official birthday.

It's McClaren, like.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and hope that one didn't come from the comedy account.

I see Real Sociedad are being linked with Joel Campbell for 6m. We should be in there, that's the same we paid for Riviere the donkey, and Campbell is loads better going off his WC performances. Mitrovic/Austin, Cisse, Campbell and Riviere as backup would be a decent strike force.

Lascelles is a humongous bloke but he looked very limited as a footballer. We were extremely lacking in sharpness which is understandable obviously and it didn't make for very pleasant viewing. Sissoko in particular looked very unimpressed with our opponents and seemed like he couldn't be bothered after about 60 minutes or so. It wasn't a very friendly friendly, there were a lot of very spicy tackles flying in around the 55-75 minute period and there was no openness at all to the second half. de Jong barely touched the ball. Not exactly riveting stuff.