David Kelly

Again, the people who brought us the team are responsible. Be that for recommending poor players (Carr), not being able to coach/motivate them (McClaren), allowing McClaren to stay in charge too long or be in charge in the first place (Carr & Charnley), for not allowing us to address the weaknesses in the squad (Ashley, Charnley, Carr possibly) and for making the club one that the players don't give a fuck about (Ashley). I'm not aportioning all the blame on Carr or saying that he had no successes. We all know it ultimately falls on Ashleys door but those under him (Charnley, Carr, McClaren, Pardew) have all failed us too. As I said earlier, in Carr's case, I believe his biggest failings probably come from him being given too much power in certain areas.

You're daft if you expect any sense or reasonable structured arguments from them. Years of inbreeding have taken the average IQ in Sunderland down to single digits. I'm surprised most of them can manage to say more than hodor.

Hope he's ok.

I'm not discounting anything. I said the people who brought us the team were to blame. That includes the coaches, scouts, MD's and Owner. They're all responsible. And I don't like using a small sample to extrapolate the form of a season. I believe Rafa would kept us up mind, I just don't think such a small amount of mathematical data should be used as some sort of evidence. BTW, by all accounts Carr was the man who pushed for McClaren and wanted to give him more time. So when you're talking about how the coaches are to blame you have to factor in who put them in the position too.

It's interesting looking at the form of some of our batsmen so far this county season. Hales & Compton have done nothing and Root scored very little in the first match he played in (scored 200 in the next mind). And Finn has scored more than Stokes this season. Whereas Bairstow got a 180 and a 200 and he's looking in good nick here so far.

That's not the rationale at all. The rationale I'm using is a team that gets you relegated is not a success and the people who brought you that team aren't either. I agree all of them have put in some good performances but most of them have overall failed to deliver what they were brought in for.

It's shocking how many times we end up a hundred for five and have to rely on someone (usually Root) to dig us out of a hole. Hopefully Hales can dig in for a century, it could be a massive moment for him.

13 of those players that you considering somewhat successful have just got us relegated. Forgive me if I'm not particularly imrpessed with our recruitment.

The form you talk about with Monaco is ten league goals. It's hardly sparkling form for one of the best teams (at the time) in a generally poor league. It was a poor gamble even without hindsight and it reflects badly on the people who took it. And Carr is one of those poeple . I'm in no way absolving Charnley mind. He's a much bigger problem who I hope can be managed by our new manager.

I never saw him play for Monaco but from the first minute he arrived he looked clearly not up to scratch. I doubt if many of us had watched him in ligue 1 we'd have recommended him for us. I'm not arguing he's completly hopeless btw. He's made some good recommendations as well as the ones that were either unrealistic or shite, and he's been working under restrictions that limit his ability to sign good players. I just get annoyed when people absolve him of responsibility for his errors. The biggest problem is, he's just a scout and has ended up with too much influence. A big reason for that is the lack of any other football knowledge in the club.

Then The Big Red One followed by The Black Hole. Actually that might be veering off colour themed into a whole different category.

I don't think however useless Charnley is, that he's setting out a criteria of players who are clearly not premier league standard. Riviere clearly fits into that category. And if Carr can't find a better player than Riviere for that money then I would again argue that means he's failing at his job.

Surely his job was to identify players who were right for the team at the time? What's the point recommending players who are just about to sign for top European clubs for amounts we aren't going to pay? Me or you could do that.

So he should have recommended shit players who were never going to be good enough?

What a bellend he really is.

I saw that on Friday and really enjoyed it. Stewart is very menacing in a calm way. Some very tasty scenes in it. Had me wincing a few times. Blue Ruin by the same director is also very good. I watched Crimson Tide last night which I'd never seen before. Really good film and nice to watch Denzel before he started playing the same role in everything.

Can't beat crying scousers can you.

I always suspected you would have a massive head. I imagine Mike Myers brother from So I Married An Axe Murderer.

Hope the scan goes well for you Steve.

There is a hipocracy in what Shearer is saying but I say it's not relevant because I'm only concerned with what Mitro does not what people say about him. Although on the other hand, if pundits keep saying it, it's going to stay in the referee's mind more and they're more likely to be harsh with him. In the championship where we'll get less coverage it's not going to be as big an issue though. Whilst I still think his first red was harsh, I can see why it was given and this later one being a worse version of a similar challenge makes it look worse. I think the refs will take that into consideration next term. But I don't think there's that much of a deal being made of it. It's obviously a talking point for us but it's not been plastered all over the press like Costa's incidents have been (the fact that it was last day of the season, there was no injury and it didn't effect the result helped there) and I don't think anyone is getting overly excited. But you can't ignore it.

Of course Shearer was agressive and could go over the top but he didn't have a record like Mitro and he's not playing now so it's not relevant. The thing that concerns me is the type of sendings off he's getting. I don't know what his previous ones were but the two last season were very similar both within one season. That's too much and no team wants a player who's going to be banned for six or seven matches a season. He didn't react well to be sent off this time either which is another concern.

He'd been fine since the sending off against Arsenal but you still have to worry about a 21 year old striker who has been sent off five times already. He's not a defender having to do a last ditch tackle, his sendings off seem to be for going over the top when he's lost the plot. You could argue his first dismissal for us was harsh (I certainly thought it was) but you could also argue both were for similar dangerous challenges. And you could see he'd clearly went mental on Sunday. I'm not saying he can't sort it out but he does need to sort it or whoever his manager is, they're not going to be able to trust him at important times.

Depends on whether there is any trust of Charnley from Benitez.