Sunderland 'Til I Cry: EFL and beyond 19/20

Who was ready last weekend? I mean, Fulham weren't

West Brom looked pretty slick vs Forest. Huddersfield were unfortunate last night.

Obviously looking forward to the Cocu / Rooney coaching team Derby are aiming to line up before the window ends.

lol all three relegated prem teams lost right?

do unfortunately think sunderland will smash l1 this year

I'm ready... it's our fuckwitted backpassing to rookie goalkeeper, english cb that isn't! But despite a mixed performance and still looking toothless/clueless in the last 3rd. Diakhaby's lightning pace and Grant's cool as a cucumber, totally confident penalty strike tells me mid table is doable!

Bradford Park Avenue sack their new management team (appointed in May) after two consecutive 5-0 losses.

Is the first week a new record?

There was famously a same day sacking years back but I can't remember who

Rosenior, brilliant

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2007/may/21/newsstory.sport5

Norwich's climb from the nadir was triggered by the insta-sacking of Gunn after a 7-1 opening day defeat to Colchester

Robins had a nervous breakdown and walked after an opening day 4-0 home drubbing against Bournemouth. The chairman said he was a brilliant technical manager who lacked people skills and cited his refusal to high 5 the jovial Jermaine Beckford on the training ground as an example of this.

You can probably trace a fairly steady decline for Colchester since that 7-1 too.

Beating someone 7-1 and having them immediately nick your manager will generally have a depressive effect, as will having your stadium miles out of town in a weird car park

Our pre-season optimism lasted around 35 minutes into a display of deep ineptitude against a rubbishy Macclesfield; by halfway through the second half my drunk mates were reduced to complaining that the yoof are not as good at singing songs as we all were in the old days (NB not true at all in my estimation but wevs) then we spawned an 87th minute winner and joy was very nearly unconfined.

Ah yes, Macclesfield - dear old Sol is ready

Won't (strike thru) Will always be fooled by an unbeaten preseason, and then feel all optimism drain away in first 20 mins of match 1.

Yeah. After the first game is much too early to be giving it the "gotta grind out points in this league" gubbins also.

Just passing Elland Rd ont bus and have a gigantic bamford head peering right at me at the traffic lights :x

Some lovely old buildings in Holbeck tbf

"Most of my constituency know I am not a football expert but it's my job to take up concerns when they are expressed to me and I have had a confidential briefing.

"I want to be satisfied that the sale was done by the book. The fans deserve to know that the sale of their football club has been done by the rules. I am not making a judgment."

The Examiner understands Mr Sheerman has not been in touch with Huddersfield Town directly to discuss his concerns.

A Huddersfield Town spokesman said: "The sale of the club has been ratified by the FA and the EFL as is part of the process."

lol the legitimate concerns of barry sheerman. just for some clarity our club used to be fully owned by a full on scumbag capitalist who utilised zero hour contracts and outsourcing to ruthlessly destroy his business rivals on the depleted high streets of the UK. And now the club is 3/4 owned by some amoral ambulance chaser who looks like a class a cunt as well. barry sheerman is the first mp to declare himself a professional lobbyist and now admits he doesn't know the difference between the Hudds and S Weds shirts after humiliating himself in a pub a couple of years back.

Did somebody say...'surprise package'?

you've totally cursed it now.

"We'll go for it," he told BBC Radio Suffolk. "Too many people come here and don't try to play but we'll go for it. We're playing rock and roll football."

presumably if other people like it, that's a bonus

https://hastingsflyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/30564_image_45647377_1898502896851441_4403624492505497600_n.jpg

Richards gone. Would have been nicer to have done it during the close season but we said that last year too.

Siewart gone.. never thought this golden era of 1 win in 8 months or whatever the fuck it was would ever come to an end!

You get beat again? 2-1 down last time I looked

yeah finished 2-1, fucking Cavelerio finished us off! lots of talk of the players despising the manager, our chairman was on the verge of sacking him after the league cup defeat the other night. Always had a feeling it would be all downhill after Wagner went. Or at least normalis negotium as pom would say!

just for Bacuna's dopey assist for the Mitrovic opener - I seriously never want to see that cunt play for us again, and him looking like a L2 player and giving the ball away umpteen times a minute. While we were in the prem our recruitment was fucking shocking.

there are reports he was sacked on wednesday, but the chairman told him: seeing as he'd already picked his team for tonight he might as well stick about for another game before getting pumped.

Pușcaș looks like an excellent signing for Reading.

As I say that he misses a one on one under no pressure whatsoever.

damn, you can get a shit hot Romanian international striker for €8m these days. I wish our shitty scouting dept knew this last season.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECW2YhvWsAAH4zO?format=jpg&name=900x900

lool

:D

Looks like dear old Oldham are in a spot of bother, largely flying under the radar AFAICT amid the massive pits of bother that Bury and Bolton find themselves in.

Luckily for the Latics they're playing us this evening and there's nothing we like to do more than donate three dumb points to crisis clubs.

I still can't get past my tribal hatred for Oldham whose fans were very shitty when we were the crisis club and our ex-player Wijnard tormented our dysfunctional defence. Also fuck them for the time they gave a contract to vehicular homicide scumbag Lee Hughes. Hope they go bust!

I've nothing against Oldham but I'd just as soon see them slide ignominiously out of the league as see them go bust in a blaze of Bury-style publicity. (They would be the first team that had been in the Premier League to do so I think?)

I haven't checked but I bet not many clubs have spent as many consecutive seasons in League 1 as Oldham have in the modern era, and if hadn't have been for that meddling amateur Scholesy ....

What is this new Bolton bullshit

they were just calmly preparing to field an XI of children as they normally do and some spoilsport postponed the game!

Squeaky bum time in the most exciting footballing action of the day. I imagine "C&N Sporting Risk, headed by Henry Newman and Rory Campbell" are running round the office printing off bank statements.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49455433

Reminds me of the collapse of Hereford United where the scumbag owner didn't turn up for refinancing in court as he was "stuck in traffic" and the company was immediately dissolved.

Bury FC Crisis: Company which bought £7m debt for £70,000 and now wants £1.75m for it, reportedly owned by partner of daughter of club owner Steve Dale. Jaw-dropping detail in the wreckage of this football club. https://t.co/IGVPxYAddp

— David Conn (@david_conn) August 23, 2019

EFL did some cracking fit and proper testing on this Dale fellow.

Steve Dale has been telling some media that a deal has been done. The potential buyers have told James Frith MP that's not the case. Yet. #BuryFC

— Chris Hall (@chrishallitv) August 23, 2019

we've had quite a few momentously big scoring win lose draws against Bury in my lifetime - including 0-6, 6-0, 4-4, 3-3 in the last couple of decades. I love Gigg Lane as well despite only going there twice. Good luck Bury.

we are going through the longest period of terrible football and sustained losing since that 70's period that some older fans with a slight touch of grandiloquence refer to as The Great Decline. When the designated disabled area is abandoned by the contemptible prem daytrippers that took over it like a fucking disease - i'll be happy to get a season ticket again, because half empty stands is the only environment that works with the kid. At least yesterday our useless caretaker manager realised Elphick is an old slow liability that is finished at this level, probably finished at L1 level (where we are headed) as well so a complete waste of a wage. It reminds me of when we signed Unsworth when he was an old knackered useless bastard as well.

I've often complained to stewards that there should be an autism friendly section of the ground, and they agreed. But shite football is the only real solution for empty banks of seats.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/17751427.middlesbrough-continue-investigate-transfers-garry-monks-time-charge/

he always looked like face from crimewatch did this cunt, never trust anyone who spells Gary with 2 R's and wears wooly cardigans in the summer.

BREAKING: Bury FC Crisis: The proposed purchase by C & N Sporting Risk is OFF; owner Steve Dale was given until 5pm today for it to complete or the club would be expelled from the Football League, so this really could be the end.

— David Conn (@david_conn) August 27, 2019

it looks like Bury will be gone within the hour.

Ugh, I feel very bad for the Bury fans suffering at the hands of a bunch of stuff outside their control.

Having said that, there's a piece of me that would be irritated by their being saved at the last minute, rewarding them for massively overspending to buy promotion last year (my lot finished one point outside the play-off places, remember). I try to keep that piece of me under control because ultimately it's the Bury FC community that loses its club, and it's hardly their fault they enjoyed last season on the never-never.

Presumably the ground will be disposed of as part of an insolvency process? That's quite an important factor in any phoenix club starting up.

I think the silver linings are (a) the EFL actually beginning to enforce its rules instead of eternally granting extensions (b) the widespread calls for re-examination of the rules around football club ownership, which might actually come to something this time. Might not, of course.

I feel very sorry for Bury fans but it was going to happen sometime.

I hope they can somehow remain at Gigg Lane because it's a fine old ground.

Yeah I hope so too, seems from the bit I've read that it's mortgaged and the unwillingness of whoever owns the mortgage to sell it on to the bidders was the reason the bid failed (NB this may be a total misreading or misunderstanding on my part). I suppose any successor club will need the Council to intervene in some way to safeguard the ground, otherwise it'll be "developed", ugh.

oh look we're still really good

we are still really shit and doomed despite having a bigger wage bill and being officially worse than when we had the 2nd lowest outlay in the championship and went up. but this is the cyclical nature of things and i'm already planning for a L1 season ticket when all the happy clapper prem detritus has fucked off!

all is not lost... at Leeds got beaten at home

you really aren't going down, plenty of dross about

nathan jones surely doomed

nah we're doomed, we had our last of about 3 wins in 18 months, way back in February. Most the team need pulping. The club owner is out of his depth and hasn't a clue what he is doing. He was ready to sell Billing for the first offer of £7m a few weeks back, it was only due to the intervention of our previous chairman that blocked it till we held out for £15m.

VLP put in another absolute stinker of a performance, and our chairman accepted an offer for him from Red Star Belgrade during the game. Strange transfer that - as he was getting picked I don't there was any realistic expectations we could move him on, especially to a decent Euro club for money. When you can get the best out of him he's a very limited but useful tool, when he can't be arsed (for such a shit talent he's a total needy diva) you might as well play someone from the stiffs in his position.

i hear ya

I want to be optimistic, new manager and all that, but the deficiencies in the squad really stood out yesterday when Reece Styche looks like your best player. Thank fuck for the international break.

Also apparently yesterday's Chester game had the greatest sending off of all time.

Players involved in clash of heads. Ref decides the Chester player should leave the pitch for more treatment so he can get the game going again.
Chester player disagrees and remonstrates with the ref.
Ref books him for dissent and sends him to the touchline.
Chester player gets minimal treatment and comes back on.
Ref decides he didn't wait for permission to re-enter the pitch and books him again.

First win of the season yesterday for FCUM (having opened with three consecutive defeats following relegation).

we got turned down by the cockney brothers management team at Lincoln City after a million comp was agreed between clubs. Some of our lot were having a jizz fest over them and talking up their progressive coaching/tactics chops. They've rapidly risen up the leagues with a ridic amount of promotions but I'm not convinced they'd have been good for us tbh. But now they are all ready to top themselves as Adkins is apparently the 3rd choice behind Stendel who also will probably turn us down because of how we headhunted his no.2 and unceremoniously sacked the fucker after a few months. That Wagner era has really spoiled us and warped our expectations as fans of a small club in a biggish Town. Adkins is dull as dishwater but at the moment some steady competence could be all we need to start building towards a winnable relegation dogfight season.

Adkins was doing good work at Hull before the Allams decided they didn't want to pay him

I think his record is much more impressive than his dour demeanour and dull rep would make some people think, and that "go for the b-coach at borussia dortmund" thing has been tapped out to fuck now - we need a known quantity with champo experience at this point!

Adkins did well at Soton too iirc.

In October 2012, Adkins disclosed that he recites the Dale Wimbrow poem, The Guy in The Glass to control stress.[12]

:)

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,

For he's with you clear up to the end,

And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test

If the guy in the glass is your friend.

It looks like the truly massive Sheffield club are about to hire Monk. Odd choice considering his corrupt transfer dealings at previous clubs are following him like a bad smell.

ffs Neil Harris is current fav for Town. Can't be having another p/t London manager who is allergic to fresh air. and paying compensation for a pretty uninspiring looking manager would be terrible business.

next manager odds-watching is so futile but addictive. Those Cowley brothers from Lincoln City are favs again. Allegedly some pro-gambler whale has put a large sum on them and there have been other whispers. After that Neil Harris scare I have lost all the reservations I initially had about them.

it's definitely Cowley now!

our new management team the Cowley brothers are ex PE teacher siblings who seem quite earnest and naive, albeit with a very good management cv in the lower leagues and recently L2 as well.

Concord: 3 promotions in 6 years to Conference South. Reached the FA Cup first round

Braintree: Took them to their best ever position, a part time team, 3rd in conference. Took them to first round FA Cup first time

Lincoln: 2 promotions in 3 years. Won EFL trophy. First non league team to get to FA cup quarter finals

apparently they have cost us £1.5 m. Like the cut of their jib so far.

I feel like the footballing gods of fate are getting ready to take a big dump on us tbh. But see how it goes.

First non league team to get to FA cup quarter finals

Wait till the ILXSpurs contingent log on...

IME the Crowley’s are admired for their success but not really liked for footballing style (Lincoln played hard and agricultural but had the gamesmanship turned up to maximum, I like to see big strong effective teams but it irks me when those same players crumple as soon as they’re breathed on). The brothers themselves use pre-Zen Warnock approach to touchline behaviour, continually screaming at the officials for no obvious reason.

That said, they did brilliantly for Lincoln, most importantly by cultivating a real sense of togetherness between club, fans and the community more generally. Hope that works again at Huddersfield because when it works it’s the best thing.

Haha Cowleys, I might not love them but they’re not Great Beasts.

satanic lols! I think at the moment a lot of the fans would take some ugly wins. But after Wagner as a long term project I'd prefer to see more of the hard pressing, high tempo style he brought before he lost faith in his methods after a few prem maulings. Even if it meant there wasn't some instant turnaround in results from it. Hopefully having a budget beyond anything they've had before (bolstered by flogging some of our overpaid wasters and parachute payments) and a transfer window might lead towards a more positive approach.

Flores has spent most of the second half sitting in his dug-out. TV pictures have just shown him shaking his head repeatedly

heh heh! the nightmare is real alright

lol wrong thread

The joy of articles like this is only fleeting, I know, but I think it's important to savour it while it lasts

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/plymouth-argyle-exeter-city-lowe-3349365

(If you're disinclined to click on that link to a boring link to an ad-splattered hellsite, it's an article in which Plymouth's new manager recognises that the snot army are especially sad about their team's mediocre start to the season because ECFC have had a very good start to the season, goes on about it a bit and then says its irrelevant and how he doesn't want to talk about it.)

(I am not being entirely fair.)

lol West Ham

me and my big mouth

god watching Stoke drown is enjoyable

Genuinely can’t remember the last time I saw Butland play and he didn’t give away at least one goal.

"£35m... is that for one glove?" Lambert said.

"The way the modern market is you might get one glove for that."

"I know the people at Wolves, but that will get Jack’s right-hand glove!"

Have. It.

:D :D :D

hah! eat it white shite!

let's see if this soft as shit group of serial losers can cut it on a cold wet Tuesday night in Stoke.

ah, the hell game

https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/sites/core/files/styles/large/public/images/gustave_dore_dante_cocytus_traitors.jpg?itok=R9yv2Xgf

In hell Kachunga will have to watch that miss of the season of his on a loop forever

every game has been a hell game for a long time now.

what a load of shite, but hey a win is a win! Nathan Jones will be gone by dinnertime.

only a few points behind Millwall, keep it going now

You won?!?!? Woohoo

What a shame for Stoke and their fans

it was a resolute but mostly awful performance for lovers of the game - we've played 10 times better and got absolutely nothing multiple times in the last 18 months. i'll take an ugly shithousing bastard of an away win at Stoke on a cold tuesday right now though!

FC United 5-0 up after just half an hour against Buxton.