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

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.

Roll over Kasper Schmeichel, WILL. JAASKELAINEN. is in town, and Crewe are top of League Two

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50084290

ashamed to say I absolutely aced this white shite quiz

lol

i got 9. forgot about the existence of peter lorimer

hard to forget the answer to one of the questions after being escorted/separated from a bunch of them on a train by british transport police after we'd just won a first leg L2 playoff game against Lincoln City and they'd been relegated from the prem after 4-0 mauling at early KO at Stamford Bridge.