bristol_wanderer

But they have the opportunity to appoint a decent manager (easier said than done, I admit) whereas we are stuck with a guy who in terms of tatics and team selection is utterly clueless. It's a shame as in the other aspects of the job he seems good. Perhaps he should take a job as Director of Football.

Yep - some of whom are deployed in the creative roles in the team. If we lose a couple of our grafters in the middle it may mean we have to play Riga from the start - possibly the only way this will happen.

Will prove to be too lightweight for the Prem - just wait till big Danny gets hold of him.

Poor first half, entertaining second half. They play some pretty stuff - but have a shaky defence and no finishing capability. Morrison looked excellent though. Shittu is bobbins. We have come off the worse from the Meite/Shittu transactions. Riga looked excellent. Crowd dissappointing. And most importantly, what the hell is going on in Megsons head to start with JOB and Gardner as part of our attacking three? It was only luck that got Riga on the pitch and gave us some entertainment.

I was looking at 22 in 83 games, not starts.

Another terrible buy.

Born 23/10/1978. So 29 going on 30. We're not going to get our money back, and he has just come back from a serious injury. Good player though, and can certainly pass well and would give us another option at free kicks, isntead of Taylor just pile driving it all the time.

IMO this is a very poor buy for them. Check his stats whilst at Liverpool - they are Kevin Daviesesque in terms of goalscoring and that is in a team creating lots of chances. I think they will really struggle - their key players last season were Kenwayne Jones and Johnny Evans, both of whom they don't have this season or at least for a significant part of it in Jones's case. The likes of Cisse, Diouf, Malbranque, Chimbonda are big time charlies as far as the rest of Sunderland's squad is concerned and they all have questionable temperaments, as does their manager. Should be fun when it all goes off.

Good performance and good result. We looked fit and organised which is a relief after the LSL directed shambles of last season. I suspect we won't score too many goals away without more creativity - we need that extra signing. Stoke were the most one dimensional Prem team I have EVER seen. All Prem teams have big strong defenders and do their home work on teams they are about to play - if that is the strategy Stoke are planning for survival then jeez, Pulis is incredibly naive. Sunderland were bad, worse than Stoke IMO, when we beat them 2-0 in 05/06, but given it was the first day of a new season and Stoke were meant to be on a high, I left with the feeling they would be lucky to win one game all season.

Please expand - what evidence do you have?

24066 - 2797 Stokies to get futher confirmation that they are in for a miserable season with very few goals / chances created, as their ultra long ball game results in a 2-0 defeat to what are made to look like cultured opponents.

Yep - those of the Farny Grammar class of 86 who had to suffer the igmony of doing CSE's are I'm sure mentally scarred for life. I still don't know how I got a D in Eng Lit when I was top of the class in the mocks. And it was nowt to do with playing footy during the nights before the exam and doing bugger all revision - that applied to all the exams.

Add to the in's - Helguson (1.9m), O'Brien (1.2m), McCann (1m), Shittu (2m) Add to the out's Faye (2m), Speed (250,000), Michalik (500,000) Makes net spend = 13.85m

Good article. I was hoping that Megson would focus on the fitness side - Sammy Lee appeared to neglect this badly. There were games last season were we visibly looked knackered with 10-20 minutes to go. As for Taylor, I feel he is a decent enough player but not as one of a front three. He doesn't have the creativity or finishing ability to consistently succeed there IMO. And the player who has issues? Detective Bristol has returned the following assessment: We have the following English players: Walker, Hunt, Cahill, Samuel, Muamba, McCann, Nolan, Taylor, Davies, Odebayi, Sinclair, Woolfe. Can't see it being Walker as the fitness expectations wouldn't be the same for keepers anyway. Hunt, Davies and Nolan have been at the club for years and seem to accept the importance of fitness. Taylor is mentioned as being one of the fittest, Muamba is known to have a great engine, and Cahill is young and looks fit and lean. So if not one of the kids, that leaves McCann and Samuel. Given Megson says "he has the ability to play for England", I would go for Samuel, as McCann (I think) has already played for England and is now too old, and now not good enough to play for England anyway. You may say the same about Samuel, but I think he has the talent, not always the concentration.

I am struggling to understand: 1.) Why the players not coming over to clap the fans = Megson out? 2.) Why you would stop going because only one or two players managed to locate some of around 10 BWFC fans in a huge Greek olympic stadium with 10-15K Greeks in there?

That is utter bollocks.

Not hugely impressed with this signing. We have replaced a defender who wasn't strong enough physically but was reasonably quick, and a good tackler, with a physically strong defender who is suspect IMO against teams who attack on the floor. The key factor is that Megson had fallen out with Meite and wanted him out. Lets hope we play Shittu against some of the poorer Prem teams and not the quality ones.

It looks like Megson is going to use the energy provided by our younger midfield to push Nolan closer to the main striker. Unfortunately, this means that Nolan is more of a "number 10" which he doesn't have the skill for. On the plus side we look very solid and don't look like conceding too many.

Interesting. So the players lost are Carsley, Johnson (assuming his move happens) and Stubbs? Everton are still too good to be in any real trouble IMO, but if there are some injuries to key players, and/or fans discontent affect performances and morale, then with a tiring season including the UEFA there could be problems.

Agreed. If its 21781.5 its a draw.

Ok you're on. You are saying 20K? and I will say as above. ?10 to charity for the nearest?

Prem Winners - Man U (if they keep Ronaldo, otherwise Liverpool) BWFC will finish 7th and qualify for the Intertoto. Top scorer Elmander 12 Average attendance 23563 Going down: WBA Stoke Hull Everton will find a rich new buyer and finish 9th. Pompey will finish 11th - and suffer a poor finish after a promising start as UEFA fatigue kicks in. Blackburn 16th - Ince sacked in December.

To be fair that was not the team that got us in the top half. The squad that day was decimated by injury. Hunt, Faye, Ben Haim, Nolan, Diouf were all missing and Campo was at right back instead of the "Campo" role. Perhaps better comparing Jussi Hunt Faye Ben Haim Gardner Campo Speed Nolan Diouf Anelka Davies with: Jussi Steinsson Cahill AOB Samuel/Gardner McCann/JOB Muamba Nolan Davies Elmander Taylor

Sounds like their ticket office is far worse than ours.

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