Although there were many shocking things about our 7-1 defeat at Peterborough, I decided that it needed more detailed analysis. So I invested £5 of my son's inheritance on a DVD (through the Posh Shop) to fully understand the catastrophe.

The lack of discipline, the defensive chaos and even the surreal refereeing will not be forgotten in a hurry, but Grant Leadbitter’s performance stood out. It was not so much that he played badly – he seemed to be in another world altogether.

He really has been vilified on this website for weeks now, and we honestly are not the most febrile bunch of supporters. I thought that it may be helpful to try and get under the skin of the player and see where the truth lies. There simply had to be more to such a wretched performance than a single distracted afternoon in Cambridgeshire. It was time to go back to his roots.

The great thing about Sunderland supporters is that there are plenty of them, and they are kindly disposed as a whole to ITFC, mainly due to our regular patronage of their car boot sales.

After I managed to move them off the subject of Connor Wickham, they were more than happy to discuss our patient, and this was the best place to start.

The fact that Grant is held in such deep affection in Sunderland adds a great deal of power to their comments. Everyone remembers the goal he scored against Arsenal shortly after his dad died, and he will live and die a Mackem. When he left, there were two threads on one of the supporters' websites with a total of 523 posts, and 286 of them simply said, “Good luck son/lad in Ipswich” or similar. I think that most Sunderland dads would be fundamentally happy if their daughter brought him home for Sunday dinner. Their cold assessment of him as a footballer was somewhat different.

It is risking something to say that Sunderland fans are black and white in their views, but this is true, and there were overwhelming patterns of evidence in the feedback they provided…

1) Mr 100%. I think that he had this nickname, as so many supporters mentioned it. The phrase ‘effort’ was used time and again, and he was described as a wholehearted player who gives his lot. This may seem strange after Peterborough, but it may make sense later.

2) Within the same sentence, many of the fans had a ‘but’, and it was the same one over and over again. Deep down, they did not rate him as a Premiership player. He was seen as an adequate Championship midfielder. They repeatedly said that Steve Bruce moved him on when Jordan Henderson came through. He had become obsolete. A good honest pro, or a 100% player who misses that extra little bit to become a top player. The darkest comment came from supporter who said to me that he had heard a rumour that Wigan were in for him from us in January. “That would have confirmed their relegation.”

3) Technically, their assessment of him was equally sober. His goals-to-games ratio is similar in both clubs (one in 10-ish), his shot is terrific and Black Cats supporters said that his goals were usually memorable goals. However, he did not manoeuvre himself into position often enough. He was consistently criticised for his lack of pace, for taking two or more touches and for looking down. One fan harshly said that he was slower than his Grandmother.

4) There were two other linked patterns of feedback which came through. Firstly, people were critical of his work off the ball and there was a damning pattern of feedback repeating the phrase (or similar) that “He can drift out of games". Several supporters mentioned a particular game against Norwich where he left the team horribly exposed.

One fan summarised him thus: “I like Grant what with him being a local boy, but you honestly have to question whether he is good enough. He has flashes of quality but his decision making and reaction time could be better.”

It seems paradoxical that a 100% player can simply drift out of games. This may have happened because Grant is not quick enough – both tactically and physically - to read the game at the pace of the Championship, but it is a fundamentally alarming trait for a central midfielder. There was nothing hinted at by Sunderland fans to suggest that his confidence may be part of the problem.

The only opinion I will venture is that I think that Paul Jewell is sticking with him, partly due to a lack of an alternative, but also because he loves players who are wholehearted. Trying him in specialist wide roles may make sense, but it may be a prelude to moving him on. It would be great to see him play a role in the team, but he simply may not be good enough.

Football can be a cruel game, and the criticism of Grant has been particularly horrible to read, however candidly written. Although there may be no surprises here, I hope that these notes will put some context on the debate. For what it is worth, I did receive some feedback on Roy Keane, but will save that for another day.

Jambo added 10:36 - Sep 14 Nicely put Harry. Did any of the Mackems mention he's inability to flight in a nice corner?
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OldClactonBlue added 10:39 - Sep 14 "but he simply may not be good enough" The kindest words that anyone could write about Grant Leadbitter!
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hogster1970 added 10:55 - Sep 14 well i met aload of sunderland suppoerts on sat going to blackpool, and they all said the same, we was glad to get rid, dint bring any thing to the game,, and nver created anything for any other player to run at goal, sums it up realy good blog though
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SWGF added 11:04 - Sep 14 "taking two or more touches and for looking down" sums it up for me. Good blog.
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PimsOclock added 11:42 - Sep 14 Nice blog, well put. I have also been disgusted by the way that he has been the victim of abuse on the message boards. Not that his performances have warranted any praise!! Everything that you commented about Grant has been fair and in fact if you replace Grant Leadbitter with Jermaine Wright then the same article could have been written 10 years ago about the latter. Nice guy, good team player, great in training, excellent finisher but not up to the task at hand!!

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Surco72 added 12:46 - Sep 14 Fitted Keanes bill as a player who works hard in training and in games which is why we wasted so much money on him probably . I thought he may have kicked on this season but something seems drastically wrong maybe the pressure of captaincy ? Cannot see a role for him now with Andrews,Bullard and Bowyer ahead in central role and he is not quick enough or good enough to play wide roles .Perhaps needs to be dropped and fight for his place to regain some early shown promise when he first joined the club ,but sometimes things just dont work out and i think this may be one of those cases ,if so lets not offer a long new deal lets get rid if we can get some money back .

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Lightningboy added 17:00 - Sep 14 The thing is,he is a Sunderland lad and he didn't crack it there..which i'm guessing is why he looks/has looked totally dis-interested since he joined us..basically we were done. Sorry but he has to go & Jewell has to give the captaincy of our club to somebody worthy of it.
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IvorFeeling added 17:12 - Sep 14 Good blog, although the vast majority had already made our minds up. Both he and Martin (at least until his ban) are the only non PJ regular first team players and hence I think the writing is on the wall. He has no pace or guille, doesn't score often enough and has no leadership skills - PJ must act now. Taxi please...........
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itfcsmithlarr added 17:55 - Sep 14 You missed 'addiction to backpasses'.
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RegencyBlue added 19:28 - Sep 14 I thought his first season here was pretty good to be honest! I dont agree with the vilification which has taken place on this site but something has gone wrong and a few games on the bench might do Grant a favour!
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Vic added 20:50 - Sep 14 That's a really good blog. Well written, fair and good research. The comments from up north really are pretty accurate to what we've seen down here. I do wonder if he's captain only until one of the new players has either signed permanantly or bedded in enough to take over. Why else would a player so out of form and so quiet be captain?
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Blandford added 14:40 - Sep 15 Don't read blogs too often but I enjoyed this one. The comments were interesting and reflect what many of us have said. I know the Sunderland views are only a snapshot of forum posts but I cant help thinking that they show a far greater respect for their players than many on this forum (myself included, at times) have shown. Maybe knowing the fans will appreciate his 100% effort would help make Grant Leadbitter a better Ipswich player.

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CambridgeBlue added 15:07 - Sep 15 So basically he got a bad touch, can't really pass, has no pace, doesn't score very often, drifts out of games, has poor decision making, poor positioning, and isn't decent off the ball? The best thing that the fans of a club who seem to like him have to say is that he's local and tries hard? I'm not really sure why you think this would change anyone's opinion of him!

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saffronblue added 15:25 - Sep 15 Great blog, well written and researched. Suspect as soon as Martin gets back Grant will be warming the bench. Had high hopes when he joined but just not good enough compared to the rest of our squad.
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Ipswich24 added 17:30 - Sep 15 I was in Offton the other day it is where Grant lives and the locals were saying he is aroganant, never talks to anyone. He is supposed to be the face of ITFC as captain like Matt Holland was he loved ITFC. Grant Leadbitter is the worst possible choice of captain i can think of.
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Lightningboy added 18:20 - Sep 15 Not fit enough to lace Matt Holland's boots..God,how our midfield has gone down the pan since the days of Holland & Magilton. Maybe we should try and emulate those days best we can by playing 4-4-2..with Bullard & Andrews in the Magilton/Holland roles.
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blueandred added 19:27 - Sep 16 What's a roganant?
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jbb added 21:31 - Sep 16 Good blog, but no reference made to the key issue regarding GL's form. In the week prior to the Peterborough game, it was very clear to GL and to all inside and outside Portman Rd that the club would be very happy to take a fee for GL to part finance his replacement by Jimmy Bullard. I am not for a minute questioning PJ or indeed JB's ability. But how would any of us react at work on a Monday if it was made clear to us on a Friday that we would be moving on. If GL was the finished article when he signed 2 yrs ago, as a 23 yr old he would have been in demand in the PL, so Sunderlands supporters comments are not suprising. But how many better central midfielders in their mid 20's are available to Championship clubs for £2.5m. Certainly higher calibre players at the end of their careers can be picked up for a year or two (JB/Lee Bowyer). As a 21 yr old GL has already played every league match in a Championship winning team, so difficult to argue he is not up to it. He is a good quality central midfielder who will do well for whatever club he is with.

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