| Struggling to connect with the current guise of the club 13:01 - Nov 29 with 1361 views | pointofblue |
I get it's completely my problem, and perhaps recognising this will mean I can start trying to re-find my love for the club and team again. But they come across as a bunch of strangers who are failing to hit the height of expectations. Add on that many were here for the utter meltdown of last year, and it doesn't feel like they have a connection to past successes, recent or historical.
Admittedly, we took the same demolition approach only a few years ago but the difference there is something really did need to change. The rebuilding of the squad took us to new heights and, yes, even now the way the squad was dismantled and rebuilt rankles considering we do not appear to have got value for money on so many. It feels like we've had three transfer windows since promotion to the Premier League and have tripped up in every one. The odd thing is, in many ways, I feel.more disconnected from the club than during the darkest days of Evans/Lambert which I acknowledge is absolutely ludicrous.
I think this belief has made me even more annoyed and short-tempered about every setback, even though in the great scheme of things we're still in a decent position. I'm not sure whether others feel this way? Off the pitch we're healthier have been in a while; on it we should still be on a positive journey. Yet I feel like I'm being left behind, and all wins do is cover the cracks. |  |
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| Struggling to connect with the current guise of the club on 15:15 - Nov 29 with 143 views | Smoresy |
I'd hazard a guess that your disenchantment is shared by many (atmosphere certainly points that way!).
PL survival last year necessitated very heavy pruning in my opinion. We could have elected not to try and kept most or all of the 23/24 squad, turned focus exclusively to today in the Championship. For better or worse we were more ambitious than that. One only needs to inspect where the 23/24 squad is now to appreciate how short of PL quality players were individually, while the collective ceiling was top two Championship. Depressingly, top two Championship standard is another sport compared with 17th in the top fight, or at least it was when Wolves sported Cunha and Ait-Nouri.
Alas any survival attempt by a newly promoted club is anticipated to fail. That's the norm, not what Sunderland's doing. And your average fan doesn't warm to a bunch of new players who achieve relegation. Kayden Jackson was thoroughly unlikeable before he became thoroughly likeable. Burnley resented their players at the beginning of last season. Some people even veer towards fantasy thinking of the variety, Burge and Woolf would have kept us up. Burgess of course was made of the wrong stuff before he was made of the right stuff. Fans warm to winners.
Even more unfortunately, well-meaning people don't appear to have spent our amazing investment & PL earnings well on the pitch. I'm not one for hating on the new dog because the old one died, so they receive no bitterness from me, but of course I'm more attached presently to those who delivered the best football times of my life so far. I do see players who try, want to succeed with us, are nice people, and consequently I still feel connected like normal. But performances and results have disappointed. Recruitment's been well short of what was possible in theory, though in practice our training facilities surely prevented us from recruiting the talent that Sunderland signed. Xhaka at 24/25 Playford Rd is a wild thought.
Lastly, despite thinking we've misspent a good deal of money, I remain positive about this season because of the standard of the league. We've made inroads on automatic promotion playing the way we are now. Whether we'd have enough unallocated funds to avoid a repeat of 24/25 in 26/27 is another subject for another day lol. | | | |
| Struggling to connect with the current guise of the club on 15:37 - Nov 29 with 108 views | OldFart71 |
This is a question rather than an observation. Currently there's a huge amount of work being carried out both at PR and the training ground and I wonder if perhaps given that although these facilities are fantastic, a real Gamechanger if you like, that the players are too molly coddled. They probably turn up in their Mercs and Beamers to train in relative luxury. Run about and do what they have to do for a couple of hours then go back to their probably luxurious homes. On match day the are shipped to PR in a luxury coach to a changing room that many women would envy to place their louis Vuitton shoes in, put their new ready to wear kit on and trot out onto the hallowed turf that is PR to a full stadium that sparkles these days.
Gone are the days when apprentices cleaned the muddy boots after the players came in off a pitch more resembling a ploughed field. Where players played 90 plus minutes and only a couple of subs were allowed and an injury involved a cold wet sponge on your gonads and then you played another two games that week.
Is the expectation of the fans equalled by the squad. Are they Running Towards Adversity or just running towards their next big pay check. Or are we being unfair on today's players. I'm sure the likes of Warky and PM would have loved the luxury of knowing they would be on £30,000 a week and only need to play 60 or 30 minutes a game. | | | |
| Struggling to connect with the current guise of the club on 15:44 - Nov 29 with 89 views | Kieran_Knows |
| Struggling to connect with the current guise of the club on 15:09 - Nov 29 by Reuser_is_God |
Worth remembering that the likes of Burgess, Chaplin etc weren’t loved instantly by the fanbase.
Cameron Burgess was a laughing stock his first 6 months here & Chaplin couldn’t get a game ahead of a 36 year old Sone Aluko.
Even in the league 1 promotion season there was a lot of anger vented towards the team, think back to the 0-0 draw at Bristol Rovers in February. |
Well that kind of makes it worse then, doesn’t it? We’ve become a very fickle and entitled fanbase after 1 year in the Prem. |  |
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| Struggling to connect with the current guise of the club on 15:45 - Nov 29 with 86 views | Smoresy |
| Struggling to connect with the current guise of the club on 15:37 - Nov 29 by OldFart71 |
This is a question rather than an observation. Currently there's a huge amount of work being carried out both at PR and the training ground and I wonder if perhaps given that although these facilities are fantastic, a real Gamechanger if you like, that the players are too molly coddled. They probably turn up in their Mercs and Beamers to train in relative luxury. Run about and do what they have to do for a couple of hours then go back to their probably luxurious homes. On match day the are shipped to PR in a luxury coach to a changing room that many women would envy to place their louis Vuitton shoes in, put their new ready to wear kit on and trot out onto the hallowed turf that is PR to a full stadium that sparkles these days.
Gone are the days when apprentices cleaned the muddy boots after the players came in off a pitch more resembling a ploughed field. Where players played 90 plus minutes and only a couple of subs were allowed and an injury involved a cold wet sponge on your gonads and then you played another two games that week.
Is the expectation of the fans equalled by the squad. Are they Running Towards Adversity or just running towards their next big pay check. Or are we being unfair on today's players. I'm sure the likes of Warky and PM would have loved the luxury of knowing they would be on £30,000 a week and only need to play 60 or 30 minutes a game. |
If good facilities are a problem rather than a positive, Accrington would be near the top of the pyramid and Arsenal would be near the bottom? 🤷♂️ | | | |
| Struggling to connect with the current guise of the club on 16:00 - Nov 29 with 75 views | Reuser_is_God |
| Struggling to connect with the current guise of the club on 15:44 - Nov 29 by Kieran_Knows |
Well that kind of makes it worse then, doesn’t it? We’ve become a very fickle and entitled fanbase after 1 year in the Prem. |
Yes football fans are fickle, always have been but don’t think that’s the point here.
Just shows that players aren’t just loved instantly, they’ve got to earn it through results & performances. [Post edited 29 Nov 16:07]
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| Struggling to connect with the current guise of the club on 16:38 - Nov 29 with 52 views | VanDusen |
I agree. This team is difficult to like at the moment - possibly because we were spoilt with what developed 2-3 years ago. But it's difficult to warm to something that takes it self so seriously - we've lost a sense of humour and warmth imho. | | | |
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