| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j 16:20 - Dec 28 with 1740 views | Denny32 |
It's a Start we probably can only dream of,if we get back up .. |  | | |  |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:26 - Dec 28 with 1382 views | SitfcB |
Leeds only 2 points off our whole total as well.
That was a good game, I’d fear a tonking from both of them if we played them now.
Two clubs who were well prepared off the pitch for PL football compared to us though. |  |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:27 - Dec 28 with 1366 views | LeoMuff |
If we do go up the process of only buying youngsters with potential has to change, you need some age and experience in there |  |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:30 - Dec 28 with 1338 views | RedX |
You’ll always give yourself a good chance when you sign an outstanding experienced player like Xhaka. He brings quality and leadership. |  | | |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:30 - Dec 28 with 1334 views | jontysnut |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:26 - Dec 28 by SitfcB |
Leeds only 2 points off our whole total as well.
That was a good game, I’d fear a tonking from both of them if we played them now.
Two clubs who were well prepared off the pitch for PL football compared to us though. |
Sunderland aren't quite the same side that came up but fair play to them. The Leeds goal reminded me of what we could be capable of. |  | | |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:33 - Dec 28 with 1289 views | Vic |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:26 - Dec 28 by SitfcB |
Leeds only 2 points off our whole total as well.
That was a good game, I’d fear a tonking from both of them if we played them now.
Two clubs who were well prepared off the pitch for PL football compared to us though. |
Your 3rd para is becoming more and more obvious. Our 2x promotion was fantastic fun, but we just didn't have the foundations in place - squad quality, stadium, scouting etc all way short of what is obviously necessary.
For this reason, as much as I want us to go up this season, Im not sure it will be a disaster in the long term if we dont. |  |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:33 - Dec 28 with 1296 views | Kieran_Knows |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:26 - Dec 28 by SitfcB |
Leeds only 2 points off our whole total as well.
That was a good game, I’d fear a tonking from both of them if we played them now.
Two clubs who were well prepared off the pitch for PL football compared to us though. |
Yup, enjoyed watching that. Both looked miles ahead of us.
When you look back at it, we must surely regret our recruitment in summer 24. When you think of the money those 2 spent, similar to us, and the quality on show, it’s chalk and cheese. An embarrassment we didn’t venture more in to Europe for signings, no matter what guff Ashton comes out with as to why we didn’t. |  |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:34 - Dec 28 with 1276 views | Guthrum |
We only have to do what they did (see 2nd half of this post):
There's likely to be some difficult (and likely) unpopular decisions in January by Guthrum 23 Dec 10:54I really don't think it's possible to create a genuine Prem-ready squad in the Championship. The gap is just too big and it's not possible to attract that quality of player to the second tier, even if you could afford to (let alone staying within financial rules).
Sunderland hired in most of a new squad in the summer, spending £150m+. Of the players who made 15+ appearances in their promotion season, just four have made more than 10 in the Prem (Hume 15 starts + 2 sub, Isidor 11+6, Ballard 12+3, La Fee 14+2). Mayenda is on 3+5 (only starting early in the season), Rigg is on 4+3, four others have half a dozen sub appearances between them. Far more change than we made last season.
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:35 - Dec 28 with 1260 views | StokieBlue |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:33 - Dec 28 by Kieran_Knows |
Yup, enjoyed watching that. Both looked miles ahead of us.
When you look back at it, we must surely regret our recruitment in summer 24. When you think of the money those 2 spent, similar to us, and the quality on show, it’s chalk and cheese. An embarrassment we didn’t venture more in to Europe for signings, no matter what guff Ashton comes out with as to why we didn’t. |
Haven't Sunderland spent quite a bit more than we did when we went up?
Still, they seem to have spent it well.
SB |  | | |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:37 - Dec 28 with 1229 views | J2BLUE |
Have a day off |  |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:38 - Dec 28 with 1227 views | Radlett_blue |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:30 - Dec 28 by RedX |
You’ll always give yourself a good chance when you sign an outstanding experienced player like Xhaka. He brings quality and leadership. |
It's not as simple as that. Xhaka was a great signing with the benefit of hindsight, but Kalvin Phillips might have been. However, Sunderland new they needed pretty much a new team, while some on here said we should have stuck with the players who got us 2 promotions, plus a handful of additions. That would have been suicidal.
Sunderland had the guts or the infrastructure or the manager to sign FIFTEEN new players, 10 of whom cost more than £10m, but 13 of them came from outside Britain, where you can get far better value than signing well known, expensive Championship players. |  |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:44 - Dec 28 with 1181 views | waveneyblue |
I reckon what this place needs is another thread about Sunderland....
Oh, you have.
Thanks bud 👍 |  | | |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:45 - Dec 28 with 1170 views | davblue |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:33 - Dec 28 by Kieran_Knows |
Yup, enjoyed watching that. Both looked miles ahead of us.
When you look back at it, we must surely regret our recruitment in summer 24. When you think of the money those 2 spent, similar to us, and the quality on show, it’s chalk and cheese. An embarrassment we didn’t venture more in to Europe for signings, no matter what guff Ashton comes out with as to why we didn’t. |
The recruitment hasn’t been fit for purpose for 18 months now. Hopefully it will
Start to get better again as it really needs to be starting this window |  | | |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:47 - Dec 28 with 1143 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:30 - Dec 28 by RedX |
You’ll always give yourself a good chance when you sign an outstanding experienced player like Xhaka. He brings quality and leadership. |
It's what we hoped for from Phillips but it didn't work out. Their keeper has been great for them too. Again what we hoped for from Muric but it didn't work out.
7 years ago Sunderland were relegated from the Premier League after 10 successive seasons there.
7 years ago Town were relegated from the Championship after 16 years of slow decline in the Championship.
We were poor and got a lot wrong last season and Sunderland have got a lot right. But let's not forget both clubs have come from quite different starting points even if Sunderland did drop to League 1 for a time similar to us. |  |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:49 - Dec 28 with 1123 views | Bramidan |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:33 - Dec 28 by Vic |
Your 3rd para is becoming more and more obvious. Our 2x promotion was fantastic fun, but we just didn't have the foundations in place - squad quality, stadium, scouting etc all way short of what is obviously necessary.
For this reason, as much as I want us to go up this season, Im not sure it will be a disaster in the long term if we dont. |
I don’t think our scouting etc was up to what was required.
This is more a criticism of the previous owners rather the present incumbents.
We simply didn’t recruit the athletes suitable for the PL.
We seemed restrained in looking at wider markets.
Relatively small inside forwards and midfielders are not going to compete in the PL.
Look at some of the players, arms out, brick ….. houses, really quick, you are not getting passed them and win the second ball? No chance. | | | |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:54 - Dec 28 with 1088 views | Radlett_blue |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:35 - Dec 28 by StokieBlue |
Haven't Sunderland spent quite a bit more than we did when we went up?
Still, they seem to have spent it well.
SB |
Sunderland spent £182m, but recoupled £51m by selling Jobe Bellingham & others.
Town spent an eye-watering £150m and recoupled maybe £1m in sales. So, we had a bigger net spend than the Mackems. | |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:58 - Dec 28 with 1060 views | ArnieM |
OP : just shows how poor we were .... |  |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 17:04 - Dec 28 with 992 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:54 - Dec 28 by Radlett_blue |
Sunderland spent £182m, but recoupled £51m by selling Jobe Bellingham & others.
Town spent an eye-watering £150m and recoupled maybe £1m in sales. So, we had a bigger net spend than the Mackems. |
That's not comparing like with like.
£110m was spent during the summer, which is what to compare. It reached ~£150m with winter signings.
The income from Bellingham made a huge difference for their summer prep. As has been pointed out before, one of the benefits of not being in the investment wilderness for 20 years. | | | |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 17:04 - Dec 28 with 987 views | Churchman |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:33 - Dec 28 by Kieran_Knows |
Yup, enjoyed watching that. Both looked miles ahead of us.
When you look back at it, we must surely regret our recruitment in summer 24. When you think of the money those 2 spent, similar to us, and the quality on show, it’s chalk and cheese. An embarrassment we didn’t venture more in to Europe for signings, no matter what guff Ashton comes out with as to why we didn’t. |
Why is it people love to beat up ITFC with Sunderland and Leeds every time they get a result? Every time. Is it jealousy, hatred or a learning point?
How on earth were we to recruit from Europe without a scouting infrastructure to do it? We barely had an adequate one for this country after Evans stripped the club bare. Do you not think that had they had the capability to scout better abroad they wouldn’t have done so?
Leeds and Sunderland had Premier League infrastructure in place and Leeds had only been out of it two seasons.
As it goes we did recruit one. Cajuste. Let’s all drool over his consolation goal and assist. We all know that Sunderland have done exceptionally well. Why not congratulate them and leave it at that? They are the exceptions, not the rule.
I don’t see too many waving Burnley in the air and let’s face it Wolves may break Derby’s record and West Ham are as bad as last seasons bottom three too. Nobody saw that coming and nobody is saying what a poor Premier League it is - because it isn’t.
Am I jealous of Sunderland and Leeds? Not in the least. I don’t do jealousy. It just eats people up inside. Apart from being pleased for a couple of friends who support them I’m not interested. There’s nothing to learn beyond what ITFC are trying to do - build everything. [Post edited 28 Dec 17:08]
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 17:11 - Dec 28 with 930 views | Radlett_blue |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 17:04 - Dec 28 by Churchman |
Why is it people love to beat up ITFC with Sunderland and Leeds every time they get a result? Every time. Is it jealousy, hatred or a learning point?
How on earth were we to recruit from Europe without a scouting infrastructure to do it? We barely had an adequate one for this country after Evans stripped the club bare. Do you not think that had they had the capability to scout better abroad they wouldn’t have done so?
Leeds and Sunderland had Premier League infrastructure in place and Leeds had only been out of it two seasons.
As it goes we did recruit one. Cajuste. Let’s all drool over his consolation goal and assist. We all know that Sunderland have done exceptionally well. Why not congratulate them and leave it at that? They are the exceptions, not the rule.
I don’t see too many waving Burnley in the air and let’s face it Wolves may break Derby’s record and West Ham are as bad as last seasons bottom three too. Nobody saw that coming and nobody is saying what a poor Premier League it is - because it isn’t.
Am I jealous of Sunderland and Leeds? Not in the least. I don’t do jealousy. It just eats people up inside. Apart from being pleased for a couple of friends who support them I’m not interested. There’s nothing to learn beyond what ITFC are trying to do - build everything. [Post edited 28 Dec 17:08]
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Of Sunderland's last 8 seasons, 4 had been spent in League 1 & 4 in the Championship.
I would accept that it was hard to keep our recruiting network up to speed with that, but we still made a hash of it last summer & not much evidence that McKenna has done better than when Paul Cook was the fat kid in the school sweet shop. | |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 17:13 - Dec 28 with 926 views | Kieran_Knows |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 17:04 - Dec 28 by Churchman |
Why is it people love to beat up ITFC with Sunderland and Leeds every time they get a result? Every time. Is it jealousy, hatred or a learning point?
How on earth were we to recruit from Europe without a scouting infrastructure to do it? We barely had an adequate one for this country after Evans stripped the club bare. Do you not think that had they had the capability to scout better abroad they wouldn’t have done so?
Leeds and Sunderland had Premier League infrastructure in place and Leeds had only been out of it two seasons.
As it goes we did recruit one. Cajuste. Let’s all drool over his consolation goal and assist. We all know that Sunderland have done exceptionally well. Why not congratulate them and leave it at that? They are the exceptions, not the rule.
I don’t see too many waving Burnley in the air and let’s face it Wolves may break Derby’s record and West Ham are as bad as last seasons bottom three too. Nobody saw that coming and nobody is saying what a poor Premier League it is - because it isn’t.
Am I jealous of Sunderland and Leeds? Not in the least. I don’t do jealousy. It just eats people up inside. Apart from being pleased for a couple of friends who support them I’m not interested. There’s nothing to learn beyond what ITFC are trying to do - build everything. [Post edited 28 Dec 17:08]
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It was the first time I’ve seen Leeds or Sunderland play this season and I was thoroughly impressed, and hence my question with regards to our recruitment. Not sure where the idea of jealously comes in to play, but still I enjoyed watching them.
But everybody knows that buying English comes with a premium. FWIW, Sunderland signed Adingra from Brighton for £20m. A player who’d already had experience in the Prem.
Cajuste is crap, and I’ve called that many times these past 18 months. From memory, Phil confirmed we hadn’t even scouted him, he was offered to us via agents having seen previous moves fail elsewhere.
I didn’t think Burnley’s recruitment was all that bad in honesty, a few from abroad and here in the UK. Their best signing was Marcus Edward’s last January from Sporting Lisbon, which got turned permanent in the summer. | |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 17:36 - Dec 28 with 817 views | Chrisd |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:30 - Dec 28 by jontysnut |
Sunderland aren't quite the same side that came up but fair play to them. The Leeds goal reminded me of what we could be capable of. |
They aren't but the difference is they have recruited well with players that can perform at that level. Let's not forget they also had less time to prepare gaining promotion via the Play Offs. Credit to them. Let's hope we learn from their recruitment approach and our mistakes if we find ourselves going up in May. | |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 17:41 - Dec 28 with 798 views | itfcsuth |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:33 - Dec 28 by Kieran_Knows |
Yup, enjoyed watching that. Both looked miles ahead of us.
When you look back at it, we must surely regret our recruitment in summer 24. When you think of the money those 2 spent, similar to us, and the quality on show, it’s chalk and cheese. An embarrassment we didn’t venture more in to Europe for signings, no matter what guff Ashton comes out with as to why we didn’t. |
Agreed.
KMc said himself there’s better value for money abroad than in the domestic market, and the only way to really bridge the gap is look at undervalued players from abroad.
It looks like we really recruited in the summer of 24 with full anticipation for being relegated and really just almost trying to build a Championship galactico side that could bounce straight back up.
I said at the time, to not have any real overseas recruitment in place, even in its most basic format, going into the PL is criminal. I’ll be honest, any Championship recruitment department should know the names for example: Xhaka, Mukiele, Gertruida, Adringra, Brobbey, Talbi (Sunderland recruits). You watch enough European football you will know them sorts of players, you will be well aware of who they are/were.
As you rightfully say, the stuff Ashton has given out about our recruitment not being established enough to look further afield is utter guff - any recruitment department worth half its salt doesn’t need Wyscout to look further afield than the Championship. [Post edited 28 Dec 18:28]
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 17:50 - Dec 28 with 756 views | Axeldalai_lama |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 16:45 - Dec 28 by davblue |
The recruitment hasn’t been fit for purpose for 18 months now. Hopefully it will
Start to get better again as it really needs to be starting this window |
I don't necessarily disagree, but what you are focusing on when you say 'the last 18 months' is pretty much traditionally the hardest recruitment in world football. Obviously talk of Sunderland and Leeds makes us look that much poorer, and we were clearly found lacking, but let's not forget that it's ridiculously fecking difficult and also, we still made £80 million back on 3 players over the summer so it wasn't all down the drain.
Even this season, and yep, agreed, on the surface it's far from amazing, it's still ridiculously hard to get the right level. People are now crying out for championship cloggers to get us up, that over the summer would have been vilified and attacked more than our actual purchases. |  | | |
| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 18:22 - Dec 28 with 672 views | NthQldITFC |
Hi Denny |  |
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| Sunderland have 28 points half way. We finished season with 22 !! Unbelievable j on 18:30 - Dec 28 with 631 views | ITFCSG |
Watching Leeds and Sunderland (who basically had just as much squad churn as us) in the PL this season just proves 1 point - the excuse of "gelling" is pure bs. | | | |
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