He kept us up. Anyone who achieved that, given the state we were in under the man we desperately wanted to succeed, deserves credit.
At a guess, I’d say PDC has by now won over most supporters of Sunderland. I have been slagged off for raising my own reservations about his appointment and I have been slagged off for reaching a compromise personal position after his “I am not a fascist” statement.
But now I look forward to seeing what he will make of the start of what we trust will be a full season in charge. One of two players we’d rather like to have stayed will probably be gone by the time of the big kickoff, at home to Fulham, in mid-August. Mignolet already has. We can all hope a few others will be politely shown the door, too.
Who lines up for us in the opening game in anyone’s guess. The transfer market has a long way to go.
Jake’s gallery – the first we have published at Salut! Sunderland – sums up the spirit of revolution and recognises that the jury, or part of it, is still out.
If we look back to the starting position that PDC was in, and where we are now, you would have to say that any changes at all, unless we were picking up players from Darlington and Hartlepool. would probably be considered progress.
Conducting any business so early in the summer is unprecedented but the influx of players has been breathtaking so far. We are constantly being linked with players and from media reports we’ve been seeing, a considerable number of these appear to have some substance and are not just the regular summer rumours. Quite what team we’ll start with is anyone’s guess as Jake says. It’s going to be an interesting few weeks coming up.
This was not really intended to be pubished. I was just messing around with the gallery tool and obviously posted it thinking I was saving it in draft form. Too late to do much about it. Let’s hope any future attempts at galleries are a bit smoother.