Well, there are those who might argue with that description of Sunderland AFC. But that what SAFC is to us.
And we are delighted to be able to pass on the official news that the deal bringing Jermain Defoe to the Stadium of Light has been sealed. He is now a Sunderland player, signed on a three-and-a-half year deal.
SAFC.com quotes the 32-year-old striker as saying: “I’ve always enjoyed coming up here and playing against Sunderland because of the stadium and the supporters. It is a great place to play and I’m really looking forward to it”
And poor old Jozy Altidore moves back across the Atlantic, back to the MLS, where he started his career, replacing Defoe at Toronto FC.
Head coach Gus Poyet expressed his delight at the completion of the deal: “I am thrilled that Jermain is a Sunderland player.
“I know all about his attributes and his qualities first-hand and his exceptional goal-scoring record speaks for itself. He has something different, something special.
“We know each other very well – he was very young when we played together and I was coming to the end of my career, so I know him from inside the pitch.
“When I returned to Spurs as a coach it was a great experience for me to work with him, so I am really looking forward to having him as my player now and for him to be part of our team.
“I would also like to thank Jozy as his begins his career at his new club. It is a fresh start for him and we wish him well.”
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Definitely won’t score goals, regardless of who the strikers are, when your formation means you create about 3 chances a game.
So I’m going to take a slightly rose-tinted view of Poyet’s decision-making process here. What if he realised that we were never going to score many goals with that particular collection of strikers and decided that the only way to have a chance of getting to mid-table obscurity was to play his 4-1-4-1, protect the back four, concede as few as possible (largely done, apart from Southampton and Man City) and hope for a few single goal victories?
I bet the club couldn’t believe their luck when they learned Toronto were open to a straight swap; made it a no brainer!
We just need to hope that our style of play changes to see him bang a few in. At least Gus has spoken of a change of formation so that’s a start.
But will there be any other signings? We’re desperate for a defender or two for me.
You do have to wonder why it has taken 21 games for GP to consider a change of formation? The need to do this, at least in home games, has been obvious to virtually every fan all season.
I agree about other signings, but, on the basis of those made so far, I’m not confident that we will see much improvement. Few of the players recruited during GP’s time have added any quality.
This is when an atypical gallows humour joke actually comes true . How many times have we joked about one of our underperforming players and said ” I wonder if they’d swap him for a Rooney , Robbie Keane , Bale etc ? Well this time its Altidore for Defoe and its actually came true , amazing !
Could we say “Jermaine is germane to Sunderland?”
It would make a terrible newspaper headline – I don’t think it would be suitable for The Sun. The reading age of my headline is too high.