Rob Hutchison keeps it short and, well, you can judge the sweetness … and our much-admired former midfielder Eric Roy tells us to be patient with the new or newish players …
‘Tis the season of peace and goodwill to all men, the season to be jolly, full of glad tidings and merriment.
Not in Sunderland it’s not. Martin Bain has spoken today about past failings, and the general squandering of of millions of pounds.
Forty-five player bought and only three sold on at a profit.The glaring obvious is put into numbers.
It should not come as a surprise to anyone reading this although I’m sure there will still be a few squealers moaning about the manager, the chairman, the 0871 number, pink seats, the stewards and heaven knows what else but the reality is (and credit to the club and Bain here) laid bare. The pot to p*** in was was hawked years ago and it stops now.
No matter who is sold in January very little will be spent on strengthening and replacements because it’s time to start to get the house in order. There’ll be no summer concerts, and no opening away game with any luck, it’s time to build from the bottom up and put faith in Moyes. Three wins of late show there is a team in there who can deliver, it’s time to back the manager, pray for some good fortune with injuries, and get behind the team, the players, the club, the lot.
Now is not the time for the blame game, it’s time to stick together starting tonight.
And now that Rob has got it off his chest, let’s hear a little more from Eric Roy:
He called Monsieur Salut again yesterday before leaving France to be at tonight’s game.
We covered familiar ground – he feels he came to the Premier League a little late in his career, at 32, but cherishes his time at Sunderland. “Great club, fantastic fans, superb stadium, loved living in the North east .. an incredible experience.”
As for the class of 2016, he said the team and the manager look good enough to climb the table. He respects David Moyes and Jermain Defoe but knows the players who have been witch Ligue 1 teams in France best of all. Kone, Djilobodji, Khazri … all good players, he says while insisting that they need time to adjust to the English game. “For me, it was like starting my career all over again,” he said.
And tonight, back where he helped Sunderland to a famous 4-1 victory over Chelsea in 1999?
“I am going for a 1-0 Sunderland win”.
Merci, M Roy!
I’ve just heard Jim White on talkcr*p radio (although to be fair, his show is a million times better than the dross served up by Adrian Durham), he quoted verbatim the Bain announcement and asked safc fans to call in, expecting a lot of criticism and moaning I guess.
The guy who did call in was the vintage of most of salut’s contributors I would say, and, to Jim’s surprise, was very positive and expressed very similar views to Rob.
I feel more fans are upbeat about Moyes after the recent wins, and that the Swansea performance was an aberration, albeit typical Sunderland…….
We have seen many false dawns of course, I just hope the team realise they’re unlikely to be replaced and we’re all in this together (and not in the Tory sense). Mind you, in the back of my mind I’m worried we’ll be weaker this January ‘cos of losing players to the African Cup.