Here’s the final part of this evening’s trilogy. It’s the highly personal letter written by our manager and sent by courier to M Salut (and maybe one or two others). We only put it on this page because we know Ellis Short make our site his first stop after the Tram Car in Southwick on the way home.
What does our manager have to say this time? Is he telling the truth, as he sees it, or is he emphasizing some players in order to move them or motivate them? Is he more informative than Hutch’s one-word verdicts? You’ll have to make your own mind up. Here’s what he said:
Dear Colin,
At 70 minutes we didn’t know which way the game was going to go, it was very tight and there were chances at both ends.
We couldn’t continue our progress, we did well for 70 minutes, but as we know a game is 90 minutes.
I’m a little sad at the goals we allowed Arsenal to score; we should have done a lot better than we did and in the end we made it easy for them to win the game.
However, we move on as there are lots of positives to take from the game. The squad have shown that they can play at this level, maybe not quite as well as they should have today, but the players have shown that they can step in and do the job.
In the end we gave Arsenal too much space and opened ourselves up, they took advantage of that and ultimately that won them the game.
Sam agrees with Hutch’s instant verdict
[Jeremain] Lens did well today. He is strong on the ball as well as talented and that’s very important for us, I’m hoping to see a lot more from him. It’s a big test coming to the Barclays Premier League and he’s still in his first year. Hopefully he can improve on what we’ve seen today.Jordan [Pickford] has been on loan and he’s been terrific for Preston North End. He’s a young lad who is a Sunderland fan and he’s been playing well, so I thought it was high time we gave him a chance to show what he can do. I thought he was excellent today.
Some of these players will be changed over the next couple of games in order to recover. We’ve got a very difficult week with three away games and all of the travelling.
We rotated the squad today and I thought we played very well, for 70 minutes. Hopefully the team on Wednesday play well for the full 90 minutes and we get a result.
Thanks for your support,
Sam Allardyce
5 thoughts on “SA’s essay: Flattering to deceive? Deceiving to flatter?”
At 70 minutes I was THAT close to getting a mug. Then, like life, my expectations were dashed. I have locked the youngest in the cellar to teach him a lesson.
You are! Why! we are crap! we got beat,winning any game brings confidence,cup runs are good for morale. Nothing has changed, we’ve signed a player who cant even get into the Munich team, but ive never seen him play,so i’ll give him a chance,i;m sure he must be better than what we have,but they are mostly crap! One good thing tho, Sams getting rid of some deadwood,,Few more decent signings needed yet.
I agree Bill – it was a very surreal experience to hear on 5Live that the Lads were 1-0 up at the Emirates and not be bursting blood vessels. Likewise I am also feeling just a little more optimistic about chances of survival.
I think Lens is OK, but I think his workrate is not the best.
“At 70 minutes we didn’t know which way the game was going to go” is laying it on a bit thick, but we gave it a good try and weren’t disgraced. For the first time ever, when we went a goal up my heart sank. This was a match I didn’t want us to win. But at the final whistle, I was more optimistic about our chances of staying in the Premiership.
At 70 minutes I was THAT close to getting a mug. Then, like life, my expectations were dashed. I have locked the youngest in the cellar to teach him a lesson.
You are! Why! we are crap! we got beat,winning any game brings confidence,cup runs are good for morale. Nothing has changed, we’ve signed a player who cant even get into the Munich team, but ive never seen him play,so i’ll give him a chance,i;m sure he must be better than what we have,but they are mostly crap! One good thing tho, Sams getting rid of some deadwood,,Few more decent signings needed yet.
I agree Bill – it was a very surreal experience to hear on 5Live that the Lads were 1-0 up at the Emirates and not be bursting blood vessels. Likewise I am also feeling just a little more optimistic about chances of survival.
I think Lens is OK, but I think his workrate is not the best.
“At 70 minutes we didn’t know which way the game was going to go” is laying it on a bit thick, but we gave it a good try and weren’t disgraced. For the first time ever, when we went a goal up my heart sank. This was a match I didn’t want us to win. But at the final whistle, I was more optimistic about our chances of staying in the Premiership.