Seb: ‘the Lads are happier under Poyet’. Us: ‘our turn next?’

It caught my eye that the Sunderland Echo – where’s that piece about the demise of the Footie Echo, Sixer? – was quoting Seb Larsson on how much happier the Lads all were under Gus Poyet.

Glancing at the Premier League table, there’s an obvious response. And the first batch of readers’ comments made it.

Here’s how I put it at ESPNC.com

Brown’s availability for the match could be of immense importance. When fit, which he has not often been since joining Sunderland in July 2011, he is the club’s best defender. John O’Shea, whose otherwise composed play is occasionally marred by inexplicable errors and poor distribution, invariably looks stronger when his former Manchester United colleague is alongside him.

Back in the heady early days of another short-lived Sunderland boss, O’Neill, Brown showed his worth at the other end of the field, too, popping up with a winning header at Queens Park Rangers. After his misfortune at the Britannia Stadium, denied a chance to help his team fight back from 0-1 to draw with or even beat Stoke, natural justice demands a similar outcome at Aston Villa.

There are two snags: it is unwise to pin too much hope on natural justice, and Brown cannot do it on his own. Sunderland will have their customarily loud and passionate fans urging the away end to ‘sing your hearts out for the Lads‘. Poyet has to inspire the rest of the side he sends out to raise their games a notch or two, resist temptation — Neil Swarbrick is the ref and may be less forgiving than he was with Wayne Rooney at Cardiff on Sunday — and ‘play their hearts out for the travelling support‘.

It is all very well for Seb Larsson to tell the Sunderland Echo how much happier the players are these days. At least, despite the nightmare of Villa Park, PDC kept Sunderland up. As a number of the Echo’s readers have been quick to point out, the time is overdue for the newly happy chappies of the dressing room to bring some sustained joy into fans’ lives, too.

Those were my last few paragraphs. Read the whole thing at http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/2451?cc=5739

And Ha’way the Happy Lads.

It is all very well for Seb Larsson to tell the Sunderland Echo how much happier the players are these days. At least, despite the nightmare of Villa Park, PDC kept Sunderland up. As a number of the Echo’s readers have been quick to point out, the time is overdue for the newly happy chappies of the dressing room to bring some sustained joy into fans’ lives, too.