We will know soon whether David Moyes is to stay on for the massive job of reviving Sunderland after his wretched season in charge. If he goes, we would need swift, decisive action on a replacement to avoid the problems caused last summer by the FA’s dithering over Big Sam and England. Here, a guest writer weighs up the options …
Malcolm Dawson writes……the official attendance yesterday was 38,394 but judging by the number of empty seats all round the ground …
John McCormick writes: To read the above in our manager’s post-match missive* you might think we went down 5-6 to Bayern Munich or Real Madrid after storming their barricades for 90 minutes.
The truth is somewhat different as we once again failed to score or keep a clean sheet against mediocre opposition.
At least he gets it right about the fans:
Malcolm Dawson writes….criticised for his negative comments after his side’s defeat in what was considered this season’s first local derby, …
Malcolm Dawson writes….Pete Sixsmith is the most resilient of the Salut! Sunderland regulars. While M Salut was tied up entertaining long distance relatives, John McCormick was fighting his own relegation battle in the Merseyside Chess League or whatever and I was occupied in my post retirement part time career opportunity in Lytham St Annes, Pete was at the Riverside suffering ……again! His seven word summation suggests that he and our manager differ in their opinions as to how tonight’s match went if this post match e-mail is anything to go by…
Malcolm Dawson writes………..if you believe the official figures, there were over 40,000 world weary souls at the Stadium of Light …
Sunderland look doomed and, in honesty, have done for weeks. Games that must produce points produce none or, as against Burnley and West Ham, just one. Here, James Reynolds, a freelance sportswriter, looks at the reality staring David Moyes in the face. We can question some of his conclusions (why, for example, would Moyes’s career be over if we went down?) but it’s mostly hammer hits nail on head …
With six Premier League games remaining, Sunderland need a miracle to avoid relegation to the Championship. David Moyes was thrown in the deep end a little at the start of the campaign but his side hasn’t been anywhere near good enough.
John McCormick writes: post match, on radio five live, Fabio Borini hinted at changing-room issues. When asked to elaborate he talked about injuries but did nothing else to explain. Was something lost in translation? You might think not, given the way David Moyes manages to suggest everything’s hunky-dory in his post-match missive:
More than 45 years ago, a gas explosion in David Moyes’s native Scotland – Clarkston, East Renfrewshire to be precise – killed 22 people. It was a terrible event but one, happily rare occurrence ensured that every gas leak or minor explosion for weeks, anywhere in the UK, was reported as if part of a trend.
Much the same happened, in the 1980s if I remember correctly, after a child was killed by vicious dog masquerading as family pet. However minor subsequent incidents involving dog attacks, the sort that happen all the time, they were described as a “spate”. I have spent almost all my working life in journalism but this was not the media – print or broadcast – at its finest.
Pete Sixsmith was as stern with Sunderland after the 3-0 drubbing at the hands and feet of Manchester United as the fiercest of his masters at King James I grammar. But does he see light at the end of this bleakest of tunnels? He does, but then again does he? …
Here, I put forward five ways in which we can bring off Great Escape V. Only one of them is impossible. Which one do you think it is?