John McCormick asks: what do you think of the reformatted former Johnstone’s Paint trophy? Did we really need to fork out for a two year contract for a third keeper? Will Victor Anichebe prove to be better than Danny Graham? My answers are “undecided”, “no”, “yes but that means nothing”.
Rob Hutchison has his own opinions. Here he is playing Devil’s Advocate, in which he may take a view directly contrary to your own. You’re welcome to let him know what you think yourself…
It’s time once again to take a look at all things at Sunderland AFC through the eyes of The Devil’s Advocate.
Although there’s been no Premiership game this week, there’s still been plenty to comment on, from pink seats to the Checkatrade trophy.
Speaking of which, we drew with Rochdale this week, but unfortunately lost on penalties. It proved to be an excellent run out with nine places taken up by U23s, and good runs out for Kirchhoff and Denayer which will help with match fitness.
Moyes has used the tournament in exactly the way it was intended, testing the nippers against strong League one players, and helping to sort out a couple of first teamers.
We also signed two players after the window closed last week, a goalie by the name of Mika from Boavista; he allegedly has a release fee of £1m that was looked at but not triggered by another PL club, and a two year contract will provide ample cover and keep the pressure on Vito when he returns to fitness.
I’m guessing it’s all part of Moyes’ long term plan to get our financial house in order and this signing will help with that while giving us the cover we needed.
We also signed Victor Anichebe; another Moyes old boy whom he’ll be confident he can get the most out of and probably the best of the free agents, so all in all we can look back on the window being pretty decent.
Finally, it will be just fantastic to see the stadium looking spick and span with the new red seats in place for the Everton game. Just pause for thought for a minute, we could have spent that money on Charles N’Zogbia’s wages or a taxi for Kone. Yet another winner.
* Voting has begun in The Football Blogging Awards. Salut! Sunderland will not get even close to winning but we have been invited to enter. If you feel like casting a vote in our favour, the obvious category is Best Football Club Blog and you can support us at http://www.footballbloggingawards.co.uk/about/vote-now-football-blogging-awards/
With regard to,the keeper….yes we did need to sign another. I think signing a25 year old with some possible re sale value was smart move. He’ll provide some serious competition that will keep Jodan and Vito ,when fit on their toes.