*Official* English Football Season 2013-14

[Eds]

6th at best and a top 4 challenge if they have a good season.

Haha.

 

[sledger]

Haha yeah, nice one Cevno.

 

[wpdavid]

Haha, Sunderland.

It's so comical you'd suspect it was all planned. I remember a few months back Halsey mentioned to me that he wouldn't be at all surprised if Di Canio was brought in just to fire all the players up, beat the drop, and then moved on shortly after. It now seems that this has happened. What's peculiar, however, is the fact that they let him totally revamp the side, after falling out with (and selling) a number of key players.

Not the most appealing job for prospective applicants imo. I can't imagine many people would be too keen to walk into a squad which has no less than 14 new players settling in, none of whom you probably would have bought had you been in charge.

Plus the joy of inheriting a dressing room led by Lee Catermole who've managed to shift your predecessor. A pox on all their houses imo.

 

[Furball]

Haha.

He's bang on.

 

[Furball]

I have to say, it's pretty funny to see people go on about Arsenal's squad depth when it's already been pretty severely tested, and in midfield at least Wenger has options coming out of his ears.

 

[Cevno]

Haha.

Yeah, should have said finish 6th probably and top 4 challenge if they have a good season.

Spotted it a few minutes after i posted and tried to edit that but edit function doesn't work on Firefox for me ffs.

 

[Pothas]

Haha, Sunderland.

It's so comical you'd suspect it was all planned. I remember a few months back Halsey mentioned to me that he wouldn't be at all surprised if Di Canio was brought in just to fire all the players up, beat the drop, and then moved on shortly after. It now seems that this has happened. What's peculiar, however, is the fact that they let him totally revamp the side, after falling out with (and selling) a number of key players.

Not the most appealing job for prospective applicants imo. I can't imagine many people would be too keen to walk into a squad which has no less than 14 new players settling in, none of whom you probably would have bought had you been in charge.

Sunderland seem to buy (and sell) a massive number of players every year. Remember Roy Keane bought a load and Bruce did the same not all that long ago, not sure how many of them are left now.

 

[sledger]

Haha, yeah. You'd have thought that somewhere in that cycle they would have actually bought someone who was slightly good.

I look at their squad now, and there isn't one player who jumps out as being anything more than standard/mediocre/generic. Even rubbish sides usually have one player who's a cut above the rest of their squad, but Sunderland are just so plain.

I mean, players like Seb Larsson and Craig Gardner are serviceable, but after that, none of the names in their squad jump out at me at all. There is Giaccherini I suppose, who might be good, but still. Can't see them doing much at all, in fact, I'd say they are staring down the barrel. There's just nothing to their team.

 

[Uppercut]

Sunderland seem to buy (and sell) a massive number of players every year. Remember Roy Keane bought a load and Bruce did the same not all that long ago, not sure how many of them are left now.

Yeah it's weird. They get huge crowds, bigger crowds than Chelsea while playing some of the ****test football in the league. It's a bit like with Stoke, by keeping a British identity they've managed to get away with massively underperforming for years.

 

[sledger]

Yeah it's weird. They get huge crowds, bigger crowds than Chelsea while playing some of the ****test football in the league. It's a bit like with Stoke, by keeping a British identity they've managed to get away with massively underperforming for years.

It seems to have handily obscured the fact that they have spent **** loads of money as well. IIRC they've not spent less than £20m per season on transfers since 2006 or something like that.

 

[Pothas]

Seems to follow a similar pattern with every manager as well, a good start, a period of total mediocrity, followed by a dismal end. Admitedly Di Canio managed to pack that into a very short space of time.

 

[marc71178]

Haha, yeah. You'd have thought that somewhere in that cycle they would have actually bought someone who was slightly good.

Sessegnon?

 

[sledger]

Haha, it's interesting to look through the list of players they've bought over the years, and to try and work out which ones weren't utter pish or didn't turn out to be a disaster for one reason or another.

Saha, Adam Johnson, Steven Fletcher, Danny Graham, John O'Shea, Wes Brown, Ji Dong-Won, Titus Bramble, Asamoah Gyan, Frazier Campbell etc...

And going even further back a lot of the players bought by Keane were terrible as well. Kenwyne Jones etc...

 

[Scaly piscine]

Bloody hell didn't realise Bendtner had a makeover. If he didn't look like a complete **** before he does now:

BBC Sport - Paolo Di Canio sacked, Premier League reaction, Ashes squad,

17:45

 

[Cabinet96]

Haha, holy ****. I couldn't think of something which could look more terrible.

 

[sledger]

That is bottom of the barrel stuff.

 

[Cabinet96]

It's the facial hair that tops it off.

 

[sledger]

It does look like a very confused style. Must be going for the overly coiffed lumberjack look. Or something.

 

[Pothas]

Well this is a **** evening.

 

[sledger]

Sounds like Brentford have dominated this. Going on the stats on the club website anyway.