Relegation (merged)

Quoted from diehardmariner

Jesus wept...the issue isn't the manager, his tactics or his recruitment.  The issue is the bloke who has suffocated the life out this club for the last 20 years.

The players aren't good enough.  Why?  Because they're cheap as intercourse!  Why did Holloway bring so many in?  Because not only are they not good enough, they're not physically capable of playing week-in-week-out.

Over the last few seasons we've brought in Glennon, Benson, Robson, Embleton...all good exciting young players that are highly rated and with their parent clubs keeping a watchful eye on them.  To the extent that Embleton was handed a new deal upon returning to Sunderland, Benson made his Premier League debut the other week - less than a year since he played his last game for us.

This season we've got lads in who are miles and miles down the pecking order at their clubs, simply put they're not as good as what we've previously had - therefore they'll be cheaper.

Morton spent last season on loan at FGR - 12 games.  Before that he was Bath City and Chippenham Town.  I'm no football snob and appreciate the value of players dropping down levels to enhance their schooling.  But in context that's the career path as someone who is 6 months older than Benson.

Preston - Alfreton Town last season.
Edwards - Bath City
Taylor - No loan spells.  He's one of 70 (yeah, I've just counted!)  Under 21 players registered as part of Wolves Premier League squad.  He's not busting any doors down there.
Windsor - Taunton Town

Our best player this year has been Edwards.  No disrespect to the lad, who I think could actually be a half decent player with coaching, but his end product is non-existent.  But in a normal season he would be someone who you might throw on for the last 10 minutes to cause a bit of upset with his pace.  He's now our main man.

Despite all the bluster about needing any potential buyers to pick up any shortfall, Fenty and this board have done exactly the opposite.  Sitting on their hands and letting the fans contribute to their begging bowl, once again reading the situation wrong, slashing the budget and with it losing players of quality and then expecting the manager to pull some rabbit out the hat.

It doesn't matter who the manager is, you can't produce a competitive squad with buttons.  Holloway has gambled with the high turnover because he didn't have the option of bringing in quality players who are fit and will stay fit.  There's a reason Scannell's here, because he's made of glass.  There's a reason Danny Rose with his relatively good pedigree is here, because he can't stay fit...

We've got rid of our assistant manager.  We can argue that it was because he disagreed with the situation all we like, but we got rid of him and we didn't replace.  It's penny pinching.  We've got limited coaching, quite evident by the lack of shape.  We're forever picking up niggles, knocks and strains which suggests our sports science set-up isn't good enough and/or we've got players who can't hack it (I imagine a combination of both)....what do people expect?

In the summer it was obvious and clear from very early on that no-one else was cutting their cloth as small as we were.  The board bang on about how they're there to pick up any slack if it's needed.  Well it was flipping needed this summer!   The irony of dismissing Schutes and co. because they didn't provide assurances how they would provide financial support as they sat congratulating themselves on making a 4p profit whilst the manager tries to make do with building a squad that is made up of cheap kids no-one else wants because they're not good enough and cheap oldies that no-one else wants because they're broken.

The club needed the board to do what they expected Schutes to do, put their hand in their pocket and help us out.  I never want the club to be anymore in debt to Fenty than it is and has been.  But don't flipping stand behind your puppet and tell us you're not selling the club because someone won't do the exact thing you've failed to do!

Go.  Just go.  Get out of the club.  Agree a plan to get your loans back (which were needed because of your sheer incompetence at running a football club) and let someone else have a go.  

Quoted from diehardmariner

Jesus wept...the issue isn't the manager, his tactics or his recruitment.  The issue is the bloke who has suffocated the life out this club for the last 20 years.

The players aren't good enough.  Why?  Because they're cheap as intercourse!  Why did Holloway bring so many in?  Because not only are they not good enough, they're not physically capable of playing week-in-week-out.

Over the last few seasons we've brought in Glennon, Benson, Robson, Embleton...all good exciting young players that are highly rated and with their parent clubs keeping a watchful eye on them.  To the extent that Embleton was handed a new deal upon returning to Sunderland, Benson made his Premier League debut the other week - less than a year since he played his last game for us.

This season we've got lads in who are miles and miles down the pecking order at their clubs, simply put they're not as good as what we've previously had - therefore they'll be cheaper.

Morton spent last season on loan at FGR - 12 games.  Before that he was Bath City and Chippenham Town.  I'm no football snob and appreciate the value of players dropping down levels to enhance their schooling.  But in context that's the career path as someone who is 6 months older than Benson.

Preston - Alfreton Town last season.
Edwards - Bath City
Taylor - No loan spells.  He's one of 70 (yeah, I've just counted!)  Under 21 players registered as part of Wolves Premier League squad.  He's not busting any doors down there.
Windsor - Taunton Town

Our best player this year has been Edwards.  No disrespect to the lad, who I think could actually be a half decent player with coaching, but his end product is non-existent.  But in a normal season he would be someone who you might throw on for the last 10 minutes to cause a bit of upset with his pace.  He's now our main man.

Despite all the bluster about needing any potential buyers to pick up any shortfall, Fenty and this board have done exactly the opposite.  Sitting on their hands and letting the fans contribute to their begging bowl, once again reading the situation wrong, slashing the budget and with it losing players of quality and then expecting the manager to pull some rabbit out the hat.

It doesn't matter who the manager is, you can't produce a competitive squad with buttons.  Holloway has gambled with the high turnover because he didn't have the option of bringing in quality players who are fit and will stay fit.  There's a reason Scannell's here, because he's made of glass.  There's a reason Danny Rose with his relatively good pedigree is here, because he can't stay fit...

We've got rid of our assistant manager.  We can argue that it was because he disagreed with the situation all we like, but we got rid of him and we didn't replace.  It's penny pinching.  We've got limited coaching, quite evident by the lack of shape.  We're forever picking up niggles, knocks and strains which suggests our sports science set-up isn't good enough and/or we've got players who can't hack it (I imagine a combination of both)....what do people expect?

In the summer it was obvious and clear from very early on that no-one else was cutting their cloth as small as we were.  The board bang on about how they're there to pick up any slack if it's needed.  Well it was flipping needed this summer!   The irony of dismissing Schutes and co. because they didn't provide assurances how they would provide financial support as they sat congratulating themselves on making a 4p profit whilst the manager tries to make do with building a squad that is made up of cheap kids no-one else wants because they're not good enough and cheap oldies that no-one else wants because they're broken.

The club needed the board to do what they expected Schutes to do, put their hand in their pocket and help us out.  I never want the club to be anymore in debt to Fenty than it is and has been.  But don't flipping stand behind your puppet and tell us you're not selling the club because someone won't do the exact thing you've failed to do!

Go.  Just go.  Get out of the club.  Agree a plan to get your loans back (which were needed because of your sheer incompetence at running a football club) and let someone else have a go.  

Quoted from Theimperialcoroner

It’s not the manager it’s the flipping non chairman.
Whoever is in charge has to do absolutely everything on the cheap and it shows. Holloway went hunting for bargains because he had to. I’m not pretending there aren’t issues there, but he is not the root cause. Not by a long way.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

Well when I say splash the cash, I really mean normal contracts, signing league standard players. The sort of thing every other club does!

Quoted from ginnywings

Dire as things seem at the moment, relegation is still a long way away. We are only a third into the season and have plenty of time to make things right. Some players back from injury and a few canny moves in the transfer market could change things very rapidly. The time to start panicking is two thirds into the season if we are not improving. There are still seven teams below us in the form table. It's easy just to look at it from our point of view, but there are other teams struggling as badly as we are, some more so. All these teams will take points from one another and we are going to start playing a few of them in the coming weeks.

I'll start to get twitchy at the end of Jan if we are still fielding a side this inexperienced and ineffective.

Quoted from ginnywings

Dire as things seem at the moment, relegation is still a long way away. We are only a third into the season and have plenty of time to make things right. Some players back from injury and a few canny moves in the transfer market could change things very rapidly. The time to start panicking is two thirds into the season if we are not improving. There are still seven teams below us in the form table. It's easy just to look at it from our point of view, but there are other teams struggling as badly as we are, some more so. All these teams will take points from one another and we are going to start playing a few of them in the coming weeks.

I'll start to get twitchy at the end of Jan if we are still fielding a side this inexperienced and ineffective.

Quoted from davmariner

But by the end of January we won’t be able to do anything about it. We’ll be relying on Holloway to get the recruitment right (having fouled it up in the first place), which arguably will be harder to do than over the summer.

The question is, do you trust Holloway to get it right? To be honest I don’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if he walked in January (in a similar manner to his Palace departure) after he’s failed to turn it around and struggled to recruit adequately. When the going gets tough, Holloway struggles to turn things around, as shown by his track record. He doesn’t fare well in relegation battles either.

The direction that we’re heading in is clear and if we’re to stand a chance of fighting off relegation, we need a manager that can solidify the defence and build from there. Since Holloway joined, we’ve shipped goals left, right and centre and we currently have the second worst goal difference in the league.

Quoted from Mikey_345

Let’s not forget he got it right last January and turned us from a fairly poor team into on playing some decent stuff and winning.