The anticipation of next week’s Premier League kick-off at Ipswich is more than palpable – it’s downright frothing at the bit.
It’s been a pretty good summer. The World Cup was a decent watch, despite the utterly predictable nature of England’s exit. Sunderland had 12 players representing their respective countries in the USA, Canada & Mexico – a total bettered only by Arsenal and Manchester City and Manchester United. Eight goals scored during the summer football fest were by players from our club.
Only Arsenal and Manchester United had more from the Premier League.
That is some feat. There has never been a better time to be a fan of our beautiful club.
With the pre-season friendlies now complete, Régis Le Bris will be quietly satisfied at the progress of his team.
The final two warm-up games were against two of France’s top teams. Lens, who finished second in last season’s Ligue 1, were dispatched 2-0 last week in Hauts-de-France, while on Saturday, Stade Rennais, who finished sixth in last season’s league, were beaten 2-1. Sunderland were convincing in the second half of the game.
To have beaten two strong French teams was an impressive feat. The pre-season sets us up for hopefully a successful season, both domestically and in Europe.
I wonder how many have done, like me and my season-ticket mates, and booked hotels in Frankfurt around the date of the Europa League final? The bookings are cancellable up to two days before the arrival date, so there was nothing to lose by doing so.
This summer has been a complete contrast to last year, when a new signing seemed to have been wheeled out every other day. This summer, the market isn’t as busy, due to the World Cup, but also Sunderland haven’t needed to buy with such urgency.
As I write, it seems that Toulouse’s resolve has been broken and that a deal for long-time Sunderland target Dayann Méthalie is imminent. I had to rub my eyes when I saw the fee involved. At one stage during the negotiations, Toulouse were holding out for €40m, but the figure being reported is €30m. That’s some hardball being played by Director of Football Flo Ghisolfi.
One of the big bonuses of the summer has been the lack of outgoings of significant personnel. Granit Xhaka was said to have been on Chelsea’s radar, but the club quickly snuffed that one out.
It’s somewhat surprising that more of our players haven’t been snapped up by greedier, lazy clubs, especially given how successful they were last season.
What’s also been especially delicious is watching the implosion of those up the road. Steady Eddie following in the tracks of most of their best players. Still, some pundits have them to finish next season in seventh position.
I’ve put a cheeky bet on them going down. I got odds of 10-1 for that.
I also bet on us to finish in the top six (14-1). When the entire tournament field for the Europa League is decided, I might put a cheeky one on us to win that.
Wonder what the odds will be?
