Dear Roker Report,
Right at the death yet again, and, as should have been scripted, by a former player. Taking away the regrettable celebrations from Clarke that irked us fans who once adored him, there was definitely something lacking in our play.
To me, we seemed half a yard off the ball, and although I am loath to say we were a little presumptuous, something was amiss. We certainly need refreshing, and although I trust our team of talent spotters, I do not care for leaving transfer business until
the last minute.
Players need to bed in, and, as we know, this league is relentless. Were the worst to happen and we get beaten by Fulham, I genuinely believe the pressure will already be on RLB, such is the cooking pot at our club.
The games this season will be constant, and we will need fresh legs throughout the campaign. Leaving it all until the last week is inviting other teams to blast off and leave us standing somewhat. We simply cannot afford to play catch-up in this league alongside a European campaign.
I am not alone in saying a lot of fans are feeling slightly nervous already. Maybe it is the lack of transfer activity, maybe it is a rub-off regarding “second-season syndrome”, and perhaps the pundits are getting to us (although what most of them know could be written on the back of a stamp).
Whatever it is, we need to get out of the blocks, and fast, or this could turn disastrous, and my experience of over 50 years following the club dictates as such to me.
Peter Milton
Ed’s Note [Martin]: Everyone’s entitled to their opinions, Peter – I prefer to look on the positive side of things. It’s one game. We lost our opening away game last season. All three promoted clubs won their first home game last season, two have done so this season and you wouldn’t bet against Coventry making it three.
The players didn’t turn in a great display last weekend, but we should have drawn – and could have won. Two daft mistakes. If Alderete doesn’t give the ball away, are we even talking about any of this? Any talk about things turning disastrous and RLB being under pressure should we fail to win on Sunday seems so out of proportion it’s crazy to me, especially after everything this club, ownership, management and players have achieved over the past few years. But the sad thing is, you’re probably right.
People getting the knives out after one loss is baffling. I agree some of it is caused by the pundits, but they’re easily ignored. Some of it’s the lack of transfer activity, but the current regime have proven themselves in this regard time and time again. Whatever the root cause, it’s all being given oxygen from people on social media who live for the interactions their wild takes and negativity get. It’s the world we live in, but we need some semblance of common sense and balance here, surely?! That doesn’t get social media interaction, of course, which is the problem.
This stuff unfortunately is real life, and people spouting off online have a far more detrimental effect on things than they realise. They negatively affect other supporters, and they negatively affect the players too – because they read everything. We’re all disappointed by the result last weekeend, we’d all have liked new signings in by now – but perspective’s needed I suspect.
Between you and I we have the best part of a century of supporting Sunderland under our belts – thank goodness social media wasn’t around in 1912, as the season started off with no wins and 5 defeats in the first seven… and we ended up winning the league. Bob Kyle would have been hounded out by October if social media had been around then!
It feels like some people need to regroup and take a step back. Take a breath before Fulham. We’re in the Premier League. We’re in the Europa League. We’ve got a fantastically talented squad. Do people really want to risk blowing all of that up because people haven’t had enough dopamine hits from transfers this summer and we’ve lost one game in the last minute?
Small point about Jack Clarke’s celebration by the way – wasn’t regrettable for me at all. He’d just scored a late winner. How would we feel if Xhaka didn’t celebrate a 90th minute winner against Arsenal? I hate this nonsense of players not celebrating against former clubs – football is a passionate game!
