Post by Les on Feb 3, 2024 11:24:43 GMT
A Love Supreme
THEY’RE NOT LISTENING!
BY LEE PEART
Another transfer window. Another bitter disappointment for long suffering Sunderland supporters awaiting a striker. It’s been 16 months since Ross Stewart suffered an Achilles tendon injury and we have been playing without an effective striker ever since. For a club our size this is nothing short of gross negligence.
In his meeting with irate supporters to discuss the Newcastle debacle KLD promised he would listen to them. With supporters screaming “we want a striker!” from the stands after yet another powder puff display, how hard of hearing is he?
29 games in, with 17 to go, our collective young strike force has managed two goals between them this season. That’s less than half a goal each! One of them has made such little impact (Mayende) he has been shipped off to Hibernian without barely playing a game. And our owners think this acceptable? Is this what Speakman calls a “high performance culture?”
In answering bemused journalists’ questions on why a striker had yet again failed to appear in the transfer window, Speakman cited high transfer fees and the pursuit of Amad Diallo. Whether Amad was ever likely to return always appeared dubious at best. And regarding high fees why couldn’t we go to the lower leagues? There are strikers proving every week they know where the goal is (unlike our still wet behind the ears innocents). Players such as Macaulay Langstaff (20 goals, Notts County) and Matt Smith (18 goals, Salford City) would not have commanded high fees and surely would have been an improvement on our powder puff lot? You don’t need a global scouting system and recruitment team to work this out! I just Googled it!
In his defence, Speakman highlights the progress made since the new ownership came in when we were in League One. The problem here is that thanks largely to the heroics of Amad we overreached in reaching the play-offs last season and so raised the bar for this year. With expectations of a play-off place now seen as a minimum, the club is clearly failing to deliver. As every fan can see, without adequate replacements for Stewart and Amad, we have gone backwards.
The consequences of failing to be promoted this season, which given the ongoing striker vacuum now looks inevitable, will be severe. Jack Clarke, who has single-handedly led our strike force, will leave. Sunderland fans alarmed by the club’s current backwards trajectory are already asking, ‘what will happen then?’ Will it be more of the same or will our owners finally be good to their word and start to listen?
THEY’RE NOT LISTENING!
BY LEE PEART
Another transfer window. Another bitter disappointment for long suffering Sunderland supporters awaiting a striker. It’s been 16 months since Ross Stewart suffered an Achilles tendon injury and we have been playing without an effective striker ever since. For a club our size this is nothing short of gross negligence.
In his meeting with irate supporters to discuss the Newcastle debacle KLD promised he would listen to them. With supporters screaming “we want a striker!” from the stands after yet another powder puff display, how hard of hearing is he?
29 games in, with 17 to go, our collective young strike force has managed two goals between them this season. That’s less than half a goal each! One of them has made such little impact (Mayende) he has been shipped off to Hibernian without barely playing a game. And our owners think this acceptable? Is this what Speakman calls a “high performance culture?”
In answering bemused journalists’ questions on why a striker had yet again failed to appear in the transfer window, Speakman cited high transfer fees and the pursuit of Amad Diallo. Whether Amad was ever likely to return always appeared dubious at best. And regarding high fees why couldn’t we go to the lower leagues? There are strikers proving every week they know where the goal is (unlike our still wet behind the ears innocents). Players such as Macaulay Langstaff (20 goals, Notts County) and Matt Smith (18 goals, Salford City) would not have commanded high fees and surely would have been an improvement on our powder puff lot? You don’t need a global scouting system and recruitment team to work this out! I just Googled it!
In his defence, Speakman highlights the progress made since the new ownership came in when we were in League One. The problem here is that thanks largely to the heroics of Amad we overreached in reaching the play-offs last season and so raised the bar for this year. With expectations of a play-off place now seen as a minimum, the club is clearly failing to deliver. As every fan can see, without adequate replacements for Stewart and Amad, we have gone backwards.
The consequences of failing to be promoted this season, which given the ongoing striker vacuum now looks inevitable, will be severe. Jack Clarke, who has single-handedly led our strike force, will leave. Sunderland fans alarmed by the club’s current backwards trajectory are already asking, ‘what will happen then?’ Will it be more of the same or will our owners finally be good to their word and start to listen?
