Sunderland - Stadium of Light - Rebuild

[jawzy]

A club of this size should not be in the third tier, but the players that are and have been at this side in recent years have managed to put in some awful performances in the premier league and most recently the Championship as a result they suffered back to back relegations to the third tier - Sunderland have only been at this level once where they won the league - hopefully most of the bad is out of the club now and we can return to the championship and the premier league where our 49,000 stadium doesnt look out of place!

For this forthcoming season I have a 4m transfer budget with 36m in the balance - but like with most clubs outside of the top flight this will vanish very quickly.

The new board expect promotion straight back to the Championship, this is my expectation too.

The Squad

The squad on the whole doesnt look bad, but I feel we are lacking a proper goalscorer. There are 3 players I have singled out on getting out of Sunderland - mainly due to high wages and have played alot over the last few seasons Cattermole, Oviedo and McGready.

[scott]

Good challenge, Jawzy, good luck mate. You should have enough to get out of the division, I'd imagine.

What wages is Cattermole on? I'd imagine its a crippling amount. Hopefully you can shift him and the other two. I've really struggled to shift dead wood this year.

[jawzy]

30k a week. Stoke came in with a 2.5m bid but want me to pay 13k a week contribution, I accepted.

I wondere what the expectation will be in the Championship if I dont flop this season up!

[scott]

Hopefully realistic, it'll be a big step up no doubt, especially with a lot of youngsters. Got to get there first!

[jawzy]

Lucas Piazon onwards are my aquisitions this window. Only managed to offload Cattermole

[jawzy]

Halfway, and if we manage to not be champions at the end I will be annoyed.!

[jawzy]

A cup win by Sunderland, admitidly its the EFL Trophy, but a cup wins a cup win right?

[chaodck]

Wow this has the looks of a great save jawzy! Total makeover in the first season, leading the league and winning a Cup. Best of luck in the future, will be following!

[jawzy]

First hurdle completed!

Promoted from League One as champions!




For the most part of the season it was just way to easy! Barnsley at one point though did take our top spot briefly (around time they had played few games more than us when we were in cups. other than that pretty plain sailing!

EFL Trophy


fa cup and League Cup


Considering we lost 4 games all season that 4-0 loss vs Middlesborough in the cup was rough and way to heavy. Middlesborough did finish 2nd in Championship though!

Squad/Stats


Goalkeepers
McLaughin has done enough to prove he should be alright for the championship!
Ruiter contract is going to expire, he is a good backup, but I feel letting the young Polish move up as a backup will be good for the young keeper!

Defenders:
Ozturk is the player that stands out as the one that was a good solid rock at the back. Even though was looking to get rid of Oviedo at start of season I will probably keep him around for next season, On the whole happy with the defenders performance all season, Will be keeping them all, may look to bring in one or two versitile defenders though. as cover.

Midfielders
McGeouch, seems to struggle to stay fit for most of the seasons picks up lots of niggles too, but he is a beast of a midfielder. Mumba at 16 looks a hot prospect. Again, im happy with the midfield.

Wingers
Piazon was a great loan signing and low valued too, so im hoping I can bring him in on a permenent deal Gooch and Watmore and even maguire have made the winger selection difficult this season!

Strikers
With only Maja there at start I was initially concerned with the firepoiwer we had. Maja proved that he is capable at League one level, and the freebie signing also proved his worth too, but the loan in striker was the goalgetter!, so may look into seeking him in next season or see if i can lure or find an expirenced goalscorer to replace this guy!.

Initially our transfer budget for the summer sits at 27m No idea what the board expect of next season yet though!

[jawzy]

Board expect top half finish - this is both doable and a tough ask with the amount of quality teams in the division.

media expect 10th place finish. I personally have no idea how things will pan out!



We will start with the outs:
The dutch pair that left on a free both reached end of contracts.
We made a small profit on Barnes.
And Honeyman was in last year of contract and was refusing to renew, so Leeds got him on a cut price possibly.

Ins:
Bettinelli comes in to be a younger number 1, last seasons number 1 will drop to our backup keeper.
Berahino for 3m, is a low cost risk imo, hopefully he can rebuild his career and help us rebuild too.
Piazon, happy to grab him for just 1m!
Catjoft is going to be a O23 keeper for forthcoming season.
Andy carrol and the two arsenal releases Zelalum and Julio, are the noteworthy free players signed, I am hoping Carrol can offer something different from the bench.
Besic in on loan will help the defensive side of our midfield.

[jawzy]

second season, and we have been promoted again.

Before the season started I was very unsure how this bunch would perform. but they found there feet and we started off the season floating around mid table then we crept into the playoffs spots and pretty much stayed there till the end



We beat Cardiff 5-1 over two legs and then beat the other team that is deemed to big for the championship in terms of fanbase 2-0 in the final


cups


We tried to do our best in the EFL cup but fell to Spurs 3-2 annoyingly even though we were outplayed!
in fa cup I opted to play a weakened side vs wimbledon and it beat me on the arse!

January transfers
in:


out:


The departures especially Barahino and Carrol were both relieving and disapointing but they were both shocking 32 games and 2 goals between them! Also with the old argentine returning to argentina this meant i was abit short on options upfront, so Brewster and Clough ended up coming in. the others were to increase options in midfield and defensively as the season took its toll on our core players. Though i didnt get much out of Brewster so let him go back to Liverpool



Goalkeepers
Bettinelli has done wonders! and Lumley has done wonderful coming in when needed too - both should be here next season

Defenders
Kone and Oviedo will stay, providing they renew, our right side seems pretty weak for the premier league. Baldwin and Kause could do a jobb, may look for another centre back of kone quality though

Midfielders
With Grujic and Besic being pretty much solid. they will be missed, and Mummba is slowlky improving but not preier league ready, so will have to look for a defensive midfielder for sure. Dylan and Power will be given opertunities to play in the top flight, wingers wise Piazon, Watmoore and Gooch have done enough to also be rewarded.

Attack
Maja continues to rise and perform! so I will no doubt let him be our goalscorer at top flight, hopefully he got goals in him again, but outside of maja, im not convined the others have enough about them.

Next season we will have 38m to spend and im pretty sure the board will expect to avoiud the drop!

[jawzy]

Also the brexit rules, I seem to have is: anyone outside of UK/Ireland requires a work permit.

So guess i need Northern Ireland feeder club to get the players that fail pernits Northern irish nationality in 3 years?

[jawzy]

ins:

Samprisi is a better option at right back.

the two man city players are both youngsters, will go into u23 squad/out on loan.

Zahovic is a cheap striking option

Mo Besic returns after a succesful loan period last season

Jong-woo is an expirenced defensive midfielder

Ryan Thomas is a 25 year old defensive midfielder, as i look to bulk out my celtral midfield with various options.

Idah, got bags of goals in championship last season and is only 19 years old! hopefully he can play alongside Maja.

Roberts a great winger released by man city!

Coles and Ompreon just more youngsters to bulk out u23 squad and Barnes is a cheap 3rd choice keeper option.

Out:

Nobody of note has left,m disapointed could only get 9k for Zelalem though.

team for the first game of the season will look like this.

[jawzy]

well I needed a result here but the ref had other ideas?

[jawzy]

halfway stage, and its Sunderland, being Sunderland in the top flight:

[chaodck]

Wow, back to back promotions! Shame to see you guys struggling on the Premier League though. What are the Board expectations? Is your position at risk if you can't survive the drop?

[jawzy]

Attempt to void the drop if i remember correctly, no rumours, but, the way the season is going its wearing me down. to the point where im considering a new save