Y!kes

I absolutely love NY To LA, will definitely check out the rest of the album!

It was pretty deflating to go out the way we did, especially after how well we performed against Sweden, but a month ago, if you'd have told me England would be reaching a World Cup semi final for the first time in almost 30 years, i'd have laughed you out of the pub. And on the plus side, we have a fairly young squad of players to take into Euro 2020 (albeit players who will need to deal with heightened expectations having achieved what they've achieved this World Cup), it's something to build on.

A friend donated his unwanted copy of Pokemon Soul Silver to me a few weeks ago, so i've been playing through that. I'd wanted to play the remakes since they were announced, as Gen II was absolutely my favourite Generation. I'm doing a "completionist" run and catching everything that becomes available to me as I progress. It can get a little tedious, but it's fine for a casual like myself.

Seems like it's France's to lose based on individual quality and strength in depth, but Croatia shouldn't be underestimated. Hoping for a decent game anyway, I got my Sunday afternoon shift at worked covered so I could watch it :lol:

Promotion simply has to be the aim this season, but it's going to be difficult. We're a club in complete transition at the moment; we've finally got rid of Short and the rest of the charlatans at boardroom level, we've got a new manager and backroom staff and we're in the midst of revamping our squad. I've not heard of many of the players we've brought in so far but most of them have came highly rated so we'll see, we still need to get shot of the likes of Cattermole, Djiliobodji, Kone, who are eating up massive wages before we can strengthen any further. Personally, after two of the worst seasons of my life, I just want to get back to feeling some pride in my team again.

Ack, been waiting for this! Really enjoyed Jumpsuit on first listen, thinking Nico & The Niners might be a grower. Glad their hiatus didn't last very long :lol:

Was glad to get last season out of the way. Awful football, (for the most part) awful results, just glad to see the back of it. Looking forward to the coming season, feeling quietly confident of a decent campaign given how fit/sharp we've looked during pre-season. We're still missing full-backs, a central midfielder and a striker despite all of the incomings.

Quite like this.

Coincidentally, I was listening to a couple of songs from Seventh Tree again the other day, wondering when they were going to release some new material. Quite like Drew, sounds a little bit Bond theme-y (but maybe that's just me).

Pleased with our summer so far; dirge like Bardsley, Kilgallon, Bramble, McClean, Vaughan and Graham have all left or are on the verge of moves away, and we're signing some real quality. Little bit gutted about Mignolet leaving, but can't begrudge him the move as he's earned it; he had an outstanding 12/13 season and was the one of the main reasons we stayed up. Giaccherini was confirmed today, massive coup for the club, and only £6.5m. Peruzzi's reportedly on his way for a medical tomorrow, and apparently there are a couple more deals in the pipeline. Exciting times indeed.

Week 9 Fixtures: Saturday 27th October Aston Villa 1 - 1 Norwich 12:45 Arsenal 2 - 0 QPR 15:00 Stoke 0 - 1 Sunderland 15:00 Wigan 2 - 1 West Ham 15:00 Reading 1 - 1 Fulham 15:00 Man City 4 - 1 Swansea 17:30 Sunday 28th October Everton 2 - 2 Liverpool 13:30 Southampton 2 - 3 Tottenham 15:00 Newcastle 1 - 0 West Brom 15:00 Chelsea 1 - 2 Man United 16:00

He'll not last long. Was shitting myself when he finally re-called Fletcher, would have been just Sunderland's luck for him to get a call-up and then come back with a knock in time for Sunday. Breathed a massive sigh of relief when he came off unscathed :lol: As for England, i've said it before and i'll say it again, we are now a very, very average team with a very average manager. Our better players for the most part are ageing, and most of the younger players we've got in the side are distinctly average (in terms of international quality - it's one thing being decent in the Premier League but international football is a different kettle of fish). Until we sort out our youth system and start bleeding through real young talent, results against quality sides will continue to be mediocre. Look at Belgium, hardly a footballing institution in the grand scheme of things, and yet they're benefiting from having an organised, effective youth system. Same goes for Germany, Spain, the list goes on. That's what we're crying out for desperately in this country.

Nope. I never, ever predict derby scorelines, far too worried i'll jinx it. Safe to say that with just two days to go, i'm nervous as all hell. The week or so building up to the derby is always awful to have to endure, it goes by so slowly, especially when it's just after an international break. Early start Sunday morning, getting a taxi into town with some mates for about 8am, meeting everyone in the pub from thereon in, suffice to say by the time kick-off comes around, we'll all be merry. There are fans coming from all over the place for it, a big group of Swedish Sunderland supporters are coming over, should be approaching 30 of us by the time everyone's arrived. Really, really hope Sunderland don't let us down (again), it's got the makings of such an amazing day. The place will be absolutely bouncing if we win.

Week 8 Fixtures: Saturday 20th October Tottenham 2 - 1 Chelsea 12:45 Fulham 2 - 0 Aston Villa 15:00 West Brom 1 - 3 Man City 15:00 West Ham 3 - 0 Southampton 15:00 Swansea 1 - 0 Wigan 15:00 Man United 2 - 0 Stoke City 15:00 Liverpool 2 - 1 Reading 15:00 Norwich 0 - 2 Arsenal 17:30 Sunday 21st October QPR 2 - 3 Everton 16:00

Saturday 6th October Man City 2 - 0 Sunderland 12:45 West Brom 2 - 1 QPR 15:00 Chelsea 3 - 1 Norwich 15:00 Swansea 1 - 1 Reading 15:00 Wigan 0 - 1 Everton 15:00 West Ham 1 - 2 Arsenal 17:30 Sunday 7th October Southampton 2 - 2 Fulham 13:30 Tottenham 2 - 1 Aston Villa 15:00 Liverpool 1 - 0 Stoke City 15:00 Newcastle 1 - 1 Man United 16:00 Edit: lol, missed out Newcastle v Man Utd

Been pleased with Fletcher's start, more than anything else because it shuts up the morons who started screaming "Y U SINE HIM FOR £600M??!?!?!??!!!!??" as soon as he'd signed for us. 15+ goals this season (which, given the form he's in isn't too unrealistic) will silence the critics. That said, I don't want us to become totally reliant upon him for goals, other players (the midfield especially) need to start chipping in. Not sure who though, Sess hasn't looked himself so far, Johnson didn't look fully fit on Saturday, Larsson will only score from free kicks, McClean's been sussed and teams are starting to double-up on him now so he doesn't get much of a look-in, Gardner's been getting games at right-back. Can honestly imagine him getting injured for Scotland, would be a nightmare scenario because we play Newcastle after the International break :(

Must just be us then. Every single time he's refereed one of our games he's been utterly atrocious. He was in charge of the Man United game at the end of last season and was fucking abysmal, there was Saturday's debacle and then last season he was the ref when Osman fell over his own feet in the box and he awarded Everton the penalty for it. Mind you, Lee Mason down at West Ham was very poor, and the new guy who was in charge of our game against Swansea wasn't particularly great either. I still think for consistent woefulness the title of 'worst ref' has to go to Webb. I've never seen the bloke have a good, solid, quiet game in charge, certainly never when he's refereed us.

Ref had a mare, apparently, was giving them out far too easily. Webb is still the worst referee in the league though. He was diabolical yet again on Saturday.

We finally won, in what had to be one of the worst ever matches in the history of the Premier league (or Division One before it, or any professional football League ever). An appalling game made worse by the refereeing of Howard Webb. Cannot believe we've started so sluggishly and yet we're still unbeaten. Really hope we raise our game against City this Saturday. One, because it's on TV; two, because it'll end in a cricket score if we don't (tbh it'll probably end up a cricket score even if we do); and three because i'm going and i'd rather not spend the day watching us get ripped apart. Fun fun fun.

Saturday 15th September Norwich 2 - 2 West Ham 12:45 Arsenal 3 - 1 Southampton 15:00 Aston Villa 0 - 1 Swansea 15:00 Fulham 0 - 1 West Brom 15:00 Man United 2 - 0 Wigan 15:00 QPR 1 - 2 Chelsea 15:00 Stoke 0 - 3 Man City 15:00 Sunderland 1 - 0 Liverpool 17:30 Sunday 16th September Reading 0 - 1 Tottenham 16:00 Monday 17th September Everton 2 - 1 Newcastle 20:00

I think the only things i'd change from that is Newcastle and Everton to switch places and us to finish 11th. Fairly happy with what I predicted otherwise.

One match would've done, but as both a Sunderland supporter and as somebody who wouldn't piss on the man if he was on fire i've got to laugh :lol: The awful, horrible, greasy, smarmy, smug, overrated, backhanded, sly, ridiculous, snake of a man. Can't wait til the wind changes direction or the day of the week doesn't have an S in it and the fickle "Geordie Nation" turns on him, we'll finally see the return of the hilarious "COCKNEY MAFFIA OUT" banners. Joke of a club.

I'm Print Screening that, a rare example of Roo praising a Sunderland player :P But yeah, I can't see Liverpool finishing in the top 6, possibly not even in the top 8 because there are at least that many teams i'd say are stronger than them. Then you've got Newcastle who can get away with having a team of pretty average players, supplemented by a few quality ones who can find goals out of nothing even when they're playing poorly (yesterday against Villa is an example). Mind, I will say the Geordies are in the brown stuff if Ben Arfa or a couple of others pick up injuries, their backup players are poor (not that ours are anything special, but hey-ho).

We played awfully against Swansea and still drew. Yay. Steven "OMG Y U OVERPAY 4 HIM HE NOT WORF £10M!!!!!11" Fletcher's goals were quality, especially the first. A few more like that please, Steve, to shut the idiots up :D

Aye, wasn't a bad lineup all things considered. Comfortable win in the end, McClean and Johnson looked absolutely immense (albeit against lower league opposition), Fletcher didn't look match fit but that'll come when he starts getting games consistently. Pleased to be in the next round, got a tricky tie away at MK Dons to come. Really hope we can go on a decent run in at least one of the cups this season.