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Sunderland Mid Season review.
Things didnt start so well this season. Before the season started the club was on the lookout for a new manager after Vincenzo Montella upped and left to join Inter Milan. Unfortunately the club chairman was on a remote island enjoying his jollies at the time and the clubs sporting director took it into his own hands to hire a replacement.
Up steps Martin Jol, the man sacked by Hull only months earlier after narrowly escaping relegation, what good could he do here??
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Jol managed to guide the team through pre season unscathed except for a questionable draw with Wycombe.
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Jol's next order of business was to pillage the clubs millions on unnecessary transfers.
First up £375k was wasted on Paul Proctor from MK Dons, this lad is a future Championship player at best. His mental stats are poor and so are his technical attributes. I want to sign the best young players not those destined for mediocrity.
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Next up £4.3m was wasted on a player I didn't need and was passed up by myself for only £2m. The player in question is Nick Powell from Manchester United. The lad has only featured a handful of times for us this season and joins an already stacked midfield.
Luciano Mendy was also signed from Belenenses for £160k and finally Sascha Horvath was bought in on loan from Tottenham this move particularly annoyed me the most as another center midfielder had been signed in an already stacked midfield. Better players haven't played because of this signing .
Jol then embarked on the start of our Premier League season. Although results were not too bad they could have been better, the 3-1 loss to Leicester was particularly disappointing.
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September came and Phillips had returned from his jollies and he was not a happy man, not only had the club appointed Martin LoL, he had wasted millions and was quite frankly a **** manager. It also didnt help that the man writing this is a massive Gooner and hates anything connected to Spurs.
Phillips was very annoyed by the signings after players he had bought in were being pushed out of the team. The chairman had bought in 8 players over the off season and only 3 are playing regularly, although he accredits some of this problem to himself, Jol's signings are pushing 3 players out of the team.
With all of the above in mind by the 1st of September Jol was removed from the club and replaced by that man David Moyes. The Scottish manager has a lot to prove after mediocre spells at Man United and Real Sociedad however he plays a brand of Football the chairman likes and to be honest was the best of a bad bunch avaliable to the team.
Moyes life at Sunderland didn't start great and we found ourselves languishing above the relegation zone until mid November, this was to be expected with so much upheaval in the camp and European football to now contend with. Things however since turned a corner and the team is riding high in 9th position come the start of the New Year. We have finally found some form at home and are now scoring more goals than we conceded, we are also into the knockout rounds of the Europa League after a successful group stage campaign.
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Player performance has been particularly pleasing this season. Joel Veltman has come in a formed a good relationship with Chris Smalling at the back. Carl Jenkinson has been ever present at either Right Back or Center Back and is joint third in the league for Key tackles. Nacer Chadli has been immense this season with 6 goals and 8 assists so far, he also rates in the top 5 for Shots on Target, Key passes and assists in the league. Our want away right winger Ribeiro is still racking up highly consistent performances and is being courted by giants Bayern Munich. He is also our second highest scorer with 8 goals. Arsenal loanee Zivkovic is having another good year with 7 goals in twelve in the league and is also scoring on the European stage with 3 in 5. I would love to keep him here permanently but I cant see Arsenal wanting to let go. A mention must also go to young striker Kelchi Iheanacho who has 6 league goals in two league starts and 6 sub appearances.
Money is tight at the stadium of light however I will be making funds avaliable for the manager by ajusting the wage budget. We are projecting a profit this season and as long as we can remain high in the league we will reap the rewards with prize money.
Sunderland will announce its transfer list shortly.