Sunderland Till I Die

[leckuno]

After watching the 2nd series of Sunderland Till I Die I wanted to do what Sunderland have failed to do so far and get out of League 1.

Sunderland is one of the biggest clubs in the North East of England and have a long time rivalry with Newcastle who they have the Tyne & Wear Derby with. Their other rivals are Middlesbrough who they play in the Wear-Tees Derby. Yes the club play in League One but they still have one of the biggest fan bases in England. With this fan base we will be looking to try and fill The Stadium of Light which has a capacity of 48,707. Trying to get the fans back into the stadium will be needed to bring cash into the club as well.

When the club got relegated at the end of the 2016/17 season to the Championship then everybody thought that the club would bounce back straight away but the unexpected happened and the club suffered a shock back to back relegation's to end up in League 1. Over this time the finances at the club deteriorated as Elis Short stopped bankrolling the club and looked to sell it. Up stepped Stuart Donald who came in to be the white knight and save the club and get it back up the leagues to where the club belongs. Only his first season in charge didn't go to plan as they lost the play-off final to Charlton to stay in League One. With this the fans turned on him over the summer and he has now decided to sell the club.

The club has had a large turnover in players over the summer with reshaping the squad to build a team capable of going back into the Championship and is in a relatively strong position for this but that is about it. There are still a few players who are high earners at the club who haven't been pulling their weight so they will need to be moved on to help the club grow.

Along with a world class stadium they also boast superb training facilities and excellent youth facilities that we will be looking to take advantage of to bring through some excellent youth players.

The club have given us a transfer budget of £1 million and a wage budget of £201,629 to get them promoted.



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[leckuno]

First things first at a new club we have to evaluate the staff and there is nobody across the 3 department that are up to scratch in my book and sadly for them I let them all go.

We had a lot of competition for the members of staff we went after and we lost out to a fair few of our first choices of coaches to the Under 18 and Under 23 teams of the Premier League which shows how much we need to grow our reputation again.

I fell though that with who we have managed to bring in though it certainly gives us a very good starting point to help drive the team forward.

Players Out

Next it was onto the playing squad and there were a number of players I was looking to move on to bring the wages down to allow us to bring new players in. We shift 4 players out on permanent deals which was good as between McGeady and Leadbitter they were on a combined wage of £28,000 a week.

Players In

We moved quick to replace the players that have left the club and Angel Gomes was a must get to play down the left as he should tear League 1 to pieces. Next in was Patoulidis who was transfer listed and he will be joining to have a starting role to develop him for the future as he;'s good enough for this league. Rober and Cochrane are the same both joining on permanent deals and will be going into the starting 11 so we can build the squad around the 3 of them going forward. We also brought in Troy Parrott who at 17 has a big future ahead of him and if we can get the best out of him he could fire us into the Championship.

Preseason

We've had a very successful preseason with only losing to Rubin Kazan and Man City. We had a massive result against Spurs and will be looking to build on that. I feel this has got us ready for the season ahead as we look to get promoted.

Tactic and Starting XI

 

[andy_14clark]

Great to see a Sunderland save on the go. Shame Bailey Wright is out at the start. I did this before the update and had Rhian Brewster up front with Josh Harrop in behind. Dobson is a cracking player to have in your team as you go through the leagues as his work rate, teamwork and determination are brilliant. Looking forward to see how you get on.

 

[MisterObjective]

Just on a slightly different note, I would recommend this series on Netflix to anyone really, especially if you have a love for football soon I will get round to watching season 2. Good luck with the save, will be following and liking this one for sure and hopefully you get off to a solid start in this league.

 

[leckuno]

August

We get off to a strong start in the league with overcoming Oxford United. The stand out moment of the game has to be Troy Parrot scoring on his debut, he could be vital to us this season. The next match was an unexpected result as Ipswich play us off the park to walk away with a 2-1 victory but to give them their due I expect them to be right up there challenging us through the season. Harry Cochrane did manage a debut goal as a positive. We required to bounce back and going up against Blackburn wasn't ideal to do it against but we put in a really strong defensive performance and managed to score 3 goals on the break with Josh Scowen and Angel Gomes getting the goals.

We then go on a great run in the league winning the rest of our remaining games with scoring 9 goals and only conceding 3.

Troy Parrot is definitely showing he could be a great loan signing as he managed 4 goals in the 6 league games. Each of the other new players that we have brought in have managed a single goal each as well showing that they are ready to step up and play for this huge club and contribute over the course of the season.

We have also made it through August without any other transfer business and no offers so far for the club either. Hopefully we can get a takeover sorted soon so we know if we will have any extra funds come January.

League

September

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[leckuno]

September

We start the month in the cup that nobody really cares about as its just an addition of games but we may as well try and win it anyway so we start off our group with a game against Scunthrope and we are really made to work for it as Gomes gets the only goal of the game. We then hit a wee rocky patch as we throw away two 2 goal leads against teams we should really be beating. Our defence ha let us down in these two matches as Parrott scored 3 of the 4 goals.

We then come up against Bolton who are doing ok to be clawing away at their negative points balance but they just cant' cope as we hit them with our attacking style and Gooch scores an excellent hat-trick off the right wing to show how good he can be. In the 4th round of the Carabo Cup against Leeds we go defensively again and it pays off again as we manage to shut them out with Parrott getting the goal with a well placed finish in the 16th minute. We finished the month off nicely with a big win against MK Dons with Tommy Smith managing to get onto the end of 2 corners to head home before an own goal from Lee Nicholls and of course Parrott managed to get his 5th goal of the month.

League

October

Takeover

We have the first murmurs of a takeover happening so it will be interesting to see where this goes.

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[anej]

A quality Sunderland save. I can't thank you enough as a Sunderland fan. Hope that you win the Premier League and Champions League eventually. A really encouraging start.

 

[leckuno]

A quality Sunderland save. I can't thank you enough as a Sunderland fan. Hope that you win the Premier League and Champions League eventually. A really encouraging start.

Hopefully I'll be able to do them justice for you then

 

[leckuno]

October

We have a really busy month with squeezing 8 games in which meant I decided to continue with the Fleetwood game instead of moving it for the international break to make sure that we don't need to fit it in again later. We start the month off well with what was a good win at home to Burton which was a lot more comfortable than the score line suggests. Lincoln city really made us fight for a draw and all in it was probably a fair result for both sides. We then string together 2 good win in the league and Checkatrade trophy before facing 2nd placed Wycombe. The plan game against Wycombe didn't go as planned at all as they opened the scoring after 4 minutes so I had to rip up the game plan but it didn't matter what I did the boys heads had gone and Wycombe doubled their advantage before half time and that was it.

We were suffering now after the Wycombe game as the players just haven't been getting the time to recover and there are now a few injuries. Troy Parrott has been given a week off on holiday so we can rely on him later. For Tranmere we rotated a lot of players due to this as well and Semenyo was given a chance up top and boy did he deliver with scoring a perfect hat-trick before Max Power got the 4th. Shrewsbuy again made us work for it here as they went ahead from the penalty spot in the 69th minute but luckily giving the lads a couple of days rest between the games paid off and we managed to score 2 late goals to get the win.

We round off the month in the Carabao Cup with a trip to Nottingham who get off to a good start as they take the lead in the 20th minute before we pull the goal back just before half time. We manage to take them to penalties where Max Power misses the first penalty which is the one that sends us out.

League

November

Takeover

The takeover got to advanced stages and I was hoping we were going to get it over the line but it falls through so we are back to waiting for another offer for the club.

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[leckuno]

November

We finally have a nice short month which will hopefully allow our players a bit of a rest over the course of the month. First up is Southend United in the league and Troy Parrott comes up with the only goal of the game to see us scrape past them. Next up we have the 1st round of the FA Cup against Cambridge United who are in League Two so we are able to rotate the squad a bit here where possible and again we scrape through with a 1-0 victory with the goal coming from Jordan Willis.

Next up is the diddy Checkatrade Trophy where we face Everton U23's so again we are able to rotate the squad and we do enough to scrape through again with Semenyo getting the goal. Coventry then came visiting after a good bit of time off and everybody was looking well rested but sadly we couldn't take advantage of that as Coventry took the lead after 13 minutes and they held that score for just over an hour until Rober was able to get the equalizer. Finally we travel down to Bristol where Gomes gets the breakthrough but Tony Craig gets the equaliser 10 minutes later. Gomes then gets sent off straight after half time which make things a lot harder for us but we hold well defensively and Willis scores to put us 2-1 ahead but sadly Bristol Rovers make the extra man count and score 6 minutes later through Josh Barrett for the game to finish 2-2.

League

December

Transfer Out

I have agreed to let Kyle Lafferty leave to join IK Start for £145,000 but this may rise to £220,000 depending on add-ons. Joel Lynch will also be leaving to join Colorado Rapids for £300,000. Both of these players will be leaving in the new year. Their contracts expire at the end of the season and don't get game time so may as well cash in on them while I can.

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[leckuno]

December

Well first things first we had an excellent month managing to win all of our games with only conceding 3 goals across 6 games and scoring 15 goals. We got off to a great start where we ply Shrewsbury in the televised FA Cup 2nd round where Patoulidis and Parrott score the two goals. Next up is our first taste of facing Newcastle even if it is the U23 team where we demolish them 3-0 with Wright, Parrott and Gomes getting in with the goals.

We then turn out attentions to the League with the rest of the games for the month with us facing Gillingham first where Parrott opens the scoring after 10 minutes before O'Nien rounds off the scoring in the 75th minute. Next is Blackpool who took the lead against us through James Husband in the 58th minute but our never die attitude came through with Hume and Willis getting the 3 points for us in the 78th and 88th minutes respectively. Up next is Bolton who have started climbing out the relegation zone and they are still no match for us as Cochrane opens the scoring in the 28th minute with a 25 yard screamer. Willis then heads in in the 46th minute before John rounds it all off with a well placed finish from just outside the box in the 87th minute.

We finish the month off with a trip away to Doncaster we race to a 2-0 lead with Parrott getting the two goals. He's really showing that he's going to be a top class striker in the future. Niall Ennis then pulls 2 goals back in the 27th and 83rd minutes. Its looking like that we're going to walk away with a draw and it would probably be a fair result but Parrott fires in a shot and it takes a wild deflection off Tom Anderson into the top right corner of the net in the 90th minute to give us a very lucky 3 points.

League

January

Youth

Looks like we may have one promising local youngster coming through so lets see what happens

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[anej]

I have agreed to let Kyle Lafferty leave to join IK Start for £145,000 but this may rise to £220,000 depending on add-ons.
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[/QUOTE]

He, that is the local club where I live (Kristiansand, Norway). That club is as incompetent in this save as in real life, overspending on mediocre players ? Although that is most clubs in a nutshell I guess.

 

[leckuno]

January

Its certainly not the start we wanted this month as we lose 1-0 to a ten man Fleetwood which wasn't expected at all. The game against Bournemouth I really didn't expect much at all and 3-0 was probably still quite flattering for us. Up next was Lincoln City and this time it was us who went down to 10 men and Lincoln took full advantage and its another 3 points dropped. Against Wycombe we finally get our heads straight and Semenyo and Gomes get the 2 goals. The Checkatrade Trophy is next for us and its Wolves U23's for us and they really make us work for it and it takes 14 penalties each to decide the game and we sneak through to the Quarter Finals.

Things don't go to plan against MK Dons as Healy opens the scoring in the 1st minute which means I had to rip up my instructions and start again. Luckily on the strike of half time Tommy Smith was able to rise above the defence to head home. 12 minutes into the 2nd half Harry Cochrane is able to toe it over the line to give us the win. Against Doncaster we're the ones who get of to the quick start as Parrott scores in the 7th minute. Rober then has a back pass that goes horribly wrong as it trickles over the line for an own goal in the 19th minute. Patoulidis then gets us back in the lead. It gets nervy though as Tommy Smith got sent off in the 73rd minute but we manage to hold on.

Tranmere make it difficult for us but pretty much having 11 players behind the ball at all times but Max Power finds the break through with the only goal of the game. We round the month of with another game against Lincoln but this time in the Checkatrade Trophy where Antoine Semenyo is the man of the match with banging in another hat-trick.

League

February

Transfers

We have agreed to get Will Grigg off the books as he will be joining Nashville for £350,000 he had barely played all season and is on £10,000 a week so quicker we get rid of him the better.

Only 1 player joins the club and that is Jordan Archer who joins from Fulham for £95,000 he will provide competition for the GK position and probably become our No.1 before the end of the season.

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[leckuno]

February

We get off to a much better start this month than we did last month as we have a great game against Portsmouth to start us off as Parrott and Gomes get in the goals alongside Dobson. I was then expecting a tougher match against Ipswich after the first time we played them but Patoulidis gets the opening goal after only 9 minutes before Parrott doubles the score. Against Rochdale Gomes scores the quickest goal in league history after only 18 seconds before Parrott again doubles the lead. Rochdale get a goal back in the 94th minute through James Ward. The Oxford match was a boring match as neither team really had any real chances.

In the Checkatrade Trophy we rotate a few players so others can have a rest and we struggle through with the only goal of the game coming from our left back Denver Hume. Bristol Rovers pretty much just lay down to us as Gomes gets an excellent brace either side of a goal from Clarke-Harris with Parrott getting the 3rd in the 90th minute. The Coventry game was a disaster as we were 3-0 down after 64 minutes but we managed to rally a bit and managed to get back into the game with a penalty that Max Power scored it in the 70th minute. Semenyo then gets a 2nd in the 81st minute but sadly it was just too late and we didn't have enough time left to grab another goal or two.

League

March

Transfers Out

So with the American transfer window open we had David Beckham contact us in relation to Lynden Gooch we had a view offers go back and forth but we finally agreed on a deal worth £1,500,000. He has fallen behind Rober so happy to cash in on him to boost the clubs bank balance a bit.

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[leckuno]

March

It ends up being a ridiculously quiet month as the match against Southend was changed so we only had 2 games for the whole month.

With the first game against Gillingham it was a tale of two halves here as Gillingham went ahead after 8 minutes before Parrott got a double either side of a Gomes goal all within 25 minutes. Cochrane then scored the fourth in the 32nd minute before Akinde got the second for Gillingham in the 42nd minute and the 2nd half was a drab affair.

There was only ever going to be one winner here after Parrott got 2 goals in the opening 7 minutes. Gomes also got a quick fire brace with goals in the 21st and 25th minute. Kaikai pulls one back for Blackpool before Dobson rounds it all off in the 69th minute.

With other games going ahead later in the month the results there were enough to confirm us as being guaranteed the top 2 so we will be playing in the Championship next season.

League

The Run In

Youth

We have the youth intake this month and we have one promising player coming through, we will see how he turns out

Budget

A small budget for next season so we will need to make sure we spend it right.

Takeover

This has been dragging on for nearly the whole month now so wish they can just make their mind up and get it over the line or call it off.

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[leckuno]

The Run In

We go into the match against Shrewsbury knowing that a win will see us crowned Champions with 6 games to go. We get off to a fantastic start as Gomes is brought down in the box and Patoulidis slots home after only 3 minutes. Things turn quickly though as Ebanks-landell scores just a minute later to cancel it out. Luckily Semenyou scores a goal on the stroke of half time before scoring on the stroke of full time as well to let us be Champions. On a high we travel to Wembley for our first cup final and Gomes is a one man team here with two excellent solo goals before a Holy own goal to see us win the Checkatrade Trophy.

We then go on an amazing run over the next 5 games taking it game about scoring 4 goals and then a goal to score a total of 14 goals across 5 games while we only conceded 2. They lads have certainly been on a high over these games as its showed as they've all put in excellent performances. We round off the season with a disappointing but excellent result against Rotherham. Matt Crooks puts them ahead after 9 minutes before Ben Wiles doubles their lead after 26 minutes. At half time I tear through the team at half time as a loss is not how we want to finish the season. Max Power finally gets our opening goal on 65 minutes. The closer it gets to the final whistle I feel that we aren't going to get it back but Troy Parrott comes to the rescue as he scores in the 91st minute to ensure we finish the season with a hard fought draw.

League

Takeover

Its finally gone through with plenty of time before the transfer window opens and they have also doubled the transfer budget available for next season to £8,000,000

End of season Awards

Season Review

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[leckuno]

Transfers Out

We let a good few players go who had no part to play in the squad going forward and it freed up more cash for wages. One big surprise leaving the club was Bali Mumba but I just didn't think he had it in him for the long term so decided to cash in instead of him sitting in the U23 sqaud. The other bit surprise was George Dobson when Swansea first put an offer in I upped it to 20 million and they re-negotiated to 10. He was in my first team plans so I tried 15 and they accepted. After that it was a no brainer to accept and re-invest the cash in the squad.

Transfers In

We've brought in a fair few players as the squad needed a rebuilding to be able to compete here and with Dobson leaving we had plenty of money to spend. The big transfer of the window was the signing of Sergio Gomez from Dortmund who was transfer listed by the club so he will replace Dobson and if need be we can sell him for a significant fee in the future. Along with him players like Vallejo and Ampadu can make us a real force in the Championship. I was also happy with winning the singing Isaac Lihadji from Marseille on a free transfer as there were a number of other clubs interested but left it too late to make an offer. He will fight it out with Rober for the RW.

Otani is the player I'm really looking forward to developing at the club. My scouts did a great job in finding him and bringing him to the clubs attention. He looks like he could go onto great things here and he will also be good for shirt sales as well.

I could of done with another LW and LB but the transfer window closed earlier than I expected with the season starting at the start of August so we will need to make do until January now.

Starting XI

PreSeason

WE had a successful preseason here and we even got some big results which is a confidence booster going forward. Bring on the start of the season now.

Expectations

I feel these are pretty standard and we should meet all of them as long as we get decent draws in the two cups. Its now time to get to work and get this season started.

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[leckuno]

August

What a month to get started as we're thrown straight into the deep end with 8 games so its going to be a busy month ahead. We start off against one of the big teams in Leeds who take the lead through Helder Costa in the 18th minute. Troy Parrott picks up where he left off last season with getting the equaliser in the 25th minute. Meriah then gives Leeds the lead again in the 60th minute but luckily Patouldis pops up 2 minutes later. Its a great point to get from our first game. We're then up against Portsmouth who were promoted alongside us. Luke O'Nien takes the leaf in the 35th minute for us. Its looking like thats all its going to be before Matos is sent off for a foul challenge in the 58th minute. We take full advantage of this as Rober gets two goals in the 62nd and 83rd minutes before Harrison pulls one back for Portsmouth. Jairo then finishes it all off in the 86th minute for another goal.

The Carabao Cup match against Morecambe goes as expected and Jairo gets two goals before Lihadji and Otani get debut goals for the club. Sheffield Wednesday were up next and Patoulidis gets the opening goal in the 14th minute but Adam Reach pulls it back 10 minutes later. Its looking like a draw is going to be a fair result but Jota pops up with a well placed finish to win the game for them.

We then bounce back against with a game against Wigan. Things don't go to plan when Patoulidis is sent off after 15 minutes but Mitchell gets his first goal for the club 7 minutes later. Troy Parrott then scores in the 56th minute but Windass then pulls one back before Kieffer Moore then gets it back to 2-2. We don't go down without fighting though as Rober then puts us ahead again in the 81st minute and then Parrott doubles the lead again in the 86th minute but Callum Lang pulls another one back in the 92nd minute.

Watford we looked good value agianst as Parrott got the opening goal after 4 minutes to get us off to a great start. It looked like we were going to get the 3 points but a slip bu O'Nein cost us as it let Foulquier cut inside and score. Against Blackburn we rotated a bit and Joe Rothwell put them ahead after 11 minutes. Otani was starting again and took his chance in the 28th minute before Patoulidis slotted home from the penalty spot to see us through to the third round of the Carabao Cup. Finally we round off the month against Brentford where Lihadji scores an excellent hat-trick off the right wing.

League

September

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[Hampus Silverholt]

Just coming to the end of the first season on Netflix, can't help but feel sorry for them! Think a playoff push is on the cards for you this season

 

[leckuno]

Sadly this save has come to an unexpected end as the save has become corrupt