The Saviour - Kick starting a Career?

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One in one out for Sunderland​

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Sunderland defensive midfield Jan Kirchhoff has today completed his move to Southampton for a fee believed to be in the region of £9 million. BBC Sport understands that Sunderland manager Tom Lloyd has been told by Chairman Ellis Short that he will not be investing any money into the first team and he will have to sell players to raise funds to make purchases.

Kirchhoffs form has been hit and miss at the Stadium of Light ever since he penned his new contract at the beginning of the season. No doubt he will be looking for a fresh start at high flying Southampton.

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In further news, Sunderland have re-signed former full back Phil Bardsley from Stoke for a fee of £130k. Sunderland will no doubt be hoping his experience and leadership can play a part in keeping them in the Premier League. It is understood he will serve as back up to Sunderlands first choice full backs Javi Manquillo and Patrick Van Aanholt.
 
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Sunderland Vs Chelsea
14th January, 2017.​

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Team News​

Kone, Ndong and Khazri all miss out as they are away representing their countries in the African Cup of Nations. Fabio Borini starts for the first team this season alongside Jermaine Defoe, while Phil Bardsley misses the clash through suspension.

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Unbelievable. I am getting sick and tired of irresponsible players letting their team mates down and this time it was Van Aanholt who picked up two needless yellow cards within 3 minutes of each other to get sent off. If we were chasing the game after 85 minutes, fine.. but level at 1-1 with less than half an hour on the clock? Unacceptable. We are now just two points outside the relegation zone.

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Kone Leaves​

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Lamine Kone has left the club, joining Schalke for £8.25 million. Kone never found any decent form in the side and was sitting on too much transfer value and wage expense to be carried. It does leave us a little bit light in the mean time with only Djilobodji, Denayer and McNair able to play at centre back until we can seal some new additions to the squad.

Stanislas Joins​

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Our second signing of the window, Junior Stanislas joins from Bournemouth for £1.3 million. He will give me some tactical flexibility should I decide I want to play with wingers and can act as cover until Khazri returns from AFCON duty. With Stanislas and Watmore now able to play on the right and Khazri and Borini able to play on the left, it once again opens the opportunity to cancel Januzaj's loan. He has barely made an impression, but I am reluctant to send him back until I know we can use his spot in the squad to bring in a decent player. I dont just want to lose Januzaj and get nothing back.
 
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Sunderland Vs Stoke
18th January, 2017.​

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Team News​

The bad news keeps coming as now Djilobodji has been called up on AFCON duty. With Van Aanholt suspended as well, we head in to this crunch match with a terrifying back line of Shinnie, Denayer, McNair, Manquillo. If we concede less than three I will be amazed. Duncan Watmore is restored to the side a we revert to the 4-5-1, forming a mobile looking front three with Borini and Defoe.

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Heart broken. We put in a perfect counter attacking display, controlled the game after Stoke went down to 10 men, and yet STILL we concede 30 seconds before the end of the game and only manage a draw. Those are such important points to throw away, im not sure how many more of these we can throw away before we run out of chances to stay in the league. Still, at least Everton lost.

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Stephens Joins​

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Jack Stephens is the latest player in through the door, arriving for £1 mil from Southampton. Still only young, the kid has potential and can offer us some options and depth at centre back. Looking at his stats I am sure that he is already capable of playing the Premier League and is only going to get better.

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Pienaar Released​

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With only 6 months left on his contract and not a chance in **** of making it into the first team, I decided to spend the £400k to terminate Pienaar's contract. At 34 years old he isnt getting any younger, he doesnt have the pace to play counter attack like I want to and his departure saves us £20k on the wage bill.
 
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Sunderland Vs Tottenham
21st January, 2017.​

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Team News​

One change as Van Aanholt returns to the side in place of Shinnie, having served his suspension. Looking at Tottenhams attacking formation, it gives me a little bit of hope that there might be some room for Defoe if we knock some long balls over the top.


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Once again we concede a late goal, albeit not quite as late as the others but it could have been so much more. We were brilliant again, Duncan Watmore smashing us into the lead after some brilliant work by Manquillo. Paddy McNair was the culprit this time, switching off and gifting the ball to Spurs inside our own penalty area, allowing them to equalise. We hung on for that important point though, despite playing the last 10 minutes with 10 men after Rodwell picked up a knock.

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Dominguez joins Sunderland​

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Sunderland have today confirmed the signing of Borussia Monchengladbach centre back Alvaro Dominguez for a fee of £10 million. Dominguez, 27, twice capped by the Spanish national side, arrives at relegation threatened Sunderland following the departures of Lamine Kone and Jan Kirchhoff.

"I am very happy to be joining such a historic club and having a chance to play in the Premier League" Dominguez said on his arrival at the Stadium of Light. "I want to thank the manager for having the faith in me to bring me to the club and I will do everything in my power to help maintain our Premier League status."

It is believed that the deal for Dominguez included a £5 million up front fee along with a further £5 million to be paid in installments over the next 48 months. Sky also understands that Dominguez has a £10 million release clause in his contract should Sunderland be relegated to the championship.


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So I finally have the centre back that I wanted. Experienced, strong, tall and with excellent mental stats I am hoping that he might just be the final piece of the puzzle for the new look, counter-attacking Sunderland.
 
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January Review​

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A month of almosts. We conceded late equalisers against Stoke and Tottenham which is four dropped points, and we dropped another point by losing to Burnley late on as well. Knocked out of the FA Cup at the first attempt as well. So why am I feeling so positive if the month has been that bad? Our performances in the last two games have been excellent, we have managed to reshape the squad slightly during the transfer window and we are getting games against the big teams out of the way.

Table​
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Its still that three horse race up at the top for the title, and its still anybody from 8th down in danger of relegation. I think Middlesbrough and Hull are gone. They have really struggled and I just dont see them having any sort of quality or game plan to turn it around. Everton are making a habit of losing and we are getting away with murder, losing to all these big teams and yet keeping a buffer ahead of them.


Player of the Month​
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Jason Denayer has been superb since hes fought his way into the starting XI. He picked up the Premier League young player of the month award this month and you can see our performances improve with him in the team.


February fixtures​
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The international break is going to come at just the right time, giving us a chance to bring players back from AFCON and re-introduce some injured players as well. We just need to keep fighting against the big teams until we can get a slightly easier run of fixtures.

Transfers​
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One final piece of transfer news is Billy Jones leaving the club on a free transfer to join Championship side Nottingham Forest. Billy wasn't going to get any game time after the arrival of Bardsley and his departure saves us around £30k on the wage bill.
 
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Manchester City Vs Sunderland
4th February, 2017.​

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Team News​

There are full first team debuts for both Dominguez and Stanislas as Borini is dropped and Denayer is ineligible against his parent club. Djilobodji and Ndong both return from AFCON duties to replace Larsson and McNair.

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Well that went pretty much exactly how it was always going to go. Things didnt get off to a great start when Craig Bryson underhit a backpass that Silva intercepted and scored with inside the first 6 minutes. From then on in we were just spectators as City moved the ball about. They were just too good for us. Still the bright side is that Everton were held to a 0-0 draw with bottom of the table Middlesbrough.

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Liverpool Vs Sunderland
11th February, 2017.​

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Team News​

One change for us as Seb Larsson takes the place of Craig Bryson in the middle of the park. Wabhi Khazri is fit enough to take his place on the bench, as it Jack Rodwell.

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A really frustrating match as Liverpool kept us penned in our own half for large portions of it. We had our chances though and didnt take them, Ndong and Defoe both missing glorious opportunities. Coutinho ran the whole show and was the one in the end that punished us the most. Everton can only pick up a point at Leicester.

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Sunderland Vs Southampton
26th February, 2017.​

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Team News​

Two changes from the defeat to Liverpool, with Wahbi Khazri coming into the side for Junior Stanislas and Jason Denayer coming in to the defence in place of Papy Djilobodji.

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Where on earth did that come from!? All of our hard work, tactical tweaking and transfer business has culminated in this performance, and it was superb! Everything we touched just turned to gold with Defoe and Khazri both ending up with two goals. A clean sheet is another hugely positive sign and this will do wonders for our goal difference, or at least it would have done if Everton hadn't beaten Hull 4-0 as well!

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February Review​

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The results against City and Liverpool were to be expected, but that result against Southampton, who were 5th in the table at the time, could just kickstart our sprint for survival. It was as well as we have played during my time at the club and I couldnt be prouder.

Table​
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Burnley and Crystal Palace have both found themselves being sucked right down into the relegation fight. There is a very strong possibility that neither ourselves or Everton will get relegated, which didnt seem possible at the beginning of the month.

Player of the Month​
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Wahbi Khazri has been sensational since coming back from the African cup of nations. He is the one person who is making us click at the moment, picking up the ball in deep positions and driving at the opposition defence. His goals and assists could yet be crucial.


March Fixtures​
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In my opinion, this is the defining month of our season. Three games against 13th place Swansea, 20th place Middlesbrough and 14th place West Brom. If we win all three? we would be up to 39 points and I reckon we would be safe. We have to take it one game at a time, but if we play like we did against Southampton then they are all winnable.
 
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Swansea Vs Sunderland
3rd March, 2016.​

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Team News​

Unchanged. Thankfully we are in a position where we can field an unchanged side without any enforced changes due to injury or suspension. All we need now is another performance like last time to match.

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Now were rolling! Another win, another clean sheet, one giant step closer to safety! We played really well without threatening to create much, as shown by our 66% possession but we got a massive lucky break with a Jordi Amat own goal. It doesnt matter how they come, as long as they keep coming. Even better news is Everton and Burnley both losing to help us open a slight gap out.

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Sunderland Vs Middlesbrough
13th March, 2017.​

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Team News​

Unchanged. Third times the charm against the side rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table?

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Amazing what a bit of confidence and momentum can do for you isnt it? This was a much closer game than the other two but I am delighted to say we just had that extra bit of quality. For most of the season we have been concentrating on hard work and counter attacks because I didnt think we had the quality in our squad to make a proper go of it. I am now starting to see how wrong I was.

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Sunderland Vs West Brom
18th March, 2017.​

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Team News​

Unchanged for a fourth game in a row. I feel I have finally found our best line up and formation. Time to stick with it.

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Four on the bounce! 10 goals scored, 2 goals conceded. Its like I'm watching a different team. It seem's like ages ago that we set out at the beginning of the season, scrapping for every point possible in an attempt to still be in with a chance of survival as we hit the business end of the season. Now we find ourselves 11 points clear of the relegation zone with just 8 games to go. Unbelievable.

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Good to see you doing well, not so sure about the "team" doing well. Hurry up and get poached by a better club after completing what will be a terrific achievement by keeping Scumderland up for another season (8 games to go and 11 points clear of 18th is surely safe...right?)
 
Tobey Mason said:
Awesome updates mate. Really good story.
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TheBattman said:
really enjoying this
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Thanks for following guys! Glad you like it!

neavie pops23 said:
Good to see you doing well, not so sure about the "team" doing well. Hurry up and get poached by a better club after completing what will be a terrific achievement by keeping Scumderland up for another season (8 games to go and 11 points clear of 18th is surely safe...right?)
Click to expand...

You would think it was safe right! A lot of my future plans depend on what money they give me for transfers next season. I'm willing to take a backwards step to take a forwards step if that makes sense, If say Everton got relegated and offered me the chance to take them back up, I would probably take it if Sunderland dont match my ambition. A bit like Steve Bruce with Hull/Aston Villa. We will have to see at the end of the season, maybe a move abroad!
 
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