| Preview Feature 13:19 - Jun 28 with 5795 views | DanielMcCallum27 |
Hi
I’m features editor at the Sunderland fanzine A love Supreme and its website www.a-love-supreme.com
We are doing a feature previewing all the teams in League One next season and was wondering if you could answer the following questions please?
Thanks in advance
What was the story of your season last year? Highs and lows…
Who’s your best player, ones to watch etc?
How do you think you’ll do against us next season?
How will you do overall next season? |  | | |  |
| Preview Feature on 15:49 - Jun 28 with 1601 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| Preview Feature on 15:44 - Jun 28 by WarkTheWarkITFC |
Why don't you take a look at the stats below then.
I've given Lambert 8 games to get his feet under the table. After that he took 17 points from 24 games.
McCarthy prior to leaving took 22 points from 24 games. Only just better with a hell of a better squad and without the confidence loss that being bottom brings.
I don't love Lambert. I am simply going to judge him from this season. To judge him last season is ridiculous. The bloke turned up at an earthquake with a dustpan and brush. What was he supposed to do? |
Genuinely quite funny that you’re trying to argue someone couldn’t have done better by cherry picking some stats that show them achieving more points
Probably more relevant to look at what happened when McCarthy took over an Ipswich side with 7 points from 13 games though... |  |
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| Preview Feature on 15:50 - Jun 28 with 1597 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| Preview Feature on 15:48 - Jun 28 by WarkTheWarkITFC |
Do you even remember the team McCarthy took over?
Ipswich: Henderson, Edwards, Higginbotham, Chambers, Cresswell, Martin, N'Daw, Reo-Coker, Wellens, Campbell, Murphy.
Look at that team.
Now the team Lambert started with.
Bialkowski, Spence, Chambers, Pennington, Knudsen, Skuse, Chalobah, Downes, Edwards, Roberts, Sears.
Do amuse me by picking your best XI from that lot. I'd be fascinated to see how many of last seasons team make it.
In mine Bart doesn't even get in ahead of Henderson because of his form last season and I'd replace Martin with Chalobah at a push.
That just shows you how much better the team Mick inherited was. |
Both of those teams are terrible, you clown | |
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| Preview Feature on 15:52 - Jun 28 with 1590 views | WarkTheWarkITFC |
| Preview Feature on 15:44 - Jun 28 by Steve_M |
There remain an awful lot of people looking to retrospectively justify their views on McCarthy still I think.
re: Lambert, Burley in the second half of 1994-95 remains a valid comparison. Despite a couple of excellent early results we didn't improve and crashed out of the FA Cup to a side three divisions below and experienced one of the worst results in our history.
Burley didn't do a good job then, and nor did Lambert last season, but I think it is still possible that Lambert can redeem that next season. |
FANTASTIC POINT!
We fluked a win over Liverpool and then beat Leicester 4-1 at home and went back to being completely useless.
Then Burley made us an absolute force for the next 5-6 years before we went up and became a force in the division above.
All off the back of Burley not doing much better than what went before. Having just checked - 21 games each.
12 points in 21 games before Burley. 14 points in 21 games with Burley that season. So literally made no real difference and look how that turned out.
In the following season, in a lower division, it took Burley just 8 games to get the 14 points he got in 21 games the season before. | |
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| Preview Feature on 15:54 - Jun 28 with 1583 views | WarkTheWarkITFC |
| Preview Feature on 15:50 - Jun 28 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
Both of those teams are terrible, you clown |
Do one.
Chambers (the younger version), Cresswell, Edwards, N'Daw, Murphy, DJ Campbell are all miles better than anything in that team last year.
You are deluded if you think otherwise. | |
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| Preview Feature on 15:54 - Jun 28 with 1582 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| Preview Feature on 15:44 - Jun 28 by Steve_M |
There remain an awful lot of people looking to retrospectively justify their views on McCarthy still I think.
re: Lambert, Burley in the second half of 1994-95 remains a valid comparison. Despite a couple of excellent early results we didn't improve and crashed out of the FA Cup to a side three divisions below and experienced one of the worst results in our history.
Burley didn't do a good job then, and nor did Lambert last season, but I think it is still possible that Lambert can redeem that next season. |
Agree fully with all of that - but some people seem to mistake thinking Lambert can turn it around with having to maintain that he’s done an absolutely fantastic job for us so far, when quite clearly he hasn’t [Post edited 28 Jun 2019 15:58]
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| Preview Feature on 15:55 - Jun 28 with 1578 views | WarkTheWarkITFC |
| Preview Feature on 15:46 - Jun 28 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
I was paraphrasing not copying word for word
The point remains though - clearly Lambert thought they could make a difference, otherwise why sign them? Fact is that pretty much all of them were a failure |
Out of desperation. Not a bad thing to bring in players not weary from half a season of being at the bottom.
The reality is nobody who was much better than what we had was going to join. | |
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| Preview Feature on 15:57 - Jun 28 with 1570 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| Preview Feature on 15:54 - Jun 28 by WarkTheWarkITFC |
Do one.
Chambers (the younger version), Cresswell, Edwards, N'Daw, Murphy, DJ Campbell are all miles better than anything in that team last year.
You are deluded if you think otherwise. |
And Edwards was playing out of position as we didn’t have an actual right back, Danny Higginbotham was way past it and worse than anything in our team last year, Reo Coker completely disinterested and Lee Martin utterly irrelevant
Both teams were total sh*te, quite obviously | |
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| Preview Feature on 15:59 - Jun 28 with 1563 views | Illinoisblue |
| Preview Feature on 15:44 - Jun 28 by Steve_M |
There remain an awful lot of people looking to retrospectively justify their views on McCarthy still I think.
re: Lambert, Burley in the second half of 1994-95 remains a valid comparison. Despite a couple of excellent early results we didn't improve and crashed out of the FA Cup to a side three divisions below and experienced one of the worst results in our history.
Burley didn't do a good job then, and nor did Lambert last season, but I think it is still possible that Lambert can redeem that next season. |
the worrying thing is, if supposing Lambert takes us to Division 3 glory and we romp to promotion with goals and points and smiles aplenty.... then what? Is it possible to ride that wave to the top tier as Southampton and budgies have done previously? Or will Evans again close his pockets and cross his fingers.
PS Lambert's win percentage at the budgies was almost 50%. A ridiculous number really. |  |
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| Preview Feature on 16:01 - Jun 28 with 1555 views | WarkTheWarkITFC |
| Preview Feature on 15:57 - Jun 28 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
And Edwards was playing out of position as we didn’t have an actual right back, Danny Higginbotham was way past it and worse than anything in our team last year, Reo Coker completely disinterested and Lee Martin utterly irrelevant
Both teams were total sh*te, quite obviously |
Was 2012 Lee Martin (the same one who was capable of ripping league leaders West Ham apart) any worse than Gwion Edwards?
Was Reo-Coker any worse than Downes? Reo-Coker had been quality in the Premier League but looked disinterested. Downes gives 100% but has nowhere near the quality.
Higginbotham was past it but made far less mistakes than Pennington did over the course of a season.
Edwards playing out of position is a hell of a lot Spence playing IN position! Lol. | |
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| Preview Feature on 16:03 - Jun 28 with 1547 views | Steve_M |
| Preview Feature on 15:59 - Jun 28 by Illinoisblue |
the worrying thing is, if supposing Lambert takes us to Division 3 glory and we romp to promotion with goals and points and smiles aplenty.... then what? Is it possible to ride that wave to the top tier as Southampton and budgies have done previously? Or will Evans again close his pockets and cross his fingers.
PS Lambert's win percentage at the budgies was almost 50%. A ridiculous number really. |
I think momentum counts for a lot in the Championship, most sides can manage good runs of form (albeit with some noticeable exceptions) but sustaining that is harder (see ITFC in 2017-18 for that). I doubt Evans will change approach but he might also see a better chance of selling a club on a seemingly upward trajectory.
I hope we are having this discussion next Summer for real anyway. |  |
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| Preview Feature on 16:04 - Jun 28 with 1541 views | WarkTheWarkITFC |
| Preview Feature on 15:59 - Jun 28 by Illinoisblue |
the worrying thing is, if supposing Lambert takes us to Division 3 glory and we romp to promotion with goals and points and smiles aplenty.... then what? Is it possible to ride that wave to the top tier as Southampton and budgies have done previously? Or will Evans again close his pockets and cross his fingers.
PS Lambert's win percentage at the budgies was almost 50%. A ridiculous number really. |
I think we then have to hope to be what Blackburn were last year.
Not in danger of going down, aiming for mid-table and hoping to then grow over the course of a few seasons. They've not thrown silly money at it, but have backed Mowbray on occasion.
Norwich and Southampton went straight up 10 years ago when other teams were not spending £15m on players like they are now. I don't think you can really hope for that anymore, but a rare case like Sheffield United shows it can be done over a couple of seasons if you get everything right with the manager, tactics and recruitment. | |
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| Preview Feature on 16:06 - Jun 28 with 1532 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| Preview Feature on 16:01 - Jun 28 by WarkTheWarkITFC |
Was 2012 Lee Martin (the same one who was capable of ripping league leaders West Ham apart) any worse than Gwion Edwards?
Was Reo-Coker any worse than Downes? Reo-Coker had been quality in the Premier League but looked disinterested. Downes gives 100% but has nowhere near the quality.
Higginbotham was past it but made far less mistakes than Pennington did over the course of a season.
Edwards playing out of position is a hell of a lot Spence playing IN position! Lol. |
Given that Gwion Edwards scored as many goals in our car crash of a season as Lee Martin managed in 4 years here, I’m going to go with yes
Can’t be bothered to argue with the ridiculousness of the rest, the above pretty much sums up how far wide of the mark you are [Post edited 28 Jun 2019 16:06]
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| Preview Feature on 16:18 - Jun 28 with 1501 views | pointofblue |
| Preview Feature on 15:52 - Jun 28 by WarkTheWarkITFC |
FANTASTIC POINT!
We fluked a win over Liverpool and then beat Leicester 4-1 at home and went back to being completely useless.
Then Burley made us an absolute force for the next 5-6 years before we went up and became a force in the division above.
All off the back of Burley not doing much better than what went before. Having just checked - 21 games each.
12 points in 21 games before Burley. 14 points in 21 games with Burley that season. So literally made no real difference and look how that turned out.
In the following season, in a lower division, it took Burley just 8 games to get the 14 points he got in 21 games the season before. |
Surely it shouldn’t take five years to be promoted, like under Burley at a higher level? | |
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| Preview Feature on 16:29 - Jun 28 with 1482 views | WarkTheWarkITFC |
| Preview Feature on 16:18 - Jun 28 by pointofblue |
Surely it shouldn’t take five years to be promoted, like under Burley at a higher level? |
When Burley got us promoted is not the issue.
It's people saying that Lambert is no better than Hurst when Burley was no better than McGiven after taking over for the rest of that season.
We then became one of the best teams to watch in the country, integrated youths and could have gone up in any of the 3-4 seasons before we eventually did.
We then went into the last day of the next season able to qualify for the Champions League!!!
The point is - all of that with a bloke who did no better than McGiven in 1994/95, a bit like Lambert didn't do any better than Hurst. | |
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| Preview Feature on 16:29 - Jun 28 with 1477 views | WarkTheWarkITFC |
| Preview Feature on 16:06 - Jun 28 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
Given that Gwion Edwards scored as many goals in our car crash of a season as Lee Martin managed in 4 years here, I’m going to go with yes
Can’t be bothered to argue with the ridiculousness of the rest, the above pretty much sums up how far wide of the mark you are [Post edited 28 Jun 2019 16:06]
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Spoken like somebody who can't argue the rest!
You manage to argue well enough until you can't actually back up what you are saying, so just decide it's too ridiculous to argue.
Alright then mate. If you like. | |
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| Preview Feature on 16:38 - Jun 28 with 1458 views | manchego |
| Preview Feature on 15:48 - Jun 28 by WarkTheWarkITFC |
Do you even remember the team McCarthy took over?
Ipswich: Henderson, Edwards, Higginbotham, Chambers, Cresswell, Martin, N'Daw, Reo-Coker, Wellens, Campbell, Murphy.
Look at that team.
Now the team Lambert started with.
Bialkowski, Spence, Chambers, Pennington, Knudsen, Skuse, Chalobah, Downes, Edwards, Roberts, Sears.
Do amuse me by picking your best XI from that lot. I'd be fascinated to see how many of last seasons team make it.
In mine Bart doesn't even get in ahead of Henderson because of his form last season and I'd replace Martin with Chalobah at a push.
That just shows you how much better the team Mick inherited was. |
Wellens ...
who the F...? |  | | |
| Preview Feature on 17:26 - Jun 28 with 1427 views | The_Romford_Blue |
Story of the season:
We lost our top four scorers from the season before as well as our best centre back and changing manager from the steady but boring approach to the midget-angry lunatic approach. It was clearly a recipe for disaster because it was believed by some that we would replace those excellent players with proven championship replacements. Of course not. That costs proper money. Instead we spent a couple of million on some lower league players. We were awful all season and deservedly relegated. Lambert came in to replace the midget-lunatic but results didn’t improve. However, the atmosphere did and there’s some excitement for next season. We were so poor we finished below a team who went on strike for multiple days across the season and even refused to play one of their fixtures. That’s how bad we were. I didn’t see us win away and I did about 10 away games. Overall.. everything went wrong. Which is hardly a surprise when you sell (albeit one was a loanee) and fail to replace 5 of your best players.
Highs:
Reading away. We were brilliant for 88 minutes. Should’ve been 6-1 up at half time. Somehow drew 2-2. The only time all season when I thought we looked championship standard. Arguably one of our better performances in the last two or three years.
Lows:
Take your pick - Going out in both cups at the first opportunity to lower league teams? Or finishing below a team who went on strike? Or selling our best players and not replacing them and expecting everything to be alright? Or hiring the midget-lunatic? No it has to be winning only 4 games in 48 matches in all competitions. Embarrassingly bad.
Best player:
Can we name a player who hasn’t played for us yet? Norwood looks like a great signing for this level. Top scorer in England last season at Tranmere. I’ll go for him. If not him, Gwion Edwards is very good on his day. Jack Lankester has a huge future too.
Vs Sunderland:
I’m expecting two good games between two of the biggest teams in the league. I think it’ll be us two, Pompey and Peterborough fighting for the top two spots. Maybe two draws between us or two close games edged by a goal either way. Certainly won’t be a repeat of our 5-2 pummelling of yous a couple of years ago when you were managed by a hopeless looking Simon Grayson.
Next season we will:
I think we will go up. Only because it’s a poor league. I fancy us to finish top 2. As I said, it’s between Town, Sunderland, Pompey and Peterborough in my eyes. A good start for us would work wonders with Sunderland and Peterborough in our first three games. But I’ll be optimistic and say we finish second or even go up as champions. |  |
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| Preview Feature on 18:40 - Jun 28 with 1381 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| Preview Feature on 16:29 - Jun 28 by WarkTheWarkITFC |
Spoken like somebody who can't argue the rest!
You manage to argue well enough until you can't actually back up what you are saying, so just decide it's too ridiculous to argue.
Alright then mate. If you like. |
Just didn’t think it needed to be pointed out that just because Higginbotham and Reo Coker used to be good PL players doesn’t mean they were still good when we signed them. Both were terrible, and never played at Championship level again | |
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| Preview Feature on 20:10 - Jun 28 with 1351 views | PJH |
| Preview Feature on 15:34 - Jun 28 by WarkTheWarkITFC |
How many wins do you think Mick McCarthy would have managed with that squad?
Mick won something like 4 of his last 22 games didn't he? And he had Webster, Waghorn, McGoldrick, Celina, Garner and so on at this disposal.
Nobody is disputing Lambert didn't win many games. But perhaps the squad he inherited was only good enough to win 4 games in that time!
EDIT - Lambert got 17 points from the last 72 available at the end of last season, at the point in which he'd had time to make the team his own (24 matches).
We got 22 points from the last 72 available under McCarthy. That's only slightly better and McCarthy did so with a much more talented squad, who prior to that were in and around the playoffs rather than rock bottom.
So on that basis Lambert has done no worse a job once he got his feet under the table than McCarthy had done before he left, when many would say in hindsight we should have kept him.
If McCarthy only got 22 points with the squad we had, would he really have managed 17 points with Hurst's rabble? I don't think he would. [Post edited 28 Jun 2019 15:39]
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Your edit is factually incorrect.
We got 30 points from MM's last 24 league games but I suppose you can put fictitious figures in a post to try to boost your argument.
In all probability the squad that MM left in April last year would not have been decimated as it was if MM had still been here and also in all probability any additions made by MM would have been of more use than those made by Hurst so if PL had inherited an MM squad he would not have been inheriting "Hurst's rabble". |  | | |
| Preview Feature on 20:24 - Jun 28 with 1345 views | GeoffSentence |
What was the story of your season last year? Highs and lows…
Highs none. Lows...What do you fwcking think. We got relegated.
Who’s your best player, ones to watch etc?
Well, after last year, really aren't sure.
How do you think you’ll do against us next season?
We wiil double you.
How will you do overall next season?
100 points, 100 goals |  |
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| Preview Feature on 22:47 - Jun 29 with 1229 views | tpsontour |
What was the story of your season last year? Highs and lows…
Bored of his pragmatically effective football, our supporters had hounded out the division's longest serving manager in Mick McCarthy, who worked wonders in achieving mostly top half finishes - and even a play-off place - on a bottom six budget. After a solid mid-table 12th finish featuring 17 league wins, virtually all the talent jumped ship either before supposedly 'progressive' young manager Paul Hurst arrived because they could see the writing on the wall post-Mick or after experiencing pre-season with Hurst and his sidekick Chris Doig. Departees McGoldrick, Waghorn, Webster went on to have excellent seasons with divisional rivals while Hurst followed in the footsteps of our managers pre-Mick by signing awful, overpriced tat.
The cheap option for our chairman Marcus Evans, Hurst was welcomed as the new messiah because he was not Mick. He won one league match out of 14, lost to League Two Exeter in the League Cup and was sacked. Paul Lambert, a journeyman manager in recent years, was then welcomed as the new messiah because he was not Mick and went into PR overdrive to butter up the fans. He won 3 league matches out of 31 and lost to League One Accrington in the the FA Cup.
Highs: next to none, beating Leeds at home last game of the season was one of the very few matches where everyone went home happy. We managed some decent draws at home to Sheff U and away to West Brom too but very thin gruel.
Lows: relegated as one of the worst teams in Championship history, we were a soft touch all season, powder puff up front and horrific defensively, failing to keep a single away clean sheet all season.
Who’s your best player, ones to watch etc? Goal machine James Norwood could be a game changer for us if he stays fit and firing. We'll need creative midfielders like Alan Judge, Andre Dozzell, Teddy Bishop and Emyr Huws to supply him with the bullets (just getting full seasons out of the latter two could make a big difference to us after their awful injury records)
How do you think you’ll do against us next season? Hopefully a humdinger in prospect between two possible promotion contenders our first home game. Hard, however, to say with any real confidence whether either side will really hit the ground running after your play-off disappointment and our appalling relegation season.
How will you do overall next season? The jury is very much out on Lambert. He inherited an awful squad but his results could hardly have been any worse. He did nothing to sort out our defensive horror show, something the much maligned McCarthy would certainly have prioritised to make us hard to beat again. The fans have given him a free pass up until now when he has delivered next to nothing apart from a PR masterclass. It's a big turnaround required for a young dressing room that has got used to losing football matches minus 14 departing players with only a couple of incoming to date. I suspect a play-off place will be about the limit of our ambitions and how we fare in an awkward looking set of opening fixtures could go a long way towards setting the tone for the whole season |  | | |
| Preview Feature on 23:14 - Jun 29 with 1211 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
The story of last season was definitely second referendum or not.....and it all started in Sunderland! |  |
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| Preview Feature on 13:37 - Jun 30 with 1102 views | Durovigutum |
| Preview Feature on 15:39 - Jun 28 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
Having seen Mick McCarthy take over one floundering, adrift Ipswich side and drag them up the table, I’d be willing to bet my car, house and life savings that he would have achieved more than 4 wins in Lambert’s shoes |
Remember that the transfer window changed. Mick could do 93 day emergency loans immediately (and send them back if rubbish/unecessary) whereas Lambert had to wait and do all his business in 30 days. |  | | |
| Preview Feature on 19:31 - Jun 30 with 1047 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| Preview Feature on 13:37 - Jun 30 by Durovigutum |
Remember that the transfer window changed. Mick could do 93 day emergency loans immediately (and send them back if rubbish/unecessary) whereas Lambert had to wait and do all his business in 30 days. |
Rather over-stated point that IMO. The only player of note we signed before January was Bradley Orr who was hardly a huge success. He also won his first game in charge without signing anybody
The main signings made by Mick (McLean, McGoldrick and Stearman) all came in January [Post edited 30 Jun 2019 19:35]
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