Just on the off chance any of the Sunderland players are reading this...

I was trying to think earlier about what I could say before tonight's game that would maybe help spread a message of some sort to the ten thousand or so of you that frequent these pages on a daily basis, but in all honesty it's became almost impossible to eek out any sort of hope as we head towards the tail end of the season.

Say we win tonight - some bookmakers have us priced as high as 33/1 to complete such a feat - then what? What will we have gained? What will we know about this manager or these players that we didn't know already? What about it will make us feel any better about the situation that we find ourselves in? Well, probably not a great deal in truth. We're on life support, incapable of mustering up any sort of fight or determination in order to drag ourselves towards the finish line. We're so incredibly down-beaten that not one thing will make us feel any better than we do right now.

It's sad. We all have our theories with regards to who and what are to blame, but the fact of the matter is that there is no sole reason why Sunderland are where we are. It's an unhealthy, unsustainable cocktail of mismanagement, poor effort and bad financial decisions which has led this club down to the bottom of the barrel, unable to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves down.

And as we're all fully aware that this is the case, the remaining two games that we have left to play out this season just represent further opportunities to inflict misery upon a fanbase that have been abused and mistreated on a constant basis for much of the last decade or so. Our players could barely bring themselves to apply the bare minimum of effort against a poor Swansea side last weekend, so how on Earth will they cope with going toe to toe with world class opposition in Arsenal and Chelsea?

It doesn't bear thinking about.

More than anything else I want the Sunderland players to know and understand just how much they have hurt us this season.

Most of them will be gone soon - and good fucking riddance. Once that final whistle blows at Stamford Bridge on Sunday I'll be able breathe an enormous sigh of relief.

There aren't many other fanbases like ours, who regardless of the day, time, location, amount of notice and league position consistently sell out their away allocations and show an amount of commitment that is almost unfathomable when you attempt to consider it.

Those players don't realise just how fucking good they've got it. I'd die to have the opportunity to represent this football club even just once; can you even begin to imagine how amazing it must feel having those supporters behind you, singing your name, celebrating a goal with you? Can you imagine the pride that would befall upon you when you step out of that tunnel wearing a red and white strip, staring at a wall of colour and noise, cheering and willing you on to give your all?

How fucking dare you. How fucking dare you abuse that position.

And we won't fucking forget it, trust me.