Dear Roker Report,
Just thought I’d drop you guys an email to let you know how much I appreciate the amazing job that you do for all of us Sunderland supporters.
I visit the site every single day to read your content, and it’s always the first place that I come to for my news and opinion. Me and my wife listen to the Podcasts on our way in to work on a morning! Honestly, you don’t realise how much, as an exile, I appreciate everything you do.
Here’s to the #1 Sunderland AFC site on the web, and thanks!
Mark Carroll
ed’s note: Cheers Mark, glad that you enjoy what we do. The guys that work every day behind the scenes at Roker Report do this because we have a common love for this basket case of a football club - it can be incredibly hard to stay focused and motivated when the team are performing badly, so it’s nice to receive positive comments from people such as yourself!
Dear Roker Report,
Where in the world does this idea come from that Sunderland are a ‘big club’?
Support-wise - yes, I’d agree. But, to be classed as ‘big’ you need to think ‘big’, and that is something that Sunderland AFC have not done for many a year.
For every decent player that we’ve brought to the club in recent years I can probably name you four bad ones.
When was the last time the club bought a player and sold him on for a significant profit (and I don’t count players who have come through the academy)?
We’ve got the worst squad assembled at this football club for at least 30 years, and I don’t blame people for not turning up to games. If the chairman does not care, why should the supporters?
I could sit here all day and write about the reasons for the demise of this football club, but I won’t. I could see this coming as far back as when Mick McCarthy was our manager.
Don’t dwell on the past - this so called BIG club have under performed for far too long now.
What Chris Coleman was thinking about when he took this lot on I will never understand.
Michael Wraith (a once fanatic supporter who saw the light)
ed’s note: The point that you make about player sales is a good one, and I think it’s an area that Sunderland have struggled in for years now. Off the top of my head I think probably the most recent sale we made where we managed to gain a canny profit on someone that had previously been brought into the club was when we sold Simon Mignolet to Liverpool four and a half years ago for £11m, which just shows you how bad we’ve been in the transfer market, really.
Dear Roker Report,
I’ve just thinking about Chris Coleman signing young kids from Chelsea (namely Jake Clarke-Salter) and then maybe the two boys from Liverpool that Roker Report featured on the website yesterday (ed: you can read about that here).
Hopefully they will be welcome additions to the squad, but it doesn’t alter the fact that we also need to add some players with experience which I hope that Chris Coleman can bring us.
On top of that we need two decent centre forwards - oh, and definitely a new goalie.
Please, Mr Short - I’m sure you won’t miss five million quid!
Mal Patterson
ed’s note: Hmm... I’m not so sure that experience is essential. We brought in plenty of players in the summer who possessed a wealth of experience but it doesn’t seem to have served us particularly well. Personally I agree with Chris Coleman - regardless of age, we need players that are hungry to prove themselves and see this as a challenge rather than a kop out. Whether a player is 17 or 27 doesn’t neccessarily matter, provided they have the talent and the desire required for them to not only succeed but become part of a unit that can push us over the line and towards safety.