Talking Points: “Sacked in the morning” chants sum up Sunderland’s Tuesday night sh*t-show

“Sacked in the morning” chants

The loyal and passionate Sunderland supporters in the crowd at the Stadium of Light last night had just about enough of the sh*t they were seeing, and loudly voiced their displeasure, with booing and “sacked in the morning” chants coming from the folk who for the second time in a matter of days had been forced to witness a bunch of gutless players fail to meet the basic requirements of their job, lead by a manager who looks so far out of his depth that he’s drowning.

Who can blame them? That was intolerable. It was embarrassing and by the end of the night this club found itself in its lowest ever position. We’re so low, in fact, that we’re actually closer to the relegation zone than we are the automatic promotion spots - a galling statistic that genuinely strikes fear into me about what else is to come for Sunderland this season.

I feel for Phil Parkinson but he’s clearly not the man to lead this club forward. He’s not getting us promoted as long as I’ve got a hole in my arse, and these unprofessional players are clearly not buying into the idea of him leading them up the table. I hate that I even have to say this, but I can’t help but feel that the Parkinson experiment is not working and we need to cut our losses already, before it’s too late.

Go get Neil Warnock before someone else does. At least we’d have half a chance of salvaging this sh*tshow of a season.

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Players are gutless

As a Sunderland fan, the reasons for why playing for this club should be seen as an honour are obvious. The bare minimum I expect from any player is that they give it their all when they go out on the pitch, because whilst not being good enough is simply a fact of life, ensuring you did absolutely everything in order to give the team a good shot of achieving a victory is the bare minimum.

How many of the players who walked off the pitch last night could say honestly that they tried their best?

They’re sulking. The form is so bad that their confidence is shot to bits. We’ve stopped scoring goals and we’re still horrendous defensively.

It’s all well and good laying into Phil Parkinson but he can only do so much. The players are performing well below what they are capable of and a reality check is needed - they’re not doing enough to ensure that we are competitive, even against poor teams that we should expect to be beating at home.

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Where are the leaders?

Lee Cattermole and George Honeyman left the club in the summer, and with them went any semblance of leadership within the squad. Nobody appears to have taken it upon themselves to fill the void left by their predecessors, and it’s seriously harming our chances of progression.

Grant Leadbitter is an unconvincing captain. He’s one of our worst players in the team so how can anyone take him seriously? The captain should be the player with the highest standards. If we could re-pick tomorrow I’d give Luke O’Nien the armband, and do away with anyone who disagreed with the decision.

The so-called experienced players aren’t leading from the front. Alongside Leadbitter is Aiden McGeady, Chris Maguire and Joel Lynch as the squad’s oldest campaigners, and none of them exude confidence and believability.

Someone in that dressing room needs to say “f*ck it”, and grab this situation by the scruff of the neck.

New leaders are needed and our standards have to improve.

This situation cannot be considered acceptable, and the shirkers in the squad need to be called out and isolated. January is right around the corner and ruthless decisions must be made in order to trim the fat and rid this club of any player who is holding us back.