Fan Letters: Is anyone prepared to ask the Sunderland manager the tough questions?

Dear Roker Report,

Well lads, like I said in last weeks message it looks like we are in League One for the foreseeable future. How can a manager oversee an absolute failure last season with that starting line-up and come out for the first league game with exactly the same again except with a worse keeper between the sticks?

Getting rid of Jon McLaughlin is going to turn out to be a bad decision. We have Flanagan, Hume, Power, O’Nien, Wyke and Gooch in the same team, they cannot pass, run, win headers from long balls or take on defenders to get crosses in.

If George Dobson can’t pass a ball five yards to his team mate and then get himself sent off (just as well it wasn’t earlier in the game) to make up for his inability to play football, he doesn’t deserve the shirt. He proved last season that same lack of quality and still got picked regularly, and it looks like he’s going to continue being first choice again.

I’m not in the Parky out brigade or thinking we should change the manager regularly, but to pick a team that failed massively week after week last season will only result in the same outcome. For a manager to then blame the time keeping is an absolute insult to our club.

The trick is to pick a team that will go for the throat of every opposition we play from the off, with pride in the shirt to bash three goals in and then you won’t have to worry about the time wasting. It was the same last season and that’s why we finished where we did, but he didn’t work that out.

He needs to wake up quickly as fans wont tolerate these woeful displays. No more time left, the writing is on the wall Phil. That team won’t get us goals to get us promoted, simple as that. Take note of what McGeady was saying as I agreed with your decision on that saga, but read between the lines there’s some truth in his statement.

Jeff Angus

Ed’s Note [Chris]: I can appreciate the frustration Jeff, I think we’re all feeling it after that opening day performance. It’s not far off a year since Phil Parkinson was appointed Sunderland manager and I don’t see where the progress has been made to get us closer to getting out of League One.

We have three huge games coming up against Oxford United, Peterborough United and Charlton Athletic, who are all expected to be in the mix when it comes to promotion at the end of the season, I suspect we’ll know exactly where we stand after our trip to The Valley on 3rd October.

Photo by Alex Dodd - CameraSport via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

Could someone ask the fella who interviews Parky after the match on SAFC news to ask some proper questions important to the fans? Like why did he select the players that played man for man? or why when Parkinson says McGeady has to make way for younger players, are they not even on the bench?

You could fall asleep when the interview is on... WAKE THE MAN UP!

Don’t be Parky savy, ask some questions that will shake the bloke. Make it worth it pressing the button on the site.

Anthony

Ed’s Note [Chris]: It’s frustrating looking at it all from our position as fans, at times it appears the club operates on and off the field with a lack of scrutiny. If you’re expecting the interviewer employed to ask serious questions post-match then I can say with huge amount of confidence that it will never happen.

How many times did Parkinson make bizarre statements about the team playing well during games last season, when in reality we’d managed one shot on goal in the whole ninety minutes? From memory there wasn’t one occasion where his analysis was questioned.

In my opinion this is where the local press needs to fill the void. With the club in it’s worst position it has ever been, we need the difficult questions to be asked more than ever and it doesn’t seem anyone is prepared to ask them.