The Roker Report Draft: Who can create the worst XI of Sunderland players past and present?

The Premise

Imagine you are back in the school yard and a captain as the football teams were being picked. Before you stands every single player to have ever played for Sunderland AFC and you are able to assemble a side that you consider to be, frankly, awful.

Each of the writers involved take turns to remove a player from the pool until we each had eleven players and a manager. Beyond that, it’s down to the readers of our site to vote on who selected the worst of all the squads to pick from.

Voting will open once we’ve all made our twelve picks.

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The Rules

Names were put in a hat to decide the order that our team went in, and the results were as follows:

1. Gav 2. Malc 3. Matty 4. Jack 5. Martin 6. Phil

For every other round of selections, however, that order is reversed.

Participants are able to use their selections however they wish, though the following rules must be followed:

1. Squads must consist of eleven players and one manager (12 picks each in all).
2. Players who can play in multiple positions can be declared for one position in the selection process, but included in the final team in another.
3. Once a player is selected he is removed from the pool and ineligible to be selected by anyone else.
4. Players are selected as they turned out for Sunderland AFC.
5. Each person must accompany their pick with a summary of the reasons behind it.

Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

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How It All Works

So, using the order that was drawn out, each contestant selected their players one at a time in the style of an American draft. One by one, each contestant saw their opponents choosing players they had shortlisted, with everyone being as tactical as possible in their selections whilst also attempting to gain the upper hand.

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So... what now?

Every day this week we’ll post two rounds of picks on the website, before each contender puts forward their squad and their reasons for why you should vote for them.

Keep an eye out tomorrow as we post rounds one and two - we’re sure to see the worst of the worst as each player fights it out to nab the most awful Sunderland players of all time!