Sour Mash

Who said it stops supporters wearing a poppy? He gets paid a massive amount by the people of Sunderland to play football for them. It's not a huge ask for him to show an appropriate level of respect to a cause that will mean a huge deal to those people.

Where have I said he is paid to reflect the views of fans? I think you're getting confused between the words "respect" and "reflect".

The vast majority of money he earns comes from British people. He is therefore a hypocrite for being happy to earn a very good living from those people, but not show respect to the war dead from that nation, a sign of respect that even a school kid would know is a sensitive issue for many in this country. And it's not like he's just forgotten to stick a poppy on his jacket as he goes out for the evening, he's clearly specifically asked to wear a different shirt to all of his teammates, therefore making a very clear statement on his views on the poppy and what it represents. It shows a lack of respect to those thousands of Sunderland fans that pay his wages every week.

I must be missing something here - why would anyone boycott any of these companies? Do you boycott any further that employs an accountant to minimise their tax liabilies within the law of this country?

I've just read through this thread and I can't find one person saying McClean shouldn't have the right to wear a shirt without a poppy - just that he's a c**t and a hypocrit for doing so.

What is that clown Ferdinand saying now?

What/ when are all these dives you speak of?

Yep, pretty much my take on it. We should have had 3 penalties on Saturday, we didn't get one.

Well thats a ridiculous quote - Mayuka will never be anywhere near the quality of Ronaldo.

But Gazzaniga played the ball at a very awkward height for Yoshida. He should also have spotted Dyer rapidly approaching, so it was both their fault, but ulimtately it comes down to whoever is so obsessed with us always playing it out from the back.

Forget 38mins - the ground was half empty at the end. Who here remembers the Dell Days? And the relegation fights we had? And the support that went with it? Where the f** k is that now?

White Star Tavern on Oxford Street or Yuzu Lounge on Carlton Place.

Yes, excellent post, it's been known for quite a while by those genuinely ITK that the Programme sellers were working covertly to destabilise the club, thank f**k NC has managed to finally get rid of them.

Completely agree we lack the required arrogance, confidence and aggression to do well in the Prem. That doesn't mean going around fouling oppossing players every couple of minutes, but we need to really get in the faces of the opposition. Adkins said himself yesterday we're in a 'dog fight'. We should look at Celtic's performance on Weds against Barca as an example of how we should play.

Impossible to know if the story is true or not, but my Grandad always loved the joke that the first time he went to France and Germany he managed it without a passport!

He's trying to be funny. It's obviously a joke.

Maybe, maybe not. But Wotte had no track record of building successful sides for us, several years of success. It's not a case of never sacking a manager ever, but if a manager has been brilliant for us for the last couple of years, there's still a pretty good chance they will continue to be good for us rather than judging them on a couple of very tough months.

I must have missed Wotte getting us promoted two years on the trot, scoring loads, playing decent football, coming across as a bright, articulate young manager. Can you remind us about all those times as you love that comparison so much?

Anyone know who's turn it is for the Swansea game? I work out it should be back with Boruc by now?

Our centre midfielders are too attacking? You sure about that?

We need pace going forward - we need to scare the opposition more, stop them being able to press so high up the pitch and force us into errors. Instead we pass the ball slowly back and forth in midfield and put ourselves under pressure. I still don't believe out back 4 is as bad as many are focusing on.

That's what worries me about tonight - it wasn't "the story of our season" - yes, we still look shaky at the back, but suddenly any kind of cutting edge has disappeared. We played all of our football in front of WBA. We never had their defenders facing their own goal, never got them worried or made them panic. For a side containing Lallana, Lambert, Rodriguez and Ramirez, that is a worry, regardless of formation, fitness etc, a forward line like that has got to offer more threat than we did tonight. Schneirderlin is a massive player for us and when he doesn't perform we struggle, but as a partnership is he and Davis dynamic enough? I know they're not necessarily meant to be box to box, but they just don't drive us forward. Thought Adkins should have made the subs as soon as we went 2 down, other than that, I'm not too sure what more he could have done, aprt from the most important thing of all - confidence - last season we were all about our momentum and over-achieving, this year it is now the complete opposite and our belief looks like its gone. Not sure how many genuine leaders and big characters are in that team at the moment?

Been saying it for a while now. We're good enough, but the confidence has completely gone.

Ridiculous. We've got a lot more to worry about than whether Guly is in the squad or not.

As I've said before, the frustrating thing was that Leeds were pretty much there for the taking, they weren't anywhere near as intense and hungry as they were in the League game up there last year or the game in the earlier round against Everton.