Sunderland Til I Die | Vital Football

Sunderland Til I Die

Wurzel

Wurzel

Vital Football Legend
Anybody else watching this documentary on Netflix? I find the parallels with Villa quite revealing, and highlights where we could of gone if we hadnt have got our act together. Two clubs that had been run down for years, both with squads that were full of players who didnt want to be there, and turning over managers at a fast rate of knotts. Both clubs has atrocious home records and home games were toxic, both had fans desperate for success and worn down by defeat. It seems they were 5 mins from signing Ross McCormack! Really enjoying it so see it if you can, especially now that we have a decent squad with a manager who likes to play, and knows how to achieve, atting football. Highly recommend it to anyone.
 
Yep, I'm watching as I enjoy the behind the scenes and business side of the game. It's quite different from the Man City one on Prime as it feels more transactional to me and operating from transfer window to transfer window, or season to season. The Citeh one was more of a long term success project and it was about how quick they could succeed.

It's also nice to see some of the stories behind the young english players and more about the fans. I've a lot of time for the Mackems, they are quality supporters and have been through the mill. Taking 7k to Blackpool I read on social media earlier.

I'm only on episode 2, and just caught the story about them nearly signing McCormack (which I can't remember talking about at the time). Grayson was gutted to miss out from the cliffhanger for the next episode, so I don't know who was to blame for it not going through?

Definitely worth a watch as you say.
 
I've been waiting for this to come out, probably couldnt have picked a worse season to do it from a Sunderland fans perspective. I'm sure the Geordies will be howling with laughter watching it. If old spud head hadnt come in I seriously think we could have gone the same way. I know he's not too popular on here these day but I will still credit him for sorting that mess out.
 
Looking forward to watching this, it’s in the Netflix queue but might bump it up after reading positive things about it. I can only imagine both parties didn’t think they’d get relegated again when they decided to go behind the scenes with them.
 
Looking forward to watching this.

I watched the Leyton Orient documentary and an old Sunderland one from 1997 before (both on Youtube).

Much rather watch misery than the Man City one.
 
I find Simon Grayson a bit of a damp squib, but he’s the average type of manager at this level - not everyone can be Pep.
 
garygaryshaw said:
I've been waiting for this to come out, probably couldnt have picked a worse season to do it from a Sunderland fans perspective. I'm sure the Geordies will be howling with laughter watching it. If old spud head hadnt come in I seriously think we could have gone the same way. I know he's not too popular on here these day but I will still credit him for sorting that mess out.
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I do not think anyone denies he stopped the rot But in the same breath he had also gone as far as he could when he went. It’s just a shame he didn’t walk And it played out like it did
 
Yes I wasnt trying to defend him for this season, it was definitely time for a change. But I was genuinely worried we were on the verge of another relegation fight when he joined. Nobody walks these days unless they are moving on to a better paid job. You cant blame them really, when they are due so much in compensation.
 
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Watched the first 3 episodes last night, definitely worth a look if you have netflix. As Wurzel pointed out, there seems to be a lot of parralels to how we ended up being run under Lerner. You can see by the look on some players faces that a few of them didn't want to be there. The amount of abuse they are getting from the fans is probably making a few of them go missing on the pitch as well.
 
Wurzel said:
Anybody else watching this documentary on Netflix? I find the parallels with Villa quite revealing, and highlights where we could of gone if we hadnt have got our act together. Two clubs that had been run down for years, both with squads that were full of players who didnt want to be there, and turning over managers at a fast rate of knotts. Both clubs has atrocious home records and home games were toxic, both had fans desperate for success and worn down by defeat. It seems they were 5 mins from signing Ross McCormack! Really enjoying it so see it if you can, especially now that we have a decent squad with a manager who likes to play, and knows how to achieve, atting football. Highly recommend it to anyone.
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Just finished it, brilliant watch , actually felt sorry for the Sunderland fans.
 
I like Sunderland fans, walked into the wrong end of one of the pubs (Aston Hotel??) I think and it was packed with Sunderland fans and I was going to go into the Villa side until I just got randomly chatting to one of them, we drew, think it was 1-1 and he was a really down to earth chap, gave a nice balanced analysis of the game and wished us well so decided to have a few pints with him and his lads before I went into our side, I remember having some banter with a spurs fan too which was funny. But I hope they bounce back, they're a decent bunch, just hope no results against us though.
 
Seen the whole thing now. Really interesting look at a club in free fall. Almost certainly what would have happened to us if Learner had have stayed on and we'd gone into the season after relegation with Lescott, Richards, gabby and all as important 1st teamers.

Interesting seeing that apparently Sunderland fans really hate the ceo Martin Bain seeing whereas to me he seemed like a pretty decent enough guy frustrated by trying to run the club on a nothing budget. Obviously I don't know anything about him bar what I've seen from this documentary if course.

Thought Simon Grayson came off as a nice bloke but a bit clueless and just seemed to want to everyone to run around as much as possible. Coleman initially seems better but comes off as just as hapless. Especially after mcgeadys withering assessment of him. Essentially driving Grabban out and replacing him with Ashley Fletcher wasn't the greatest move.

We actually get a bit of screen time in one episode concerning Grabbans return with us to the stadium of light. He obviously enjoyed sticking it to Coleman. Jack Rodwell comes off exactly as I'd imagined. Pathetic little shit.

Overall I really enjoyed this series and it would be very interesting to see one made about the Villa, though in better circumstances than this one I'd hope. I think our new owners are too canny to allow that though.
 
Good assessment JW, I too thought Martin Bain seemed a decent guy and good at what he does. The problem is that when you’re the MD you’re the top employee of the owner and if Ellis Short doesn’t want to invest in the squad and/or sell players, then that’s what Bain is paid to do (unfortunately).

My missus watched the programme, she’s a soft Londoner with a fairweather QPR father so she didn’t really get the Villa thing that I have. At least she can see what footy means to people especially those she would call ‘northerners’.
 
Sunderland are a proper fans club who just get on with it unlike the winging , whining club up the road who still go on about how we laughed when we sent them down, nothing to do with all the other games they lost that year or how won them their first silver year in a thousand years after beating Brighton for the zebras to snatch the EPL title .
Sunderland city is a miserable dump but really good people.
really enjoyed that show on Netflix, as it is on here in Australia.
a mirror image of our demise.
 
Don't think the situation after we were relegated is the same, and don't think we'd have been relegated a second time. Reason is that we'd changed owners, and even though Xia ultimately represented a false dawn that made a big difference. Whatever you think of Wyness and Round they were certainly better than what had gone before. And we brought in players who are still here and doing well.

RDM may not have been the greatest, but he was given only 11 matches with a greatly revamped squad. We'd have improved. We had a load of draws which would have started to become wins. For all the hype over Bruce our position at the end of the season was poor, and I think we'd have bettered that. Bruce signed a load of players in January and didn't use them; RDM would have needed to have signed only a few to make a positive impact on the squad. Bruce shifted on players who needed to move on, I'll give him that, but my guess is RDM would have as well.

How it would have turned out in the long run we don't know. But I don't think League 1 was ever a danger.
 
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