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Huge mistake hiring him in the first place let alone letting him go.

We are reaping what he sowed though. A leaderless bunch of soft footballers.

People can keep having a dig at LJ all they like, the fact remains we were nowhere near as shit as we are now with him as manager

Such obsession with LJ, its pathetic. You wanted him out, and now he is, we are all still obsessed. Huge mistake letting him go.

Not sure what you were watching over the last couple of years, but this form has built up over LJ's spell in charge . He gathered more and more players of a similar standard, we got worse and worse at home, and only got away with it because of our away form. That wasn't likely to hold up over time. We don't retain possession at all, which means we can't dominate or control games, or even see them out. 2018 - 2019 we were 18th in the home form table, saved by a promotion standard away season. Not likely to keep that up. 2019 - 2020 positionally better, in reality a point worse off, again very good away glosses over a mid-table finish. 2020 - 2021 a drop off both home and away. I've said a few times, I put most of the blame on LJ. He set this "style" of football in place. We have been awful to watch for years, we struggle to keep and pass the ball and he was in charge as we completely lost his (our) way , we end up where it is ingrained through the squad and is now a big job to shake them out of it. He should have been sacked 18 months earlier, the problem was compounded with the Holden appointment. It was a big job even without COVID, we needed a big shake up and what we basically got was a continuation. We have a group with no leaders, soft and directionless. Have no doubt, this is a big, big rebuilding job. With Walsh (?), Williams, Bakinson, HNM, JD, Vyner , Palmer even Wells, we have players that can play and pass. We need Pearson (hopefully) to shake the squad up and change what we have become. LJ is central to where we are now, sound like he's doing a similar job at Sunderland reading some of these posts.

People were warned about the potential side effects of Johnson & Johnson. IMO the Oxford (Mr Ashton) was even more detrimental. Anyway, they're all gone now, so let's celebrate and drink up thee pfizer.

Missing: Last seen in Portsmouth, but resides in the Whorefield area of Bristol. If spotted, please contact Wally Al Qaida.

Congratulations to Cheltenham on gaining promotion and at the same time leap frogging the Tesco Bags in the West Country pecking order......................

We are where we are because of LJ and MA’s recruitment, his residue if you like. Too many of the squad simply aren’t of Championship standard.

He was asked why meditation? Better than sitting around allday doing nothing he said.

We should NEVER have appointed him more like.

would this take much convincing?

LJ achieved nothing at AG in his 4 or 5 years, nor did he ever win the fans over. It was right to sack him.

We weren't? Not in 2016/17, when we set a club record for consecutive league defeats and finished 17th with 15 wins and 54 points? Nowhere near?

Tbf he had some very decent players, problem was we sold most of them. Not lionising the man, but he got as much out of the current crop as anyone gas since, ie not much. But he had some alight teams, we just cashed in on them.

Nope, still going! Project Run Every Day 2021 is still in effect 117 days in. Averaging out at 11-12k a day. Legs are murder but once you’ve started…

Here is a list of Sunderland’s defenders : Conor McLauglin, Tom Flanagan, Jordan Willis, Bailey Wright, Dion Sanderson, Arbenit Xhemajli, Callum McFadzean, Jake Vokins, Denver Hume. Here is a list of Sunderland’s defenders who aren’t injured : Bailey Wright, Denver Hume. I think this might have quite a considerable impact on Sunderland’s current form.

Feel sorry for those two kids at the front - look at what they're going to become. And his mum / sister / gran (who can tell) doesn't look too prowed of him either.

Yes, what they might call "half" (63 seasons) of 92 glorious campaigns. The other "half" (19 seasons) in the Second tier. And about a quarter in the 4th, for the Blue six fifths of Bristol.

I think DM came in at a particularly bad time, similar to now in fact, I would have liked to have seen him get a chance at a point when in and off the field we weren’t such a mess

The best analogy I can think of is that Johnson was like the person in the office who did a decent job but was left to his own devices. Thing were done their way and because they never caused the boss problems that was accepted. When handing in his notice the person taking over his job looks through his work and hasn’t got a clue what they’ve done or how they did it, there’s no plan or audit trail and the only solution is to start again from first principles. In football speak the recruitment was substandard in the medium term and his way of playing was entirely one dimensional to suit the recruitment. Too much was done to achieve short term results and job protection rather than building anything on a solid foundation. As such we could never progress to the next level with his recruitment and management.

Of course not overlooking those who helped make it all possible....

He just posted a tweet re them going down, Ass fans are just being precious. They fail to ignore their actual owners tweets re us, one example. Edit: Sorry, they don't fail to ignore their owners tweets, they laugh and joke about it and say he's absolute class. Double standards, classic Gas.

This is from their forum, sounds familiar..

He actually was for quite a while. He returned only recently, likely not 100% fit, and is their only centre back available for selection. I know we’ve had our injury problems, but imagine if Mariappa had been our only fit centre half for about 20 games!! That’s the size of the challenge they’ve had. Luke O’Nien has been playing at CB and actually making a decent job of it. He’s a midfielder who’s filled at RB for a while and is now being relied upon as a CB. They’ve had Max Power (a CM known for his goalscoring) playing at right back. Their defence has been the equivalent of us playing a back 4 of Paterson - Mariappa - Nagy - Pring. Been a bit of a struggle to say the least.

Jeez - dont go presenting facts like that - it interrupts the fatuous Lee Johnson bashing.

May 2nd they were relegated to Division Four, and not forgetting May 3rd they became a lower basement league club after losing to Mansfield, confused by the opposition wearing their kit The gift......... 21 years above the Gas are guaranteed and many many more to come... grab one of our tee shirts to celebrate this summer www.otibclothing.co.uk

They could easily make up the numbers imo and fill empty seats. After covid, there'll be thousands of spare cardboard cut-out fans knocking about. ?

Just seen the pricing on the Bristol live website for season ticket prices out Chernobyl. So it cost more for a under 19 supporter to stand in a piss stinking terracing watching league 2 football . Than an u19 down the gate watching championship football in a fantastic all seater stadium drinking in date Fanta. No wonder they won’t attract new fans

I mean FFP means they have to reduce their wage bill from 60% to 55% of their turnover and they are Rumoured to spend £3.2m a year on salaries. I honestly think that they may struggle next year. signed a lot of (not that good) players last summer on multi year contracts I doubt The jailbird will be allowed to make too many changes to the backroom or playing staff.

If he is deluded then Joey Barton saying about playing 'in front of 12,000' every home game must be even more of a f@cktard than I first thought he was.

He loved to try and 'out wit' the opposition teams Manager too then come out with ridiculous phrases in post match interviews. God I do not miss him, poor Sunderland, they need all the luck

Bleeding hell that hurts the eyes! Who was making that and thought that would be a good colour contrast?!?!?

Far too late. I think his father's teams could be boring in style sometimes, but with Lee it was more to do with tactics and fear of the opposition, which was infuriating.

LJ produced some of the worst Home performances I have seen from a City team, so in truth, bar very good away form we were not much better under him really. I would hazard a guess our shots per game at AG wasn't much better under him for the last 2 years of his reign which was awful to watch

Don't remember seeing that transfer news on the OS?

Should do, but their form over the last six games is as bad as ours & that is in League One with a side that has been top eight all season. Of all the sides involved up there the pressure is far, far higher because no way should Sunderland ever be at that level. The 2 promoted sides, Peterborough especially, aren’t half their size & their players seem to shrink with the responsibility of getting back to at least where they should be.

That was supposed to read "medication"

"The Rovers Family" - They have all contributed to many hours of amusement -

That’s one of big talking points, they’d be drafting him as a guard, at least initially. Drafted Matt Peart in third (?) round last year, seem keen to give him every chance to make RT his own. Thomas at LT (no 4 overall last year). C and G are positions they’ll primarily target, C and move Gates, who is new to position, makes sense. Im not sure they could pass on Slater, Vera-Tucker is another to keep an eye on, especially if they trade back, but both would come in at guard. Love draft season, have been messing around with PFN draft simulator long before City last won a game..

I thought that. Being replaced by Cheltenham. How embarrassing.

We’ve got 2nd May coming up this Sunday when they will be posting their annual grainy YouTube video of 1990 and having mutual manual manipulations over it. Fortunately we can also post memories of 2nd May 2001 when they entered the Basement for the first of their ‘triple crown’ of relegations to it. Then the following day we can laugh louder than they could ever possibly imagine for it will be Sir Colin Daniel of Mansfield day. It’s like taunting us with a feather and being hit back with a wrecking ball. Still, they set themselves up nicely for it every single year. Bring on the grainy video. Can’t wait to respond with the big guns! ?

It's only a half-hour show!

Errr, wut? I think they're mixing up Rovers with City. It's potentially arguable that City maaay at one time or another been as 'big a club', or on a par with, the likes of Brighton, Swansea, Reading and Hull. But even that isn't really the case today. All those clubs have, in the first analysis, tasted Premier League football and relatively recently. Some have even won major honours (Swansea won the EFL cup a few years back). Let's face it, we are behind those four clubs. And Rovers are way behind us. Miles behind at every level. They have really lost the plot. They've spent the vast majority of their history in the 3rd tier. They are a proverbial Astronomical Unit from the likes of Reading or Brighton. Rovers are far closer to being approximate to a Shrewsbury, a Chesterfield, or a Mansfield Town.

If they played on the street, nobody would be greatly surprised.

I would argue that terracing would increase attendances.....i'd absolutely love to be able to stand on a terrace again instead of sitting in a cramped seat!

Any ground roverzzz build will need ample land around it, just to cater for all those locked out.

That's fantastic to see, IMO. I was out in India and watched his England debut in Mumbai. He has everything, got a half-century with a broken hand and lost his way. Happy to see he's on his way back. England need him if he's anywhere near where he was in 2016. Shaw chanelling his inner Boycott, and Dom Goodman looks like a bit of a find. We definitely lack a decent spinner. Shame Dawson couldn't get Bess.