Robbin Ruiter has described his first season on Wearside a great adventure. Aye Robbin, just like the maiden voyage of the Titanic was a great adventure. He explained: "Sunderland is a big club, many people in the Netherlands do not know about this. The stadium, the fans, the training complex. In addition, I played away games against clubs like Aston Villa and Wolverhampton. That is incredibly cool. When you sign for a club that has just been relegated from the Premier League, you hope to participate in promotion the following year. That did not take a moment. This relegation was rough. Especially for the people in the office. Footballers and managers are passers-by, these people live for the club. Suppose they lose their jobs... The only thing this club can do now is to return to the Championship as soon as possible."
Ruiter is back training after missing the latter half of the season with a dislodged finger and describes the ‘musical keeper’ antics at SAFC as “pretty Normal”: I only signed a contract at the end of August, so it was quite logical that the manager first opted for the other goalkeeper. After four games I got a chance for the first time. In the end I stayed in for five games before my competitor was selected again and while I did not play that bad at all. That has actually continued throughout the year. The club has changed goalkeeper eight times this season. That is apparently pretty normal here. I’m on the field again, I’ve caught some balls again. If everything is alright, I’ll be completely fit again in pre-season.
In other news it looks increasingly likely that we’ve seen the last of John O’Shea in a Sunderland shirt. The 37 year old is out of contract at the end of next month and you wouldn’t bet on us being able to meet his wages while in League 1: "I’m out of contract at the end of June, the Irishman said, and it’s just a wait and see but look, when I signed the contract last season with Sunderland, I kind of thought we’ll see how the body copes and obviously you want to play as much as you can and compete and be competitive. I probably played more than I maybe thought during the season."
To celebrate being complete and utter shite once again, we’re bringing bring back this classic t-shirt from the 05/06 season. Looking back to those halcyon days under Mick McCarthy when we managed to amass an incredible 15 points to see us relegated from the Premier League.
Don’t worry we will reach those lofty heights again but until then we can take comfort in the fact that we’re all... still here when we are shit! Hardcore fans and Sunderland till we die, whichever league we are in and whoever owns the club. Players, manager and chairman come and go. Fans remain. We are the club… click here to view product
