It hasn’t taken long for the outrageously charismatic Phil Parkinson to start blathering on about the supposed expectations of the Sunderland fan base, of players needing to be able to play at the SOL.
In the pre Burton press conference the BBC Look North’s Dawn Thewlis asked Parkinson (I’m paraphrasing) what it was like to play under pressure at the SOL for fans known to get on the players backs early in the game, mentioning nothing about their undying loyalty, despite successive relegations to the third tier of English football and decades of disappointments. She mentions nothing about the reasons why our supporters are so disillusioned right now.
On BBC Radio Newcastle on 27-11-19 Marco Gabbiadini, the regular studio SAFC pundit, said the Sunderland supporters are known to get on a manager’s back quickly and then quoted some rubbish he’d read about Steve Bruce needing a police escort home from the SOL whilst Sunderland’s gaffer.
This stemmed from an article written by rabid Newcastle supporter Liam Kennedy, published in the Sunderland Echo on 27-11-19. Kennedy was initially given the Sunderland Echo reporter’s job in 2016 covering SAFC, but due to an outcry on social media including publication of previous vitriolic outbursts against SAFC as a club and about their supporters on his Facebook account he had to stand down and is now Johnston Press NUFC reporter.
There have been so many people popping at the supporters recently that it’s hard to keep up, but not wanting to write an epilogue on this unfair scenario I’d just like to say that few clubs in world football would have retained the support that SAFC currently enjoy despite constant failings that are still going on almost unchecked, I’d like to ask:
Who chose the current manager that many fans didn’t want?
Who puts out a team that loses to Shrewsbury, Leicester’s kids, Scunthorpe, Gillingham and Burton Albion?
Who organises (ahem!) the players on the pitch and tactically to an extent they play with no passion and no discernible pattern of play other than hoofball which is boring the pants off people and losing us matches?
Who appoints people from Eastleigh when a club of our stature should be employing top class, experienced football professionals in all key positions including manager?
Who, in all reality, should be blamed for the current sorry state of SAFC?
It’s certainly not the fan base…
