Sunderland 'Til I Die - Netflix Documentary (December 14th Release Date)

Paully D

https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/80207046

This docuseries follows English soccer club Sunderland through the 2017-18 season as they cope with relegation from the Premier League.

Given what happened last season, this should be compelling viewing for all the wrong reasons. You'd have to think it would be almost impossible to paint things in any sort of positive light and it's worth pointing out that some involved tried (obviously unsuccessfully) to get the documentary canned.

It will be a far cry from the Manchester City and Juventus documentaries of a similar style anyway!

Sugarlumps

Bring on the misery, this will be enticing viewing.

All or Nothing worked tremendous in American football. Unless your a fan of City - slim pickings. As individuals they didn't light up the screen, had an urge to douse my laptop with petrol. Saved myself a fortune and turned it off.

p1akuw47h5r3it

Forgot about this, I remember hearing about it ages ago. Should be a good watch alright.

Paully D

Trailer is out:

https://twitter.com/netflixuk/status/1072099007554617344?s=21

Sports Illustrated rate it highly:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjOosWwtpjfAhX5SxUIHRv-Aj8QzPwBegQIARAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.si.com%2Fsoccer%2F2018%2F12%2F10%2Fsunderland-til-i-die-netflix-documentary-series-review&psig=AOvVaw06785op0sfm7xTM-5bHMFR&ust=1544639956439620

artanevilla

I know how it ends but I'll still watch.

w/s/p/c/

Should be worth the watch, looking forward to it.

Speaking of good football documentaries on Netflix, there is one about Bobby Robson that was added recently, I highly recommend it for any football fan.

Nunu

w/s/p/c/ wrote: »

Should be worth the watch, looking forward to it.

Speaking of good football documentaries on Netflix, there is one about Bobby Robson that was added recently, I highly recommend it for any football fan.

Yes. This is excellent

McGrath5

Anybody watching it yet?

2 episodes in and it’s really good.

Guy:Incognito

Is this a future one along the lines of the absolute cringefests they do episodes of Quickly Kevin about? ( so cringey it's great to watch) or actually good?

bot43

Watched the first 3. Pretty good. Shame there is no dressing room footage (oooh matron). Martin Bain comes out of it looking good thus far.

diusmr8a504cvk

Saw the trailer and while it looked good, you'd swear Sunderland were a big club the way they talk about them. They're not even the biggest in the North-East ffs.

Sirsok

On episode 5, as a poster said, lack of dressing room footage is a shame, would of been good to b3 a fly on the wall when they throw away at 3-1 win. Also no mention of Jack Rodwell, which is suprising especially when discussing the money problems at the club

Kirby

A documentary like this seems totally pointless without behind the scenes footage like dressing room stuff.

Sugarlumps

Binged it, loved every minute of it.

Trigger

Watched the first 2 episodes, definitely aimed at an American audience. Has a ring of last chance u about it without the dressing room footage. Pretty interesting so far though, looking forward to the rest

clickhere

Sirsok wrote: »

On episode 5, as a poster said, lack of dressing room footage is a shame, would of been good to b3 a fly on the wall when they throw away at 3-1 win. Also no mention of Jack Rodwell, which is suprising especially when discussing the money problems at the club

He is mentioned ok, and doesn't come out of it very well.

Esse85

Watched the first 2 episodes, would of loved to be seeing more team meetings and half time talks but enjoying it so far, Grayson didn't really stand a chance given the lack of support he's had.

fullstop

The only thing that really annoyed me about it was the canned crowd noise for away games. Home team scores and you hear a few groans and boos but nothing else. Overall pretty good though.

NIMAN

Its a series?
I thought it was a one-off film.

I'm out.

Johner

On the 3rd episode and it’s enjoyable so far. Would agree with the posters who said dressing room footage would be good.

Jelle1880

It's absolute car crash footage, I love it.

Some amount of delusion though with the whole 'massive club' stuff.

gmisk

Sirsok wrote: »

On episode 5, as a poster said, lack of dressing room footage is a shame, would of been good to b3 a fly on the wall when they throw away at 3-1 win. Also no mention of Jack Rodwell, which is suprising especially when discussing the money problems at the club

Did you watch all of episode 5? The whole last part was focused on Jack Rodwell...


I found the show really interesting, would definitely watch season 2.


The scary thing is there are clubs that are/were even more poorly ran than Sunderland...Blackburn Rovers (although we seem to have turned a corner under Tony Mowbray and owners seem to have wised up - even with Jack Rodwell at club lol)...Blackpool...Charlton spring to mind.

Some of the players come across really well, Jonny Williams I thought in particular

Sirsok

gmisk wrote: »

Did you watch all of episode 5? The whole last part was focused on Jack Rodwell...

Ha yeah, i spoke a bit to soon as was just at the start of episode 5 and was disappointed by his absence, but glad they addressed it. How they believed they would go straight back up at the start of the season was a bit mad.

steve_r

Thought this was excellent, really well made. I felt bad for the fans and the staff, the players and management just land somewhere else and it doesn't matter how much they ballsed things up for Sunderland

Johner

Watched episode 5 last night. Rodwell didn’t come across well at all but who can blame him sitting on a 70k a week contract. It’s not his fault they gave him that without a relegation clause.

Esse85

Johner wrote: »

Watched episode 5 last night. Rodwell didn’t come across well at all but who can blame him sitting on a 70k a week contract. It’s not his fault they gave him that without a relegation clause.

I would actually call that guy a selfish scumbag, an embarrassment.

Had he chosen to leave in January, the club could of brought in a few players that wanted to be there that could of helped prevent the club being relegated and avoiding more redundancies.

Of course its the clubs fault for giving him that deal in the first place but have a look in the mirror and realise normal people working at the club on £30k yearly have a mortgage to pay.

These players are at every club, more should be done legally to offload these guys when they offer no value back to the club in return.

Kirby

Nonsense. Nobody puts a gun to a clubs head when signing contracts. They chose to offer him the contract. To expect the player to be some paragon of altruism and turn down millions is naive, fairytale stuff. To call him a "selfish scumbag" for honoring the contract that was given to him is ridiculous. These players are at every club. Because this is every player at every club.

It's a business and its their livelihood in a short career. If your boss came in tomorrow and demanded you quit your job because he didn't want to pay you the money he had agreed.....what would your response be?

I think you know the answer.

Esse85

Kirby wrote: »

Nonsense. Nobody puts a gun to a clubs head when signing contracts. They chose to offer him the contract. To expect the player to be some paragon of altruism and turn down millions is naive, fairytale stuff. To call him a "selfish scumbag" for honoring the contract that was given to him is ridiculous. These players are at every club. Because this is every player at every club.

It's a business and its their livelihood in a short career. If your boss came in tomorrow and demanded you quit your job because he didn't want to pay you the money he had agreed.....what would your response be?

I think you know the answer.

I'm not on £70k weekly and I'm not a professional footballer for starters, so to even attempt to draw comparisons would be nonsense.

He's an embarrassment and I'm sure Sunderland supporters detest him for draining the club financially and providing zero value in return.

Kirby

Esse85 wrote: »

I'm not on £70k weekly and I'm not a professional footballer for starters, so to even attempt to draw comparisons would be nonsense.

He's an embarrassment and I'm sure Sunderland supporters detest him for draining the club financially and providing zero value in return.

The comparison is blindingly simple. The exact figure of money isn't relevant. You have a contract at work in the same way he does. If your boss decided he didn't want to pay you the money owed and you were expected to walk away without it, you would laugh and carry on.

The only shameful party in all this is the club. Offering any player that sort of sum without a relegation clause is an example of colossal mismanagement. The anger should be directed at the right people.

All Rodwell did was his job. The fact that he was overpaid is, again, not his fault and the fault of the people in charge.

deisedude

Kirby wrote: »

The comparison is blindingly simple. The exact figure of money isn't relevant. You have a contract at work in the same way he does. If your boss decided he didn't want to pay you the money owed and you were expected to walk away without it, you would laugh and carry on.

The only shameful party in all this is the club. Offering any player that sort of sum without a relegation clause is an example of colossal mismanagement. The anger should be directed at the right people.

All Rodwell did was his job. The fact that he was overpaid is, again, not his fault and the fault of the people in charge.

I agree with you on the mismanagement but I don't think Rodwell threw a leg to even get into the team.

Morally its wrong what he did. Happy to pick up a massive pay cheque without working to earn it

Paully D

The Rodwell deal was a stupid one for Sunderland to make in the first place. He wasn’t what we needed at the time (a creative CM was) and I highlighted it at the time too, along with his injury issues, and highly doubted it would turn out to be a successful transfer.

The club were off their head to do that sort of deal and deserve to be held accountable for the money they agreed to pay him.

However, where the dislike from Rodwell stems from among some supporters is the fact that he didn’t hold up his end of the deal. He did an interview with the Mail in which he claimed he was fit and available to play, yet at the same time in the documentary was filmed lying off on a physio table with his arms outstretched behind his head saying “no chance mate” with a smile when asked if he was going to play that weekend. He told Simon Grayson he couldn’t play in midfield any more due to “psychological issues.” He said he would “do anything to play”, with any decision at deadline day based around “playing, not money.” He subsequently turned down 2 moves that deadline day. He was photographed playing games in the arcades in a shopping centre at the exact same time as relegation was all but confirmed. Whenever he did play, even in the Premier League, he was a coward who wouldn’t take any responsibility and actively moved away from the ball so he wouldn’t have to get involved in the play (seriously, I watched about 70 of the 76 games he played for the club).

If he got on with things, made himself available for selection and played, then no one could really have any complaints. The club agreed to a contact and have to honor it. The problem is, Rodwell didn’t seem to want to hold up his end of the contract and contrary to what some people seem to think, it’s virtually impossible for clubs to do anything about it. It doesn’t work both ways.

Esse85

Paully D wrote: »

The Rodwell deal was a stupid one for Sunderland to make in the first place. He wasn’t what we needed at the time (a creative CM was) and I highlighted it at the time too, along with his injury issues, and highly doubted it would turn out to be a successful transfer.

The club were off their head to do that sort of deal and deserve to be held accountable for the money they agreed to pay him.

However, where the dislike from Rodwell stems from among some supporters is the fact that he didn’t hold up his end of the deal. He did an interview with the Mail in which he claimed he was fit and available to play, yet at the same time in the documentary was filmed lying off on a physio table with his arms outstretched behind his head saying “no chance mate” with a smile when asked if he was going to play that weekend. He told Simon Grayson he couldn’t play in midfield any more due to “psychological issues.” He said he would “do anything to play”, with any decision at deadline day based around “playing, not money.” He subsequently turned down 2 moves that deadline day. He was photographed playing games in the arcades in a shopping centre at the exact same time as relegation was all but confirmed. Whenever he did play, even in the Premier League, he was a coward who wouldn’t take any responsibility and actively moved away from the ball so he wouldn’t have to get involved in the play (seriously, I watched about 70 of the 76 games he played for the club).

If he got on with things, made himself available for selection and played, then no one could really have any complaints. The club agreed to a contact and have to honor it. The problem is, Rodwell didn’t seem to want to hold up his end of the contract and contrary to what some people seem to think, it’s virtually impossible for clubs to do anything about it. It doesn’t work both ways.

I wonder does Kirby still thinks he done nothing wrong.

In fact I couldn't care less what he thinks.

charolais0153

Jelle1880 wrote: »

It's absolute car crash footage, I love it.

Some amount of delusion though with the whole 'massive club' stuff.

Thye are a huge club. No liverpool or arsenap etc but a big club no doubt

Pete Moss

Great documentary, but thank f**k for the 'Skip Intro option on Netflix, horrendous cheesy opening sequence.

Johner

Pete Moss wrote: »

Great documentary, but thank f**k for the 'Skip Intro option on Netflix, horrendous cheesy opening sequence.

I liked the song.

gmisk

Pete Moss wrote: »

Great documentary, but thank f**k for the 'Skip Intro option on Netflix, horrendous cheesy opening sequence.

Ok I thought i was the only one that thought that opening song was bad....it is just a series of crappy cliches.

Keyzer

Finished it last night, compulsive viewing.

So many problems with the club - owner who was fed up, CEO who had an impossilbe job, Grayson didn't seem to have a clue what he was doing and Coleman took on an absolute bag of dgosh1t.

Probably best it got that bad so the club could be sold and new owners started running it properly.

Poor Sunderland fans. I've been there, one of my mates is from Sunderland, and its literally all they have up there.

w/s/p/c/

Binged watched this last weekend, thought it was very well done.

Darron Gibson was a complete disaster, I think it was one of the first scenes with him coming into the treatment room looking so hung over set the tone for his story, little did they know what was to come with the rant and the arrest.

I think Chris Coleman was the right man for the club by the looks and sounds of it, just there at the wrong time, the rot had set in completely by then. The likes of Rodwell and Grabban don't come out of it looking well at all.

Hopefully they are filming this season which will see them ultimately promoted back.

And Jonny Williams is one of the nicest fellas in football!

Pete Moss

Johner wrote:

I liked the song.

Each to their own my friend, just wasn't my cup of tea. Great series though.

gmisk

w/s/p/c/ wrote: »

Binged watched this last weekend, thought it was very well done.

Darron Gibson was a complete disaster, I think it was one of the first scenes with him coming into the treatment room looking so hung over set the tone for his story, little did they know what was to come with the rant and the arrest.

I think Chris Coleman was the right man for the club by the looks and sounds of it, just there at the wrong time, the rot had set in completely by then. The likes of Rodwell and Grabban don't come out of it looking well at all.

Hopefully they are filming this season which will see them ultimately promoted back.

And Jonny Williams is one of the nicest fellas in football!

Yeah Rodwell and Grabban didnt come across well at all.
Grabban gave some BS excuse for leaving saying he kept getting taken off after 65/70 minutes (i think that only happened in a couple of games - one of which was a tactical thing due to an injury or sending off).


Jonny Williams seems like a lovely fella definitely, he admitted he was lonely which i found heartbreaking tbh, I also thought John O Shea came across very well in the small parts he popped up at. George Honeyman is now the team captain for them I think you could tell how passionate he was about the club. Its really nice to see them going so well in League one, the next season should be a little more triumphant hopefully!



Coleman seems like a really decent fella as well, I thought it was pretty telling the fact the cook was in tears after he sent a text after being let go. It looks like he took the job at the wrong time with the club in free fall with zero money, but he landed a cushy MASSIVE pay day in china (3.5m a season yikes!) right after so hard to feel too sorry for him

Morzadec

Would echo what has been said by most - the series is very good. I think anyone interested in English football will find it interesting and should give it a watch.

The title sequence song is horribly cheesy and out of place!

What are people's thoughts on Sunderland after watching it? Does anyone have a soft spot for them now? I'll certainly keep an eye on their results and will be curious to see if they go up

w/s/p/c/

Never realised Coleman is on that much money in China!

In relation to thoughts on Sunderland, I will be keeping an eye on how they are doing for sure. Would be a good comeback story if they can make it back to the premier league.

Keyzer

Morzadec wrote: »

What are people's thoughts on Sunderland after watching it? Does anyone have a soft spot for them now? I'll certainly keep an eye on their results and will be curious to see if they go up

Always keep an eye on them.

A good mate is from Sunderland and I've been to the Stadium of Light for a match. The passion from the fans is incredible, never witnessed anything like it.

But its a depressing place, lots of unemployment and social issues. The football club is absolutely everything to them.

But as I said, its for the best that this has happened. The club have tough times ahead of them but they seem to be on the right track with new ownership etc.

Sirsok

deisedude wrote: »

I agree with you on the mismanagement but I don't think Rodwell threw a leg to even get into the team.

Morally its wrong what he did. Happy to pick up a massive pay cheque without working to earn it

Well Sunderland probably had added incentives in games which contractually would mean he would have to be paid more depending on performances , appearences....so may have been told he wont be played for financial reasons.

Pete Moss

gmisk wrote:

Yeah Rodwell and Grabban didnt come across well at all. Grabban gave some BS excuse for leaving saying he kept getting taken off after 65/70 minutes (i think that only happened in a couple of games - one of which was a tactical thing due to an injury or sending off).

I think the worst thing about Grabban wasn't his attitude, or scoring against Sunderland with the ear cupping celebration. It was the shockingly poor "beard" he was sporting. He looked like he had used PVA glue to stick pubic hair on his face to replicate the facial hair of Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Stevecw

Finished it tonight, really enjoyable. Wish a few more clubs did this, but the makers struck gold with the season they got Sunderland at. It was a train wreck from start to finish, I knew the club was a bit of a mess but didn't realise how bad it was.
Was great to see the staff like the ones in the kitchen and the old boy at the door every day and how much the club meant to them. You could feel their pain, and makes me hate the likes of Rodwell & Gibson even more.

Good to see them doing ok this season, and hopefully they'll get promoted.

Ardent

I really felt sorry for Grayson. The part where he was interviewed, not long before being sacked, saying I don't want to go back to sitting on the sofa at home, football is my life. He wasn't up to the job but that was heart breaking.

Officer999

The scene that stands out to me was where the chief executive and the scouts were discussing transfer targets, and one of the scouts actually had Ibrahimovic on the paper. Was he for real??

PTH2009

Sum crazy die hard fans in Sunderland who basically live for football

Great series and really shows how overrated Coleman was. When he won his first game you swear he solved world hunger the way the fans were praising him

Ardent

PTH2009 wrote: »

Great series and really shows how overrated Coleman was. When he won his first game you swear he solved world hunger the way the fans were praising him

That's a bit harsh. He was effectively left with zero forwards by the time the transfer window closed. I don't think anybody could have kept them up with that squad.

Officer999

Ardent wrote: »

That's a bit harsh. He was effectively left with zero forwards by the time the transfer window closed. I don't think anybody could have kept them up with that squad.

I think what really cost them was not having a reliable goalkeeper.
A lot of the goals they conceded were directly due to all three goalkeepers preforming poorly