Sunderland back in Premiership

knobbles

Fair Play to Mick Mc Carthy!
could easily have been a Forest/Wednesday tale for Sunderland,
as far as i remember he had to sell the majority of the first team in the year after relegation, great turn around from the first few months when he took over and they had a record run of defeats.

Johnny_the_fox

knobbles wrote:

Fair Play to Mick Mc Carthy!
could easily have been a Forest/Wednesday tale for Sunderland,
as far as i remember he had to sell the majority of the first team in the year after relegation, great turn around from the first few months when he took over and they had a record run of defeats.

yep... he has done an excellent job.

wigan and ipswich had ran away with the league before christmas...

mike65

Yeah hats off to Mick McCarthy, when they went down I think 20 players were off-loaded. And the old third division beckoned! That he has turned them round so quickly says alot about his ability (at club level) but its only now the real work starts....

Mike.

Pigman II

Fair play to McCarthy. Always rated him as a manager. Wish he was still managing us now tbh.

applehunter

I am a wind up merchant, ignore all that I say.

_blank_

I don't like McCarthy, but a good job has been done at Sunderland.

Now imagine Fergie gets his way, and Roy Keane takes over as manager the season after next. Imagine if Sunderland stay up next season. Imagine McCarthy is still in charge of them.

Will they shake hands at the end of the game?

LegacyUser

Irrelevant and who ****ing cares!?

gandalf

Fair play to Mick !!! Already looking forward to the Manu vs Sunderland clashes next season

Draupnir

Personally I dont rate Mick and his fondness for the little and large front pairing will probably get him caught out badly in the Premiership next season. But only time will tell. I must say hes done a great job this year but really, Im most pleased for the likes of Elliot and Thornton.

Dewey

I'm delighted for Mick. He has done a brilliant job at Sunderland, and like you have said. he had to get rid of 20 premiership players but his buys have been crucial. Getting Elliot for little of no money was brilliant as was Caldwell from Newcastle and Lawrence and other players from the lower leagues.

Well Done Big Mac. And i too can't wait for Man U. v. Sunderland.

Guy:Incognito

I dont like him, hopefully they go straight back down. It's a pity aswell, always liked sunderland.

RasTa

Way over the top there dude. Why hope they go back down ? Just because McCarthy is in charge ? Stupid

PHB

I hate Mick but he has done an absolutely quality job in Sunderland to get them into automatic promotion, great signings, but I think the real job starts now.
He has to somehow get 5 or 6 premiership quality players with little to no money, or does he have a kitty of some sort?

Guy:Incognito

RasTa wrote:

Way over the top there dude. Why hope they go back down ? Just because McCarthy is in charge ? Stupid

How do you figure I'm over the top and stupid? Every year people decide who they want to go down, why am I any different. I don't think hes a top quality manager, dont like him as a person, so therefore would prefer him down at his own level in Div 1.

wheres me jumpa

yeah well done to mick. always rated him as a manager, he done an amazing job with the irish team and likewise with sunderland.

as for shaking hands with roy keane, im sure mick mccarthy has bigger things to be worried about next year and roy keane likewise. imo anyone who thinks a handshake means anything between these two needs a lesson in hatred. they will never forgive eachother and it is something they want to forget about and so it should be. mccarthy gets promoted and the first thing people think about is the roy keane reunion. no doubt some tabloid has a two page spread on it today.

thejollyrodger

I always thought the Mick belongs somewhere between fighting EPL relegation and seeking promotion to the EPL. Still fair play mick, good to see the irish fella's getting some EPL experience. To top it all off would be that SUnderland beat Man Utd next season:p

TwoShedsJackson

Sunderland will be good for some laughs next season anyway

Jivin Turkey

Well done Sunderland and Mick. I thought they would come up no problem.

Hopefully Wigan join them now too.

Third_Echelon

Nice to see Sunderland back up in the premiership. Well done Mick...

evilhomer

Draupnir wrote:

Personally I dont rate Mick and his fondness for the little and large front pairing will probably get him caught out badly in the Premiership next season.

Shearer and Bellamy (obviously a past partnership),
Kanoute and Defoe/Keane,
Drogba with Duff and Robben,
Crouch and Philips.
Cole and Vassell,
...... etc

I wouldn't worry about that. I would be more worried by Mr G. Breen at centre-half!

The Muppet

Credit to Mick he has doen a good job to turn Sunderlan around. There was never any doubt that he could do a good job in the first division, It remains to be seen if he can continue to progress next year.

super_furry

Pigman II wrote:

Fair play to McCarthy. Always rated him as a manager. Wish he was still managing us now tbh.

Couldn't agree more. I expect him to keep them up next seasont too.

Xterminator

First up credit where credit is due.

Mick has managed to take up sunderland on a shoestring budget, after losing all his experienced players! And they will probably be Div1 champs too!

So thats gonna look good an the cv Mick! Well done.

But I think he (and the board) have some hard choices. Do they give the players who got them up a crack at the premiership, which they have proabbly earned, or does Mick replace players like Breen and Steward who may be past their prime?

I thnk your average premiership class defender will have no trouble dealing with Steward, and Breen hasnt the pace to deal with the premiership!

Also i dont know if micks other player posess the class to compete? Players like Dean Whitehead and George McCartney arent jumping off the teamsheet!

X

WhiteWashMan

now all mick needs is to find another championship side to bring up.
hes good in that division, but i think he cant hack it inthe big boys league.

anyway, ive always hated sunderland, and i hope the get whipped be everyone.
except newcaslte. i hope they beat them

Raskolnikov

Congrats to Mick, he's done a lot with very little. He's really going to be up against it next season though. Take a look at the Sunderland squad and then compare it to the Fulham, Portsmouth or Southampton squads, there's a definite quality gap there already. Unless Sunderland get at least 5 premier league quality players, they're going down.

Third_Echelon

I'm not Gary Breen's biggest fan for obvious reasons, but he got in the Championship Team of the season...

Did he get better or something????

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/4475213.stm

BBC Sport wrote:

PFA Championship team of season:
Kelvin Davis (Ipswich)
Graham Alexander (Preston)
Tom Huddlestone (Derby)
Gary Breen (Sunderland)
George McCartney (Sunderland)
Jimmy Bullard (Wigan)
Steve Sidwell (Reading)
Julio Arca (Sunderland)
Inigo Idiakez (Derby)
Nathan Ellington (Wigan)
Jason Roberts (Wigan)

Draupnir

Quote:

Shearer and Bellamy (obviously a past partnership),
Kanoute and Defoe/Keane,
Drogba with Duff and Robben,
Crouch and Philips.
Cole and Vassell

I dont think you quite understand what I mean. I saw Sunderland earlier in the year against Derby so I know what Im saying. The only partnership in your list remotely similar is Crouch and Phillips, and they arent exactly that great.

In the game versus Derby and in 95% of their matches this year, they relied heavily on a long ball pumped into the channels to a big forward. That was their only attacking plan. Ya might remember the ball from Ireland -v- Germany WC2002.

While it has worked quite well in the Championship and will of course work sometimes at a higher level, I think that the quality of Premiership defending will snuff it out. Any decent research into Sunderland will bring the following conclusions:

1. There will be a constant stream of long balls into the channels for the big striker to knock down or hold up.

2. Sunderland are quite badly organised at the back on set pieces.

3. If it wasnt for Julio Arca, Sunderland would be about 10th in the Championship this year.

I think McCarthy has a half decent team, he needs 2 good centre backs. He should be looking at the likes of David Weir at Everton imo. He also needs a good right winger and a decent defensive midfield pairing. They looked alright elsewhere, at least from my reading of their games this year.

MrJoeSoap

One red and white team replaces another eh? White flag time me thinks...

Johnny_the_fox

Draupnir wrote:

3. If it wasnt for Julio Arca, Sunderland would be about 10th in the Championship this year.

well, following sunderland over the seasons..

Arca.. hasnt been as good as he was last season. maybe because he adds the spark to the team... makes him stand out.

it has been down to mccarthy's formation/tactical changes which has won him games.. on numerous occasions he has changed the front 2 which won games.

during the start of the season (august) he win 2 / draw 2 and loss 3.. It wasnt until November that things looked good for sunderland.