Greetings,
Roker Report
Once more, this week’s collective collapse among our followers was caused by reading too much into a recent social media post by Amad—or rather, the absence of a recent social media post by Amad.
Sunderland fan pages posted compilation videos of him playing for us within an hour of his social media accounts seemingly being deactivated. The captions implied that this cryptic online behavior clearly meant he wanted out of Manchester United and that he was desperate to return to Sunderland.
This is completely nonsensical for a number of reasons, but I’ll address those later.
It comes out that during the month of Ramadan, he had deleted his social media accounts due to religious concerns, and in hisAfter clarifying this, he seemed irritated at having to defend his actions—possibly to harrassing Sunderland supporters.
Several of our followers have even come out in the wake of this article to say that the person in the photo isn’t actually him.
The theory that someone hacked his account to reveal details of a social media hiatus centered on spirituality seems more plausible to some people than the theory that he isn’t nearly as eager to leave the biggest football team in the world to sign with a squad that is now twelfth in the Championship.
This is utterly ridiculous, and the kind of thing I would expect from Year Nines after their first breakup, not from responsible adults acting like this toward a player we borrowed for a few months.
Not very long ago, Manchester United spent a hefty sum of money for him. Due to the intense fan base he has on social media, they won’t be selling him to a championship club for a steep loss.
the truth that he felt comfortable here.
Top level teams in France, Italy, Spain, England, and France would be interested in him and may offer us enormous wage packages and transfer fees. That is, if United wanted to sell him, which they haven’t indicated at any time thus far.
Some would question, “What about another loan deal?” as they continue to cling to thin air. Rather than sending him to a level where he has already proven himself, what does his parent club stand to gain by letting him play out the remaining year of his contract?
You never fall in love with a loan player because of this.
The adage “no player is bigger than the club” is often said, so maybe we should start behaving like it. Amad has left and is not returning. It’s about time for our fans to start accepting it.
Editor’s Note [Phil]: Hello, Matt. I appreciate your letter.
In regards to the continuing Amad love-in that a lot of our fans seem to be engrossed in, I genuinely couldn’t agree with you more.
He was excellent for us—the best loan signing I’ve ever seen at Sunderland, in fact—and he contributed greatly to the 2022–2023 campaign, but there was never a chance that he would come back.
Honestly, I’ve always thought it was a mistake to prioritize Amad’s return in January since he wouldn’t have been able to resolve the numerous problems we’re currently experiencing, and I doubt he would have found playing for Mike Dodds or Michael Beale especially appealing.
Nevertheless, Manchester United decides to utilize
Greetings, Roker Report
I apologize, but firing Tony Mowbray wasn’t a bad move.
It was one of many, in my opinion, completely absurd and unbelievable judgments taken by Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.
My father, who spent almost his entire career working in the pit, used to tell me that a team should include of both young and experienced players to balance out the experience and youth. He also implied that Mowbray should be fired for his apparent attempt to enforce this rule.
I was thrilled to witness our team play fast, attractive football for the first time in a long time, and commentators were praising our way of playing. But the ruling class chose to destroy that notion as if it were an error and return us to the dark ages.
We’ve had almost twenty-two managers in twenty-two years, according to something I recently read. We’ll never win anything with such numbers, I’m sorry.
Speakman and Dreyfus must leave right away and turn over control of the club to a knowledgeable individual.
Robinson Ernie
Phil’s Note from Ed: Hello, Ernie. I appreciate you reaching out to me.
In my opinion, Tony Mowbray is missed, especially in light of the events that have transpired since his departure.
We had a head coach in Mogga with stature, reputation, experience, and the capacity to mentor and develop our young players. I do believe that some of the players haven’t really moved on from his leaving based on what we’ve seen in the aftermath of his departure.
Though Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus will have to live with the choice, I do wonder if there are one or two regrets given the turmoil that has surrounded the club since Mowbray left.
After six straight losses, we should expect to be nervous for our upcoming home game.
If we can defeat QPR and earn three points, that will allay our fears, but nothing is certain.
Considering those six games, I’m sure we anticipated winning the first two, but following those defeats and Michael Beale’s dismissal, our confidence in winning the next four games was greatly diminished.
But our poor attitude throughout all four games—especially in the first half—was what really caught my attention. Mike Dodds must take responsibility for that and make the necessary corrections going forward.
It was important that the crowd really got behind the squad as we started to go for Leicester after we made the replacements.
and it was incredible how supportive and noisy the terraces were.
On Saturday, we have to create that vibe straight away, and Dodds has to make the proper decisions about our playing style and team composition.
Although we can’t immediately start playing well in the sixty-minute mark, I believe we’ll be alright if Dodds and the players maintain their composure.
Regarding the upcoming campaign, we are counting on Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman to select the best head coach and bring in some players that can greatly strengthen our team, ideally including a goal scorer.
Greetings, Roker Report
Not only was the decision to fire Tony Mowbray one of the worst decisions we have ever made, but we also traded our most inventive player to the person we fired.
We are currently paying for such a careless action. Now that relegation is a real possibility, we’ll be fortunate to win one more game this year.
I hope the owner is very delighted, as is his buddy.
Editor’s Note [Phil]: Hello, Phil. I appreciate your letter.
In my opinion, we should have been able to retain both Mowbray and Alex Pritchard, even though the latter hasn’t exactly made waves at Birmingham City following his untidy departure from the Stadium of Light.
We still don’t really have a long-term substitute for him in his position, and I still think he would have been a major contributor for us in the second half of the season. Hopefully, it will change shortly.