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Well the New Year has arrived, giving struggling teams at the bottom of the Premier League a fresh attempt of redemption and another chance to change their season for the better. People have said to me I should be happy, after all we have already beaten our record breaking total of 15 points with half a season to spare, maybe they are right, but then again after spending £35m in the summer maybe we should be expecting slightly more?
Trips to Ewood Park are never easy, especially when you consider our poor away form this season, and when combined with our clueless back four and an in-form Roque Santa Cruz, we definitely had the recipe for a good hiding. However things don't always go to plan in football and we managed to produce an uplifting performance which unfortunately offered little in the way of points.
What's most important about the New Year for Sunderland is the January transfer window, Keane now has the opportunity to bring in some quality players. And by quality I mean top of the range Premier League clientele, not Manchester United rejects and certainly not anyone plying their trade in the Championship. Keane has already boobed this season, spending most of his £35m on players unable to perform in the Premier League.
Last night's result or performance for that matter isn't the reason for my concern, we are now at a crossroads in our season, Keane can either invest properly and remove the dead wood or he can put faith in his current crop of players by buying no-one considerably better and condemning us to our third consecutive relegation in the Premier League. The players have given their all and their effort cannot be questioned, but I'm one of those people who believe effort should not be praised as it is the minimum requirement of a professional footballer, therefore we need to overcome this sympathetic hurdle and become brutal in order to survive.
Roy Keane has been a revelation for Sunderland and I will not condemn the man who has, and continues to rebuild my club. He isn't stupid and knows things need to be done, some of the players we have in our team are perfect squad players, however when you rely on them week in week out you start to encounter problems, so come on down Dwight Yorke. Last night he once again proved why he should be sat on an Australian beach easing his way into retirement instead of trying to keep up with the pace and quality of the Premier League.
Yorke apparently acts as an experienced head on the field, yet in the space of five minutes he recklessly hauled down Matt Derbyshire then his replacement David Dunn to give Rob Styles no choice but to send him off.
His challenges were unnecessary and poor by anyones standards and hopefully this act of stupidity will finally show Keane that even Yorke's intelligence has gone, making him an invisible figure and a pointless part of our squad.
What happens in January will make or break our season, cliche maybe but it's true. As as for the FA Cup on Saturday, tradition or not I refuse to pay £18 to watch Sunderland reserves versus Wigan reserves and will be hoping our name isn't in Sunday's draw. You can accuse me of ignoring the romance of the cup all you like, but there's nothing romantic about playing at Plymouth and Burnley next year, we're never going to win it, therefore the sooner we get out of it the better.
Come May we need to be in the Premier League, not preparing for another year of poor quality football, flagging attendances and erratic results in the league we love to call the Championship.
James Henderson
ALS
Trips to Ewood Park are never easy, especially when you consider our poor away form this season, and when combined with our clueless back four and an in-form Roque Santa Cruz, we definitely had the recipe for a good hiding. However things don't always go to plan in football and we managed to produce an uplifting performance which unfortunately offered little in the way of points.
What's most important about the New Year for Sunderland is the January transfer window, Keane now has the opportunity to bring in some quality players. And by quality I mean top of the range Premier League clientele, not Manchester United rejects and certainly not anyone plying their trade in the Championship. Keane has already boobed this season, spending most of his £35m on players unable to perform in the Premier League.
Last night's result or performance for that matter isn't the reason for my concern, we are now at a crossroads in our season, Keane can either invest properly and remove the dead wood or he can put faith in his current crop of players by buying no-one considerably better and condemning us to our third consecutive relegation in the Premier League. The players have given their all and their effort cannot be questioned, but I'm one of those people who believe effort should not be praised as it is the minimum requirement of a professional footballer, therefore we need to overcome this sympathetic hurdle and become brutal in order to survive.
Roy Keane has been a revelation for Sunderland and I will not condemn the man who has, and continues to rebuild my club. He isn't stupid and knows things need to be done, some of the players we have in our team are perfect squad players, however when you rely on them week in week out you start to encounter problems, so come on down Dwight Yorke. Last night he once again proved why he should be sat on an Australian beach easing his way into retirement instead of trying to keep up with the pace and quality of the Premier League.
Yorke apparently acts as an experienced head on the field, yet in the space of five minutes he recklessly hauled down Matt Derbyshire then his replacement David Dunn to give Rob Styles no choice but to send him off.
His challenges were unnecessary and poor by anyones standards and hopefully this act of stupidity will finally show Keane that even Yorke's intelligence has gone, making him an invisible figure and a pointless part of our squad.
What happens in January will make or break our season, cliche maybe but it's true. As as for the FA Cup on Saturday, tradition or not I refuse to pay £18 to watch Sunderland reserves versus Wigan reserves and will be hoping our name isn't in Sunday's draw. You can accuse me of ignoring the romance of the cup all you like, but there's nothing romantic about playing at Plymouth and Burnley next year, we're never going to win it, therefore the sooner we get out of it the better.
Come May we need to be in the Premier League, not preparing for another year of poor quality football, flagging attendances and erratic results in the league we love to call the Championship.
James Henderson
ALS