Rak-Sakyi is becoming the new Luca Toni. I think that's three windows now he's been speculated as a potential incoming.

You might catch him for an hour or so if you watch the reserves regularly. Otherwise you might have to pop down to the physio room to get a glimpse of him.

If it's a loan with option to buy then it still ties in with the info that we have zero money to spend on permanent fees. For whatever reason it's alright to spend £500k on a loan fee for four months though 🤷‍♂️ if we assume the ITK tidbits to be more or less accurate then we basically cancelled the permanent deal last night, renegotiated this morning for a loan-to-buy which Orlando accepted on the basis £500k over 4 months is a decent enough deal, and if we make it permanent (we won't, but if) then they get more than they would have initially. One would surmise from this that they are quite desperate to get McGuire off their books to do other business, otherwise they would have just said "lol, no thanks" and if no better offer was forthcoming asked him to return.

If tomorrow doesn't see some major moves on our part I hope JDT tears the owners a new one in the pre-match presser and resigns on the spot. We know they value their supposed pride and that would sting. Won't happen, but, if only.

Budget slashed in the summer, the club decaying at a rapid rate in all areas, best young talent in years sold for £22m with £0 allowed to be spent in replacements anywhere on the pitch as we head into a relegation scrap. "Imagine if Venkys weren't here" Gladly.

I mean, they choose who to employ and are responsible for the competency of those employed, so it's their fault regardless of how you view the situation.

Hard to know what to say. I've said it all before over the past 13 years and it's just more of the same. If this is all true and all non-free transfers are cancelled, with McGuire's transfer cancelled as he's halfway across the atlantic to sign for us, JDT and Broughton need to consider what this is doing to their reputations at this point. It's Waggott's last payday so he'll be here until the bitter end, but anyone with any semblance of ambition or pride in where they work, who they work for and what their work represents would surely resign at this point.

At 17 I'd seen the legends of the 90s play for us, and was watching the likes of Cole, Yorke, Jansen (pre-injury), Duff, Dunn, Big Brad, Tugay and Berg regularly lacing up their boots for us, with Souey as manager. I had Hughes' tenure to look forward to with MGP, Santa Cruz, Benni Mac, Bentley, Nelsen, Samba and various other decent players pulling on our shirt. Incomparable to the present day.

Jeez, this has been a lot to catch up on having not checked the thread since yesterday... Having turned 37 yesterday it smarts to see all the comments about 37 being ancient 😂 although of course in football terms it's very much end-of-career territory. The frustrating thing about the McFadz deal is that it likely wouldn't be necessary if we'd been allowed to sign Batth on a free in the summer - Sunderland's previous player of the season and many years younger than McFadz. But anyway, it is what it is and I guess we'll see how he contributes over the next few months. I know nothing about McGuire but the fee being suggested is decent money for a Championship level striker at a non-parachute payment club. Would be expected to hit the ground running and make an instant impact. Risky but we'll have to hope this striker signing is finally the one they get right. At some point by pure chance alone we have to get one right, don't we?

I'm sure all of those who are close to Vince know exactly what he's about - although probably not to the absolute depths the lawsuit describes. Triple H gave a shitty answer from a PR perspective at the RR presser by claiming he hadn't read the suit and just wanted to "focus on the positives". I figured he'd have something smarter than that to say. Cody did a much better job with his answer. I haven't watched WWE for a while, but I did watch the Rumble. Women's match was really good. I thought it was paced well, did a good job interweaving storylines throughout, had some nice surprise entrants and there wasn't any definitive favourite to win the match. I thought they'd go with Jade, but I'm cool with Bayley as well. Fatal four way was a good match but it's obvious Roman isn't dropping the belt before WM, so a bit pointless really. Can't believe they're still doing the Bloodline screwjob finishes. Talk about overdoing something. Logan Paul and Kevin Owens was pretty decent. Not much more to say than that. The men's rumble was utterly boring to me. Nothing particularly interesting happened throughout, the winner was obviously going to be Cody, other than Andrade (meh) and McAfee (eliminated himself after 38 seconds) there were no surprise entrants and no legends. Last year's rumble was really boring to me, and this one was as well. The current roster simply doesn't have the star power and charisma of previous generations. Also some really questionable late entry choices. Ricochet at #28? Sami Zayn as #30? Right, okay. I did read that the original plan was for Lesnar to be there, but that got nixed after last week's revelations. I'm not sure his appearance changes the dynamic of the match much though - we've seen it before with Lesnar. Anyway, yeah... to use a Gen Z term, the men's rumble was very "mid" from my perspective.

It goes without saying the full suit is beyond grim and a horrific read. I'd recommend listening to the 'Behind the Bastards' six-parter on Vince - it leaves me with little doubt that a significant amount of what is alleged is most likely true. For balance, though, let's just note what is demonstrably true beyond what would be considered reasonable doubt at this point. Vince hired this woman on the basis on an affair he was having with her. Vince gave her a made-up job at WWE and used company funds to pay her, even though the sole reason for her being hired was the affair in question - or at the very least the potential for it to begin, depending on timelines. Considering the woman's financial circumstances, there was unquestionably a severely imbalanced power-dynamic within their personal and professional relationship. Vince used company funds to give this woman multiple gifts. When suspicions grew beyond a point where Vince was comfortable, he used company funds to sign this woman to an unfair and likely illegal NDA - one of many - and much like the others this was not declared on WWE financial statements at the time. Vince did not honour the terms of said NDA and stopped payments after only paying roughly a third of what he promised (hence the current escalation). Putting aside everything else, as horrible as the allegations are, this was all known before Vince returned to power. All of this was as clear as daylight the first time Vince left the company, and therefore TKO would have known full-well who they were getting into bed with when they brokered a deal with Vince to buy the company and gave him a contract which allowed him to not only return to said company, but make it so that the only way he could leave would be if he was to die, become incapacitated or voluntarily resign. TKO prioritised a business deal over the many lives Vince has ruined, and for that, fuck them. It's not a surprise in corporate America - and let's not forget it was WWE's biggest sponsor making threats this time around that forced action, just as it was with Snickers and Moolah - but nonetheless, fuck TKO. Their hands are dirty on this too. They named Vince very clearly as a future liability to the brand in financial statements, so they knew what they were getting into. As far as the text messages are concerned, there's little reason to doubt their validity as it is incomprehensiable that they would be submitted as evidence unless the woman's lawyer had pretty concrete proof that they were legitimate. All they show is that Vince has some pretty sick domination fantasies, though, so those will come down to interpretation. Similarly the recounting of various disgusting events portrayed in the suit will be a matter of circumstancial evidence and personal belief. Considering this is a man who once proposed an incest angle with his own children amongst other gross ideas, I would consider them extremely plausible, but purely in the interests of balance I'll withhold judgement and stick to what can be ascertained as 99% likely to be true - which is mostly information that was known about before the latest accusations were released. Then we get to who else was involved or knew about what was going on. There's a lot of focus right now on Triple H and Stephanie. I find it unlikely that either would have known anything about the text messages, and nor do I believe Vince was actually going around showing pictures and videos of this woman to everybody. It's impossible to imagine this being so, as there are a lot of people in the company who would have been smart enough to distance themselves as far from that situation and indeed the company itself as possible, as it would have been obvious such a thing would be a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and engulf them all in the aftermath. I would guess that when Vince mentioned this in his text messages, it was a way of exercising control over the woman, making her feel further worthless and powerless. I'm sure there were some very close to him that knew and had seen the videos and images, but I don't think it went much beyond that. Assuming the former UFC fighter named in the suit and the WSJ article is indeed Brock Lesnar, then we can safely assume he was aware and involved on some level, and there is likely some evidence via text messages to back that up. Nobody should be surprised that Brock is a piece of shit, though - plenty of evidence to back that up historically. In terms of the three names that keep coming up outside of the obvious - Pritchard, Dunn, etc - Triple H, Stephanie and Nick Khan - again, I don't think any of them are stupid enough to continue to be involved in any capacity with Vince if aware of the true extent of the allegations. At the very least I would say it's plausible H and Stephanie were involved in ensuring people stayed quiet about rumours and speculation, and I'm sure they knew Vince was having affairs, but until further information emerges to the contrary I don't think either are dumb enough to have willingly been a part of any serious cover up for misdeeds beyond that. Nick Khan would also have had too much to lose to be majorly involved in this in any way. I would imagine he had a strictly business relationship with Vince, although it is obviously worth noting that all three would have been aware of exactly who they were dealing with and what he was capable of and had done in the past. That can be said for a lot of people who have worked with Vince historically though - including the biggest stars in the business like Cena, Rock, Roman, Stone Cold, Undertaker - so it's a question of where you draw the line in terms of what was acceptable for them to prioritise for financial gain over other people suffering. I'm not going to make that judgement, but the discourse will be out there for sure. With Vince resigning, he's surely now gone for good. Even if this goes away with a settlement or Vince somehow gets it dismissed, I cannot fathom a scenario where TKO allows Vince back into the company. Unlike before, he no longer has shareholder majority so without the contract TKO gave him he has no power with which to stage a return. He's effectively done and his legacy is permanently tarnished within WWE alongside his reputation in general, which will surely be ruined by this. A fitting end for, in my view, an evil and sadistic human being - but it doesn't do much to help those whose lives he's trashed over the decades.

Pretty much my strategy on FM tbf.

Many on here did, but I never got the impression the wider fanbase wanted him sacked. From memory the only time he ever got any serious grief at Ewood was during one of the death spirals in 2019 (I think?) and straight afterwards TM came out and chastised the fans for being ungrateful and told them to remember it isn't 1995 anymore. Barely a murmur of discontent after that despite numerous death spirals going forward. I genuinely think if you polled the general fanbase as to whether they'd have Mowbray back it would be resoundingly in favour. The flags that used to get waved with his face on at the tunnel are probably kept in storage somewhere awaiting the day of his return.

It's the same at pretty much all of the clubs he's managed to be fair. Even those fanbases who agreed it was time for him to go still hold him in high regard as a person. His 'working class, man of the people' persona evidently resonates with a lot of supporters. I think we were in a somewhat unique position with Mowbray as this is the only club he's been at where his decisions and results had no impact on whether he'd remain in post or not. That inevitably causes some resentment to build up within what's left of the more ambitious sections of the fanbase, but we're in a situation now where many of our fans feel like this is our level and are grateful to be in the Championship, so as long as Mowbray kept us in a decent position he was alright. For our younger fans he was also the only manager to ever bring any actual success in their time of supporting the club, albeit a promotion from a league we should never have been in.

Indeed so! Millwall - Gary Rowett > Joe Edwards Stoke - Alex Neil > Steven Schumacher Birmingham - John Eustace > Wayne Rooney > Tony Mowbray Huddersfield - Neil Warnock > Darren Moore QPR - Gareth Ainsworth > Marti Cifuentes Sheffield Wednesday - Xisco Munoz > Danny Rohl Rotherham - Matt Taylor > Leam Richardson Three of the four teams now above us have also changed managers. Swansea - Michael Duff > Luke Williams Plymouth - Steven Schumacher > Ian Foster (enforced change due to SS leaving for Stoke) Bristol City - Nigel Pearson > Liam Manning From 13th downwards, only JDT and Erol Bulut of Cardiff remain in post since the start of the season, but Bulut has said after Cardiff's defeat today that he will consider leaving if he isn't backed with signings in this window. "From my side I can tell you that some things have to change. If not, [it is] not possible to continue like that," he told BBC Radio Wales Sport. When asked, 'what has to change?' he replied: "Everything." Bulut says he will have discussions with the Cardiff board and seek assurances signings are coming, but says the Bluebirds will struggle without reinforcements. "I will speak to the board clearly about everything that has to change," he said. "We now have two weeks until the next game and I think from now everything can change. "I don't know about signings. I spoke about that. We are too late with many things. "We tried to change many things, but alone you cannot do nothing. "So we have to make many changes and if this is not changing, we will have big problems until the end of the season. "Everyone knows (we need players), I know it, the board knows it, the fans know it, all of us, we know it. "We have worked hard to come to this position… until now we've only been three points off the play-offs, but now we cannot speak about the play-offs, now we must speak about different things. "If we don't get signings? We will have to fight with what we have, but we will have hard weeks and months in front of us." Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Anyway, should Bulut depart Cardiff then that would leave JDT as the only manager still in charge from the start of the season of all teams from 13th downwards.

To be honest it feels like it's dying pretty quickly now. A rapid fall down the league, a manager who is fed up and unsuited for a relegation battle with a poor squad, a team without confidence or motivation, owners who are relying on court orders to fund the club, loaning out first teamers just to free up wage budget, filling the squad with youngsters who aren't ready, three transfer windows in a row where the team has been weakened... we're speeding towards the edge of a cliff.

Rubbish, again. We're in big trouble and I have no idea where the next win is coming from. The team look bereft of confidence or motivation, and we clearly either have an issue with training or general physio work, as our players repeatedly get serious injuries. How long before Gallagher and/or JRC pick up yet another knock? With no help on the horizon in this window we can only hope the clubs in the bottom three don't pick up enough points to catch up. If it's the usual tally to stay up this season I wouldn't be confident we'd get there.

It's now been 12 games since we've kept a clean sheet - 25th November away to Stoke.

That was basically what most Sunderland fans were saying, factor in they also had affection for Mowbray and it makes it even worse that they have binned him for an unpopular choice who doesn't seem to be an upgrade in any obvious way.

Tbf they wanted him gone from the moment he was announced, he was a hugely unpopular choice from the get go.

City will make it a war of attrition with lawyers and legal challenges. Uefa didn't have the stomach or deep enough pockets for it, and I doubt the FA will either. It'll quietly go away at some point with a fine and a slap on the wrist, as the financial rules continue to morph to only benefit the already wealthy clubs.

I genuinely thought he'd leave after the amateur-hour debacle last January, most likely in the summer after we missed out on the playoffs. Have to admit I'm also surprised he's still here. Fair play to him for sticking it out, but it's obvious to everyone now that this isn't getting and won't get any better. You have to think it can only be professional pride keeping him here.

Assuming this window goes as badly as the last two, it'll be three windows in a row where he's watched the side stagnate or get weaker whilst he's been here. At some point he'll get tired of pushing the boulder up a hill that continues to get steeper and leave. You'd think he'll have to consider his reputation at some point, particularly considering our current form and the amount of goals we're conceding. As an inexperienced manager he needs help, and he doesn't have any.

For what it's worth I don't think people would necessarily prefer administration to Venky's selling the club, a lot of people probably just see it as the only realistic way of the current owners ever departing. There have been many times when you'd have expected them to entertain a sale - when we were relegated from the PL, when we had cashflow problems in 2015, when we got relegated in 2016/17, and now with the current problems - but they have never even hinted they are interested in selling and from what we've heard from people who did attempt to make offers of either part or complete ownership some years ago, outright rejected any advances. So, I think it's mainly down to administration being the most realistic option to force them out of the club. I assume pretty much everyone would, ideally, prefer to avoid administration if it was at all possible.

Would be a poor signing that doesn't address our primary issue of leaking goals to the point where we're the worst in the division for it. Unless we're planning to do something radical and play him at centre-back. Or maybe in goal, would probably be better than Leo at this point.