It feels even more frustrating that when we have such an exciting manager and a few of the younger players seem to have kicked on, that Venkys simultaneously have doubled down on their budget cutting to the point that we arent going to be competitive over 46 games. The team under Tomasson could have been but the squad isnt. This "situation" over in India seems all very peculiar to me. Its never been explicitly explained, the owners havent had the decency to clarify and those underneath still seem in the dark trying to maintain the image of everyone working together in full understanding but with very little answers. It seems from the meeting that its almost accepted that Tomasson will leave when he can.

I think to get Sunderland into the play offs last season was a little more of an achievement than is implied. They went up through the play offs and a start of 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses prior to his arrival hardly was him riding the crest of a wave. It was an excellent achievement especially without his main striker. Sunderland are in a position where they can afford a gamble as of course Mowbray has his limitations and even if the next appointment backfires, its not as if they will get sucked in to a scrap. Their recruitment has not been the best, all done above the managers head similar to here it seems. Total focus on signing projects and dismissing more practical needs for experience amongst it, lots of misfiring young strikers signed. As you touch on, there will be clubs at this level that would benefit from appointing him. Safe pair of hands and a steady manager.

Not surprised that Mowbray has been sacked with the set up there but I do think its quite harsh. He has done a good job, to get them into the play offs last season was a good achievement. The manager has little autonomy there and they seem keen to strip away any experience and have lumbered him with loads of random signings from abroad, the majority of whom are crap. It seems to be the way forward, data obsessed analysts helping to assemble young, technical squads with lots of gambles but not much glueing it together. It does seem similar to when he left here. He is a 3 or a 4 on a dice. To get promoted you need a 5 or 6 with a team like at Rovers or Sunderland. We rolled our dice successfully but the benefits of us upgrading the manager are offset by the accompaniment of severe budget cuts. They dont seem to have owners that are so disinterested and hell bent on cost cutting but it remains to seen where they will pluck the new manager from. That being said, they are in a good position in a poor league to take a gamble and build on the foundations set by Mowbray.

Its absolutely crazy. There should be a cap, more games should be at 3pm. By all means keep 2 for super sunday, show any games that are midweek. Then maybe one on Saturday. Not the vast majority.

I dont think anyone will bid for him especially off the back of 3 months out injured when he has 6 months on his deal. And the owners wont be willing to allow him another deal if he is a high earner, they clearly only care about saving money.

I dont think we will get a fee. But with all the budget cuts and him being almost certainly the highest earner, he will be off and replaced internally.

Its a depressing read. It sounds like Venkys have just totally washed their hands of us and it is genuinely up in the air whether day to day bills are paid.

Interesting to see Rashford get some deserved criticism at the weekend. He has the odd patch of incredible form but also many spells where not only is he ineffective but he totally downs tools. He did it during the Ronaldo days and the Pogba days but the focus was elsewhere. He doesnt deserve to be in the England squad considering the alternatives barring a massive change. Not one we would want in the trenches.

Absolutely crazy how few games will be on Saturdays at 3pm.

VAR is inevitable.

Not good enough against the bottom side and we got what we deserved. Obviously the second Wednesday goal was dodgy and VAR would have intervened but the general performance was below par and for me the main issue was obviously the total lack of options available to us. We used the least players in the league and then to the frustration of the manager have come into this season even less prepared than last. We needed to change things, Leonard followed up a good performance midweek with a totally anonymous one, we can't expect him to perform repeatedly 2 times a week, Moran was really poor and I don't like Brittain as a winger, in attacking areas you don't have much time and he always takes one or two too many touches to set himself. Yet we had nothing on the poorest subs bench I have ever seen, and we had to just persist. Telalovic eventually came on and looks like a competition winner. Worryingly, it seems like none are going to be back soon so with such few options being repeatedly flogged, maybe more casualties are inevitable.

Now Sigurdsson is injured. That bench is totally pointless.

Hes never played repeated senior football and broke down before the last international break because of it. Plus we dont have any reasonable alternative to change it up if he is struggling/we would want something different alongside/instead of him.

Its a big ask expecting him to play repeated back to back 90 minutes though.

It doesnt sit right that we have millionaire/billionaire owners yet fans who already struggle to pay inflated ticket prices are being asked to fund stadium developments in a less than average affluent area of the UK. Being unaware would fit in with the general disinterest they have towards the club but they wouldnt fund it anyway, especially amidst the budget cuts.

Dolan out for 8 weeks. Such good form with absolutely nothing to rotate with both in game and between games surely will catch us up.

The proactivity regarding consultation and fan involvement is definitely a positive. A club run by wealthy owners seeing if the supporters will fund stadium renovations is disgusting and indefensible.

Tomasson said last week that none bar maybe Scott Wharton are close. He said hopefully one or two over christmas.

Even then, a loan deal was blocked on deadline day by the owners even after Buckley went back. So it will take a change to manage that.

I doubt it would be that detailed a response. Seemingly just a case of we arent putting any more money in.

I havent written him off though. I dont think hes ready to be the main striker at a Championship side, he clearly is talented and has plenty of promise. Physically, his injury recently was put down by Tomasson to not being used to regular football at this level. If I said he is shit or will never make it here, then youd have more of a point. Rankin Costello was different. I think most had written him off including Tomasson hence why he was about to be let go, at least on loan. His form since was remarkable.

The worry is that it doesnt seem like any bar maybe Scott Wharton will be back soon.

I am unsure if it was me or someone else but I dont think saying he wasnt Championship standard is writing him off. He had never started a senior game before this season. Hes clearly got something about him, his movement is very clever but even after yesterdays excellent performance, im not sure still youd want him as your first choice just because hes still so young and is quite raw. Far from writing him off, just that hes at the very start of his development as a first teamer. The Telalovic situation is not very similar to Szmodics who had started a few games prior to a one game dip into the reserves. The potential to sign a forward will likely be removed by our terrible owners but if it was possible, unless Ennis or Telalovic do something that changes things between now and January, we need one. He doesnt ever want to bring on Telalovic which says alot and Ennis is never fit. We cant not sign players for fears of blocking pathways. We need options in attack, maybe we could loan Telalovic out.

Crowd funding stadium improvements would be yet another low of the Venkys reign.

Absolutely. You look at the bench, Duru, Atcheson and Gamble would never have come on and Markanday and Telalovic were very unlikely to. So that just left Sigurdsson and Leonard really, and if Dolan's injury is anything serious then thats likely another kid to be included that wont be used. Travis I think will be banned at the weekend. We will need to keep flogging the current team and opponents will be able to use 5 subs and we wont.