The Sunderland Chronicle
Squad13 Oct 2042
Alex Lienard damages knee ligaments — 100 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 100 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad13 Oct 2042
Words at Sunderland training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Habib Diarra is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad13 Oct 2042
Thomas Mitchell gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad13 Oct 2042
Caden Voice in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sunderland this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings13 Oct 2042
The afternoon belonged to Anas Alaoui
A mark of 7.75, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match11 Oct 2042
Sunderland and Birmingham take a point apiece
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings13 Oct 2042
The one thing Mateus Mané could not do
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Market13 Oct 2042
The Romaine Mundle story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Romaine Mundle signs something — a contract at Sunderland or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings13 Oct 2042
The pass was always on for Benjamin Barnes
Chances created: 7. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
In brief
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Habib Diarra
- Market Thomas Moore placed on the list