The Sunderland Chronicle
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
Pressure builds in the Sunderland boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market20 Aug 2029
Kevin Colli asks to leave Sunderland
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match18 Aug 2029
4 matches without a win for Sunderland
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sunderland are no longer polite ones.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Tempers go at Sunderland
Abdoullah Ba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Abdoullah Ba runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
One of those days for Omar Alderete
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Robin Roefs 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.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Wilson Isidor in the eights
A performance of 8.52 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Kevin Colli wants to go home
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sunderland know it.
In brief
- Match Sunderland share the spoils with Blackburn Rovers
- Market Sunderland buy the years ahead of Simon Atkinson
- Market A long bet from Sunderland on John Collins