Barclays Premier League 2013/14

Stupid decision from Sunderland. I don't particularly like Di Canio and I reckon his antics are often inappropriate, but it's not like he's suddenly changed over the summer. He's always been like this, and the board knew that when they hired him and the players who signed this summer knew that when he joined. They had a tough start and I can't see the logic of giving a manager a hefty transfer budget and allowing him to bring in an entire backroom staff if you're just going to go and sack him after five games.

The best Di Canio has done for the club is get sacked. The players united in getting him out and will now work together as a group for whoever replaces him.

I think there's more to it than Sunderland just sacking him for bad results.

Yeah i'm with Dutton, something else has gone on behind the scenes

Apparently John O'Shea and Phil Bardsley turned round and said they didn't want to play for him anymore - and the rest of the squad kind of agreed.

Well in that case fuck Sunderland

Tbf I wouldn't want to play for Di Canio, he's a complete arsehole.

But players turning around and saying shit like that is not on imo, i bet if the club said if you don't play you don't get paid then they'd soon have a change of heart.

Aye that's fair - Sunderland always sign dickheads though.

I did indeed. That was his best game in a long time, probably his best since the derby he scored in.

Tbf Bardsley's been out of the squad since being photographed in a casino unconscious and surrounded by £50 notes.

His reputation has got them some better players than some other managers would have gotten them. Good bit of work from Sunderland really but a little gutted to see him not given more time

I find it hard to believe that Phil Bardsley has enough leverage at Sunderland to get the manager fired.

It's more John O'Shea, the captain, and the influence he may or may not have on the dressing room.

Di Canio might have been a bit of a loose cannon but the Sunderland players are coming across as a bit precious. We don't know for sure what has happened behind the scenes but it sounds like they're pissed off with having to work a bit too hard and their manager criticizing them in the press. They're getting paid tens of thousands of pounds a week and are playing like shit, they deserve to be slated.

Sunerland players are just pissed off that they were all replaced with new, better signings

Didn't Bramble get the PFA involved in a fairly minor dispute when he was leaving on a free transfer anyway?

Probably, the big raping cunt.

They probably are a bit precious. They're highly paid professional footballers.

Still doesn't excuse Di Canio's man management which, although cathartic, just seems like its always going to breed a poisonous atmosphere where players are motivated by fear rather than anything else. It's very old fashioned ideas of discipline over anything approaching motivational management.

He'd probably go full Roman and kill 1 in every 10 in his squad if he'd have been able to get away with it.

Decimation! That'd show those overpaid little twats who's boss!

De Fanti or whoever thought out Sunderland's transfer policy this summer has done extremely well to avoid any criticism in the press today. They're all strategy seems to be on offloading Bardsley, Cattermole etc., it's not surprising other football clubs don't want overpaid Sunderland rejects. Instead they sold Sessegnon and Mignolet, therefore (along with Rose) they have gotten rid of three of their four best players and replaced them focusing more on quantity than quality.



Well, that's just not true. Di Canio has been relying on the old guard.

Westwood, Colback, O'Shea, Brown, Celustka, Johnson, Ki, Gardner, Fletcher, Borini/Altidore is probably his favoured line up.

Roberge and Diakite have filled in at CB, and Mavrias has came off the bench a couple of times, none of the other signings have played. Except Cabral who has already been ostracised. Di Canio went into game one of the season with Larsson and Cabral as his midfield duo, they have both been ostracised by gameweek 5, and neither were in the matchday squad.

There's a reason other managers very rarely criticise players in public. Totally takes the heat of Di Canio as well, by criticising mistakes, it totally exonerates himself from the equation. The players aren't going to play for him either, if he really was how he's been portrayed.



Fucking hell

Not seen a Sunderland game this year but how has Giaccherini been. He seemed like a good signing at the time

Most Sunderland fans I know rate him highly. But they do that with any half decent player - some still believe O'Shea is better than Coloccini.

Scored in their draw at Southampton, returned at the weekend after missing two, subbed off at half-time.

He has the potential to be a decent player but as said, their recruitment policy has been primarily scattergun. Certainly, Altidore is not a good replacement for Sessegnon, for example.

He's a good little player, though I don't see Sunderland being the right fit for him in the long run. He's not really nailed down a solid position the last few years either, floating all across the midfield for both Juve and the Azzurri.

He added: "It's true that I watch every single game in the league - 90 minutes. I take my time to study and to learn other strikers' movements and to learn about other defenders. I take my time.

"Really I want to be one of the best in this league so you can only learn from the best by watching the best. After training I go home and record every game. I have a satellite and I just watch the games.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11671/8937230/romelu-lukaku-focused-on-making-the-most-of-everton-opportunity

Lukaku

He is the dogs bollocks.

No idea why Chelsea let him go out on loan. I'd take him over all three of their strikers right now.

So would I. The reason being used is he wanted 1st team and not rotation what he would have got at us. I think the plan was not to let him go but when the Ba deals fell though on deadline day that we could not have 4 strikers and he was easiest to get out