Sunderland AFC - The Future is Bright?

As I type this, it's been a quite extraordinary transfer window thus far for us, 9 players in who could justify a first team place. In no particular order, Sebastian Larsson, Connor Wickham, John O'Shea, Ji Dong-Won, Keiren Westwood, Ahmed Elmohamady, Wes Brown, Craig Gardner and David Vaughan...Let me just catch my breath. I mean I'd be quite happy to have that as a starting 9+2.

So far things are looking rather upbeat on Wearside, I attended the match against Borussia Mönchengladbach and well it wasn't the greatest spectacle in the world ,partly because I was enjoying the local beer while watching a match (A highly enjoyable thing to do) the support was immense the few hundred that made the trip making amazing noise, I'll put this down to being allowed to stand up and enjoy yourself at the match. Not to mention the Mönchengladbach supporters were friendly and I was lucky enough to hear them singing Sunderland songs on the train home.

All that being said, I was a bit lost as to who was playing where and well....Who was on the pitch at any one time! but all the same was nice to see, Man of the Match for me was Richardson, most impressive new signing was Ji Dong-Won.

But it is a pre-season match and players were just getting their legs back, with games since including against Hartlepool and Darlington and from all accounts a lot of positive things have come from them. Steve Bruce splitting the first team squad over the two games could have been a master stroke, it will help develop the youngsters and also allow game time for all players instead of the odd bit here and there.

This season will be a telling one for the club, there is a wave of optimism that I have never seen before, the fans are expecting much especially from the first home game of the season...

So where should we aim with the 10th place finish last season you would have to say 10th or higher again would be the obvious aim, top 6 seemingly impossible due to incredible spending by those at the top to stay top. We've gone from Yo-yo club to established, clubs that once were established are now looking over their shoulders.

We should aim for 7th place, while personally I would love to be in Europe next year I don't want that trip to cost us in the long run. I could however see a cup run this season, a very well balanced squad so even the typical "weakened" side would still be quite strong. I'd love to see Sunderland at Wembley again...Been a while.

So the season starts away to Liverpool...with their spending which is a bit more lavish than ours but to be fair it included our local lad....They've helped us a lot when you think about it, we have replaced one player with 9. So firstly, Thank you Liverpool.

Does Bruce know his formation? 442? 451? 433? or even his starting 11 already? or is he still undecided?

In goals.... Gordon still injured? the Mignolet or Westwood...Tough choice but lets face it a nice choice to have!

Which central defensive partnership will he go for? we saw in the friendly's mostly Turner and Bramble or Ferdinand and Brown. so most likely these will be rotated through the season? Bardsley or Elmo or O'Shea (when fit) at right back? please not Elmo, personally he is a right winger. He has given away to many silly fouls and well...Penalties to be considered for right back. And it looks like another season without a "real" left back, but at the Mönchengladbach match I saw Richardson put in a great performance at left back. We could do a lot worse.

To the midfield, well your guess is as good as mine there are plenty of options available , Cattermole, Colback, Gardner, Vaughan seem the central options, Larsson, elmo, Sess, or even Vaughan out wide? and again we start a season without a left winger....There is still time

in the window but I feel centrally we are stronger, with Meyler still on his way back we will have back up.

Sess will be one to watch this season, he came good after a few months at the club and he has been setting pre-season a light so far, in fact I stuck a bet on for him to be out club's top scorer at 20/1 I think I got a good deal! Will Bruce play him off the striker or more on the wing?

Up front...Well we have a lot don't we, Gyan is the main man, so are we playing 2 or one up front? Wickham and Dong have been impressive thus far in pre-season so there is competition but grumbles of not enough cover upfront are coming.

Whatever the lineup I don't think there is much reason to complain with the squad that is assembled for the first match. I wont tempt fate with a score prediction. All I will say is that it may be a hard game indeed.

Oh and the next match..THE match...Personally it's too early for a Derby will feel strange. I am personally shocked at the mess the Newcastle camp is in....Even for Newcastle. They've tried to sign so many players and failed, I have laughed a few times.

But I dont want this to turn into mag bashing. All I can say is a win that day could make the squad complete, It's going to be an experience for the new signings. Again not tempting fate with a prediction but lets just say I'll be gutted if we don't win.

So I think I should end this blog here, Optimistic into the new season...a very strange feeling, 7th is amazing, 10th and a semi is as good? Player I'm most looking forward to seeing develop is Ji Dong-Won. he has a lot of buzz about him, from what I saw in Germany he had pace, strength and never gave up on the ball. This could be our season, It has the making's of one to remember for a long time. The future is bright indeed for SAFC.

It's time to rethink...study, work and play.

It's time to rethink, redraw, rewrite and redo pretty much everything. Again I find myself in the same place I was about 13 months ago. No studying, no job, no clue what to do. I look at opportunities in the UK and chances seem very few and extremely far between. You have to be the best to get the average currently it seems. Will businesses take risks on a untrained worker? will they offer to train up someone who is out of school? rarely...Going to university seemed like an opportunity I could no pass up again.

I've finished my first year and well, I seem more lost than when I started, as the year progressed the more I seemed to lose interest. Maybe it was fatigue or maybe deep down I just realise it isn't for me. If you are interested in knowing, I do Journalism, lots of writing rather short pieces that you really have no care for, most of the stories we practiced with made me rather depressed. From Armed robbery to much more gruesome "student kills landlord then turns gun on himself" stories...All fictional but still not going to put a smile on your face.

So now I turn my attention to...Well that's the problem, I don't know. I want to be in the media, I want to write, I want to create...but what?! It may take me some time to write something of worth so what do I do in the meant time? Jobs in the UK seem hard enough to get, being 20 and never worked I dont exactly have a glowing CV to speak of. Perhaps Abroad? the world revolves around money, so do you travel around to work, earning money to pursue your wants and desires? This possibility is available to be luckily, having 2 passports (UK and Australian) I have a easy entry to another place of work.

Anyway I believe that this blog has just been for me rather than for you...sorry...but since I think no one will actually read this then I'm writing for myself...so essentially talking to myself....I should stop that.

Thank you for reading if you did. Hope it was insightful and maybe funny and maybe helps you.

Life Completed, goals achieved. @stephenfry retweeted me

Where on earth do I start? I think England would be a great start, as that's where I'm going to be writing about. News of the week, Sexist commentators and well not important to you but to me It is, I got a retweet from Stephen Fry.

Arguably the biggest story of the week was the sexism row. Andy Grey and Richard Keys had a Gordon Brown moment. Calling into question whether Sian Massey knew what the offside rule was.

Very much what you would hear at any pub around the country. In I've had the pleasure of seeing her with the flag during a Sunderland match. And yes, that exact question was raised by all around, and "She's allowed to change her mind a few times".

The list went on and on. In fact she had a superb game.

Grey and Keys must have thought they were with the lads, but they were not. Slip of the tongue...or numerous slips. Now out of a job, harsh possibly but fair as well.

Now this brings me to Friday. I was sat on the train back from University. I was browsing twitter when I saw an interesting tweet from @RBuxton_LFC saying: "Sian Massey withdraws from officiating another game this weekend. The biggest loser in all this mess isn't Keys or Gray sadly, it's her."

This got me thinking, one why she was getting hounded for doing a perfectly good job. Secondly, who would I like to see take over. Without much hesitation I tweeted "I say the new sky commentators should be @stephenfry and Brian blessed."

Within about a minute I see five retweets, all from people who don't follow me. I refresh and see more, and more and more. But then it all made sense, I scroll down and see @stephenfry in my replies, I rush to his page and see my tweet there...This is the greatest moment of my life I am thinking...and I did feel slightly orgasmic.

Around an hour later I am still getting retweets and replies. Sitting in the hairdressers chair,

phone out just refreshing to see more and more.

Then I see to my shock that "Adam Brown, @mackemab is now trending in United Kingdom http://trendsmap.com/gb" I cannot help but think to myself "I am famous, this is what it feels like to be known. I like this." and there were also tweets saying I was trending in London, and later I received one from Manchester.

Now...this was and still is all a bit strange to me, I was famous for about three hours. Since everyone has their "15 minutes of fame" I fear the rest of my life may be boring as I had 12 times that!

Anyway, it was however sad it may be the greatest moment of my life thus far, a man I look up and too and admire greatly retweeted me, this also sparked a question and realisation that.

I how ever short it may have been, made Stephen Fry laugh. I'm afraid just the thought of it makes me feel all fizzy inside. Anyway Life is now complete.

You can't always get what you want?

Sometimes in life things just "aren't meant to be" sure you aim a bit too high, bit too far. But you realise these were rather stupid aspirations "I want a be a dog when I grow up" was my favourite, slightly out of my reach sadly It seem's a much easier life.

Sometimes you are scared to reach out to even attempt these dreams or ambitions in case you fail, a sort of "I wont get there...lets just leave it at that and not waste anyone's time" I understand exactly how you feel/felt because thats exactly how I feel. I have wanted to do so many things in my life, I've been lucky enough to actually have a shot at some and one I still regret to this day.

Take the one dream that you think is in your reach, what do you have to do to achieve it? Move? get a job to help fund it? travel far to get there? well I say, Do what ever you can do. The joy you will have from the sense of achievement alone should be a major incentive. Imagine waking up in the morning and wanting to go to work, loving your job.

Now I myself as a lover of comedy would not exactly kill but heavily disfigure for a shot at it. TV or film, acting, writing or performing. These are the things that I believe I would love to do, whether or not I could do these is another matter, for the audience to judge, or at this stage those around me.

Writing, or simply getting my thoughts out is one of the only things that keep's me sane. I cannot simply keep my mouth shut, I've tried gaffa tape and super glue to no avail. My mind must have its say, or rather my mouth must say what my mind cannot. Sometimes it is better for me to just keep quiet or at least stop at a certain point. Is this the point to end it now? no, or perhaps yes, I do keep going until the point has left your mind as to what I was referring to in the first place.

I do hope you enjoyed reading this, hopefully it helps you think or at least takes up some of your time when you are bored. I await comments or feedback or anything your want to contribute. @MackemAB on twitter.

FIFA - Money talks?

The envelope was handed to the pointless man on stage, after he rabbited on about some nonsense, he slowly opened the envelope to reveal... "Russia"...To say there was a stunned silence is an understatement, there were the cries of victory and celebration from the Russian side. But around you could hear nothing. This was a shock, a bid that seemed to have been given up on, Vladimir Putin did not attend the ceremony after saying, Citing “unscrupulous competition", this was seen as Russia giving up.

England on the other hand, we sent the big guns, Beckham, Cameron and Prince William...Oh and don't forget Ed, Ed was the part of the bid which I thought brought it back to what the World Cup would do for England. The bid video was aimed at English football around the world, showing many different people in English football shirts, Manchester united, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool were the main names present. I want to know how much input there was from the Premier League or if the bid was just the FA.

But anyway 2018 to Russia...Vodka for all.
The 2022 envelope comes on stage, the candidates: Australia, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, and the United States. Personally, Japan/South Korea was in 2002, I find it hard to understand them bidding for 2022. Was a long shot if I've ever seen one....Speaking of Long shots, Qatar.

1.6 Millions people, it has five of the 12 stadiums already built, but those five stadiums all planned to be expanded. The current capacity of the five venues is 140,000, the total capacity of the 12 stadiums will be approximately 600,000. Alcohol is tolerated to a degree in Qatar, in high end hotels and clubs, not for your average civilian. Alcohol will be allowed in special fan parks, and undoubtedly it will only a certain beer at a high price.

When the World Cup is over, what is going to become of these stadiums? these stadiums that are going to have air conditioning. I'll let you make your own minds up for that.

The envelope is opened revealing the small Middle Eastern nation, the stunned silence from the 2018 result has if anything increased. Now I'm not one who is going to through allegations out there, I'm far too unknown to get any attention, I'll let the media do that! (follow the link below)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9253692.stm

I look forward to seeing what is done in the future about this, time to show FIFA we dont need them? England, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Argentina and France could surely breakaway and create their own federation?

I await your decision and opinion's, comments always welcome!

Just some thoughts.

So the snow has hit Britain well parts of it anyway, the country is already at a standstill. Not exactly the "blitz spirit" is it? (I realise that I am in no position to judge such a time) or as the much popularised poster says "keep calm and carry on", No, We shall not we shall moan and sit at home much as I am doing now.

I mean as I look out my window and see around ten inches of snow piled on my garden I cannot say I envy those who have to go and work, but it saddens me that such a thing like snow can bring the country to a standstill! I would like to see the country just say "right its cold, its miserable but let’s get on with it" But isn't it like that 70% (just a guestimate of the time in Britain? so is this the case of "I like it cold but not this cold" obviously you hear people come back from holiday in Spain in the height of summer and hear "I like it hot but not this hot."

I should move on but since all I can see is snow it is hard too but I shall, and will, just now, ok.

Ireland, Yes I said it, The EU, and I also just said that. Yes you must be infuriated now, I do apologise for this. The bailout is a hot topic this week and for the right reasons, money to Ireland to keep them afloat as part of keeping the entire Euro-Zone afloat. The kicker is Britain, not being in the Euro-zone are funding this bailout. Now yes we feel sorry for Ireland but do we feel sorry to the point of £7 Billion? Hardly.

I felt like I needed to get "this" out and I hope that it has either moved your to disagree to the point you want to write a strongly worded comment, throw your hands up and say "that's my man" and everything in between, Hope you enjoyed.

Home-Grown Quota: Start of something special?

Next season the Premier League will introduce their new “Home-Grown” quota; Home-Grown means that the player was trained for three years under the age of 21 by somebody in the English and Welsh professional system.

At the end of the Transfer window clubs will be required to have a squad named of up to 25 players, 8 of which must be Home-Grown. That gives you 17 players who can be from outside of the system and over 21.

You can have more than 25 players in your squad of course, but at the end of the Transfer season you must submit a list of 25 that abides to the rules above. But above the 25 players outlined you can only have who are Under 21 years of age, further strengthening the call to develop youth.

That’s all you need to know about the Technical side of it, however what really matters is its intent. Many of the top clubs in England have been content on buying players from overseas and shunning the academy system, even though the system could well have saved these clubs a large quantity of money.

Due to the global financial crisis the system has had an increased focus and many teams have turned to their academy for support. This season has been one for the smaller clubs and their academy’s, many under 21’s have stepped up to the plate and competed with the big boys.

Blackburn’s Phil Jones only 18 years old made his senior debut in March at Ewood Park against Title winners Chelsea, His performance was praised by manager Sam Allardyce saying "He made his debut and it was an outstanding performance from the young man, he showed a lot of commitment and a lot of quality and it revved everybody up.” Going on from this he made a further 8 starts for the Rover.

Chris Smalling of Fulham started his career at non-league Maidstone United before being spotted by Fulham, He was made Captain of the reserve side and he has gone on to start 13 games for Fulham this season. Impressing Manchester United scouts as he has agreed a deal that will take him to Old Trafford next season.

Sunderland made two discoveries this season in Jordan Henderson and David Meyler,
both are now key figure’s at the Stadium of Light, Henderson impressed Steve Bruce in pre-season and when Sunderland lost Lee Cattermole to injury Bruce had no hesitation to play Henderson and his faith in the youngster has paid off as he has gone from strength to strength. Meyler, who has been one of the stars for Sunderland in the latter half of the season, has already rewritten record books by covering more ground than any other player in Premier League history - 14 km against Hull City.

These Gems are just the start of what I believe could be the most exciting season yet for young prospects as they get they will get the chance to show off their stuff against the players they look up to and hopefully they can push on and push in to the England national team.