We don’t support an ordinary football club really, do we? Then again, we knew that already. Anyone with any sort of connection to Sunderland AFC can tell you that. During a season, we can experience things that may happen over a period of years at other clubs. We’ve been through it before and we’ll continue to go through it. We are followers of a truly unique club.
After a massively turbulent week at SAFC, I last wrote that Michael Beale needed a win of any kind against Stoke City at the Stadium of Light. He got it. It wasn’t a statement performance, but in the second half we were much the better side. Anthony Patterson kept us in the game in the first period with some big saves. Luke O’Nien cleared one off the line too. It was fantastic to see Mason Burstow finally get off the mark with his first goal. It was a goal we have seldom scored this season. Both Rusyn and Burstow have now broken their ducks in recent weeks, and that can only be a good thing. It will give Burstow such a shot in the arm and he’ll more than likely lead the line at Middlebrough this coming weekend.
I thought we improved after the break, with Jack Clarke back to his marauding best and Abdoullah Ba delivering his most productive performance in a Sunderland shirt, with the Frenchman bagging a goal and claiming two assists. Overall, it was a marked improvement on what we saw last Friday evening. It was also the first time I can recall seeing Michael Beale applaud the home support. A very slight thawing of the ice maybe? Winning games will do that. He asked us to get behind the team, but we always do. This will all probably do little to win over the doubters, me included, but it is a massive step in the right direction. One swallow doesn’t make a summer. All I want is for Sunderland AFC to be a successful football club.
I had actually prepared and written a full piece on Alex Pritchard, the whole contract situation, Kristjaan Speakman’s take on it and how vital a player Pritchard has been in the past and how vital a player he is to the team now. I obviously had to scrap most of my words due to the bombshell statement that the club put out an hour or so before kick off on Saturday. To say I was shocked was an understatement. It never rains but it pours. I can’t really put too much stock into players who don’t want to be at the football club, regardless of who they are. I’ve seen far too many of them to last me a lifetime. Rodwell, Kone, Ndong, Djilobodji. No thanks. I certainly don’t know the ins and outs of what has gone on behind the scenes; clearly something has rankled Pritchard to such a degree that he feels that he needs to leave the club ‘with immediate effect’.
According to reports, Sunderland have only offered him a one year extension. Nick Barnes has stated that the club brought in both Bradley Dack and Jobe Bellingham as they felt that it was a certainty that Pritchard was moving on last summer. Something has clearly been bubbling away under the surface for quite some time. To not want to play is not only unprofessional, but it is probably in breach of contract too, I’m not sure. Maybe someone can help me out on that one? How the club handles it though, remains to be seen, but he has certainly kicked his last ball for SAFC. What a sad way for such a popular player to end a largely fruitful spell at Sunderland.
What comes next is another huge game in the shape of an away trip to Middlesbrough. There is added spice to this one given the relative close proximity of the clubs, but as we know, it is certainly not a derby. We need to take three points. I have always enjoyed doing so, purely because this game matters so much more to them than it does to me. That said, our recent record against them hasn’t been great. That all goes out of the window on Sunday though. We are there to win the game, and to try and collect three massive points that may well get our season back on track. I don’t need to tell Beale and his players how big of a game it is.
It has been another eventful week on Wearside yet again. Rarely do we experience a quiet one these days, and with the transfer deadline edging ever closer, January is sure to reach another action packed ending. We haven’t signed a single player and the fanbase is ravenous for any morsel of positive transfer news. Sunderland still need a left-back, a holding midfielder and an experienced striker. Whether we can get those players through the door in the coming days before the window slams shut is a tough ask. All eyes will be on Beale and Speakman et al to collectively produce the goods. They are under intense scrutiny again for the next few days, for altogether different reasons. You get the feeling the signings that come through the door could make or break the season. As always, we will all be paying very close attention.
