2025/26 David Moyes

[Jokerdan]

The Great Moyesiah isn't against nurturing and bringing on young talent. His priority was to secure Premiership football a.s.a.p. without the fear of relegation hanging over our heads - especially in our first season at BMD - so utilised those more experienced players to do so rather than drop youngsters into what may have become a s*** fest like the last few seasons. Next season will be much more different when we get to see a wholly different and more youthful side who have had that bit more time to develop.

Caveat: Well, that's what I want to believe but we know it isn't going to happen though. Is it?

 

[Username.]

The Great Moyesiah isn't against nurturing and bringing on young talent. His priority was to secure Premiership football a.s.a.p. without the fear of relegation hanging over our heads - especially in our first season at BMD - so utilised those more experienced players to do so rather than drop youngsters into what may have become a s*** fest like the last few seasons. Next season will be much more different when we get to see a wholly different and more youthful side who have had that bit more time to develop.

Caveat: Well, that's what I want to believe but we know it isn't going to happen though. Is it?

People need to stop talking about relegation, it was never an issue, Sunderland have come from the championship and storm through to Europe next season. The more this dinosaur taps you on the head the more you will believe him.

 

[Rooney_Tunes]

People need to stop talking about relegation, it was never an issue, Sunderland have come from the championship and storm through to Europe next season. The more this dinosaur taps you on the head the more you will believe him.

Is he still here?

 

[toffeeblue9]

It’s not really the same is it, as Leicester won the league and Sunderland finished 7th..

Use whatever yardstick you like, being satisfied with 13th, especially where we were, just isn’t good enough.

Right, I get it, but using a team who've had an unusually good season isn't a yardstick. Teams could be saying when we finished 4th that it was a disgraceful season that we finished below them, etc.

There's no shortage of seasons where a team you'd have expected to be near the bottom has done much better than expected. Just because you finish below that team doesn't make it a terrible performance.

I'd say in isolation that finishing 13th which represents no progress on the year before, along with only achieving one point more than the previous season is enough to say it wasn't really acceptable. I agree with your sentiment, just not your reference point.

 

[JLW]

Theres more chance of relegation with Moyes than there is with Glasner or Iraola!

But ok were safer with Moyes hahahah

 

[Dwight K Schrute]

OUT!!!!

(pleeaaassseee )

 

[Username.]

Is he still here?

I think we are going to have to get the SAS in to get him out.

 

[Marcus Kendall]

We lose the league cup to rubbish EFL sides every year so I don't see why we would turn our nose up on this cup we could realistically win

We don't lose to EFL sides we lose to rubbish Premier League sides. I wouldn't turn my nose up to a European trophy I'm just saying after watching both finals the standard of opposition is muck

 

[jazzy]

The Great Moyesiah isn't against nurturing and bringing on young talent. His priority was to secure Premiership football a.s.a.p. without the fear of relegation hanging over our heads - especially in our first season at BMD - so utilised those more experienced players to do so rather than drop youngsters into what may have become a s*** fest like the last few seasons. Next season will be much more different when we get to see a wholly different and more youthful side who have had that bit more time to develop.

Caveat: Well, that's what I want to believe but we know it isn't going to happen though. Is it?

If you're right about that Dan then how do you explain Moyes not utilising young players when a. We were safe from relegation and b. When we had no chance of either going down or getting into Europe?

Moyes is Moyes , leopards don't change their spots. Moyes never develop young players.

 

[Marcus Kendall]

It's not that really, it's just that the money involved in the PL means this is now a much, much stronger league than the others. The Europa League had the teams that finished 3rd in Serie A, 3rd and 4th in Ligue 1, 5th in La Liga, 4th in the Bundesliga, the champions of Portugal etc, that's not a bad standard at all in theory.

Theory maybe but my eyes told me the level is really bad which is a common theme in modern football in general

 

[Efcjake]

@bicycleheader back from a lengthy ban post derby reaction.

As I said earlier in this thread months ago, he can go if he doesn't finish top half.

I thought things were looking promising but the run we went on after that Chelsea match has been horrific and he's done himself no favours.

Thanks for the season and a half from me but I am absolutely ready to move on.

I see that the Angus Kinnear thread is finally getting the attention it deserves. There are BIG QUESTIONS over that summer recruitment for me.

Everyone who hates Moyes wants to lay it at his feet but there were many other people who need to answer for those signing choices imo.

 

[Lanolin]

Theory maybe but my eyes told me the level is really bad which is a common theme in modern football in general

I'm not sure I agree with the whole 'modern football is a poor level' argument to be honest. It's different obviously, but I'm not sure it's worse, and let's be honest literally every generation in history has argued that it was better in the old days. The point is though, these are still very good teams in the context of the current world of football, we can't really ask teams to travel back into the past to play teams we deem to be of the right quality, you can only beat what's in front of you and facing teams who are finishing in the top 4 in the big 5 leagues is the level you'd always have expected to face in the second tier of European competition. It's probably worth remembering that UCD, Inter Bratislava, Fortuna Sittard and Rapid Vienna aren't exactly European powerhouses.

 

[LinekersLegs]

The rest are all on holiday. He’ll be watching a lot of potential signings to be fair.

If there isn’t anything to do I’d much rather he spent it relaxing with his family, eating healthy and getting exercise rather than doing tv spots and going out to dinner in New York every night. He is 63 and being a manager is a stressful job at any age.

But I don’t think there is nothing to do, I think the fact we didn’t win a game in the last two months means there should be serious work done on improving our tactics and having a “Plan B” in games.

As a pundit he’ll also be watching a lot of players he will neither have a chance to buy nor play against and if he needs to watch them he can as easily do it on a tv at his own home rather than a studio. How many of our targets are at the tournament, I don’t think we really have that kind of money or appeal after our 13th place finish.

I don’t think he’ll even see any of the players at training camps, the two teams he is most likely to be doing any detailed reporting on are Scotland and England who are based in North Carolina and Kansas respectively.

The ones we genuinely do have as potential signings he should be working together with his recruitment team on all aspects of scouting such as data analytics and video analysis rather than complicating coordination by being in a different timezone. Our recruitment was hardly spectacular last year, spending even less time on it this year would seem to be unwise.

 

[OlDirtyBluenose]

Really want him gone now and Iraola or Gasner in, would do wonders for enthusiasm levels going into the summer window and next season.

Won't happen though and I'll be gutted when they go elsewhere and we miss yet another opportunity to kick on.

 

[Gwladysstreetlad]

He hasn't improved us at all. It is complete BS to pretend that he has. This season we finished 13th on 49 points. Last season we finished the 13th in the table with 48 points. In 23-24 without the points deduction we'd have finished 12th with (you guessed it!) 48 points! We keep finishing around 12th/13th because that's our level and all we'll ever be with negative cowards like Moyes and Dyche. The only difference between this season and the two that came before is that we've done slightly worse in the cups!