The Fish

I thought the J in J69 was short for "Jesus he goes on about pinball machines a lot for a grown man...69"

Nah, he's too old to be a Jordan. I thought Keith, or Barry, but probably too young?

Merry Christmas Grant* * I don't know your real name, but you seem like a Grant, or maybe a Karl

I guess you'd know, you should be the expert on what it feels like to be a cunt.

When was the last time we had 3 consecutive home draws in the cup?

Incognito mode baby.

Doesn't feel like my normal anxiety stuff, which tends to be more self-depractive and "YOU ARE DOOMED, SUNSHINE!". This is more like an itch I can't scratch. A while ago when I had a bad spell the therapist said I've also got a touch of mild OCD, which this could be. Things seeming off, I've certainly not noticed it as much when I'm doing the routine day-to-day shit I need to get done.

No, but Breakfasts have been a nightmare, I keep going for cereal, but open the cutlery drawer and

All excellent suggestions, but nope. I've always found this time of year tough on the old noggin, but this feels disquieting, rather than depression.

Yeah, even tried a hard reset (went out and got drunk with a mate), but yeah it's just this unnerving sense that something's up. As if I've forgotten something important, or I'm about to get in trouble for something, or whatever. It's really fucking unsettling.

Putz

I'd recommend going back to re-read it again there, PL.

I do not know what, in the blue hell, you are talking about.

infinitely higher than John O'Shea leading Sunderland to Carling Cup glory, let along Champions League glory.

Same.

Ever feel that everything is just a little askew? Last couple of days, everything has just felt a little off. Like, food doesn't taste right, conversations have felt stilted, can't get comfortable in chairs or the bed.

Once a Geordie, always a Geordie. #SpeshulRelayshunship

They're in good form. Conceded 1 goal in the last 6 PL games and that was against Man City. They've beaten Leeds, Wolves, Everton and West Ham, all by at least 2 goals. Although their form has significantly improved, their underlying performance metrics haven't significantly improved. They're still giving up good chances and their opponents have been very wasteful, The Wolves game for example, Leicester won 4-0, but they only took 5 shots, and scored with all 4 that hit the target. They only created 0.9xG so it's not even like they carved open absolute sitters, and they gave up 2.1xGA yet didn't concede at all. Home to Leeds, they again created little, less than their opponents, and yet somehow ran out 2-0 winners. Guess I'm saying it'll be a 0-0, but we'll have deserved to win.

It's the conviction of 'Probably thinking'. It's not a possibility, it's a probability.

Is that their anthem? Wise Men? I'm absolutely convinced I've heard it elsewhere, for ages. Wiki says;

There has to be reasonable Sunderland fans out there somewhere, right? They can't all be fully paid up members of the RTG FTM crowd, right? I've a Sunderland supporting mate and while he began quite level headed about it, the better we do, the more he's referencing the clichés you find on there; blood money bought success, Saudis will go off and buy Man Utd, Player X would never sign->only signed for blood money->won't be very good -> clearly has no morals and will be off the minute the bubble bursts, etcetera.

Absolutely. I don't believe that the owners are going to stop investing or that they expected us to be where we are both in terms of league position and overall quality. Shrewd additions to the squad now must be made with an eye on the next 3,5,10 seasons in mind. We don't have to splurge it all now. Tielemans would be a good addition, but I don't think he solves the defensive midfield position. Personally think we'd be better off signing an out and out DM like Edson Alvarez, but acknowledge the price could be prohibitive. If we end up 5th or higher, the standard of players we could attract will rise dramatically. We also won't need to spend as much on wages to convince them to join us. So, I gues what I'm trying to say is that if we sign some fringe players now, and keep our powder dry for the summer, we could end up attracting much, much better players. However if we spend our cash on Tielemans now, we'd likely need to replace him in the next season or two anyway.

I'm sure the FA Cup will be downplayed until the minute we're out, too. Should we finish in the Europa league spots, that'll be a nothing competition, until we leave it, and of course if the unthinkable happens and we qualify for the Champions League, that'll not be as 'proper' a competition as the Papa Johns Trophy. I'm not getting angry at imagined scenarios either, look back through their board and you'll see evidence of the nonsense.