The Inevitable Summer Transfer Market Topic

[The Quasi Juice]

The 6+5 rule would suck for the Premier Division obviously, especially for the likes of Man City and Chelsea. However, it would be a good rule for teams from smaller countries like The Netherlands, because imagine Ajax still having Sneijder, Van der Vaart, Heitinga etc... Ajax would be a much more significant player in the Champions League, now it's just all about money.

[The Kraig]

Holy fuck! Sky Sports News have just announced that Roberto Mancini is interested in the Sunderland job!

Mancini says he's has an offer, and he sounds delighted and very interested according to the fax they got from Sky Italia.

In terms of players they're linking Fabregas with Barcelona, yet again. And Tevez with Man City.

Edited May 31, 2009 by The Kraig

[IAceI]

Yeah we've been going after Rijkaard and the lot as well. But I think Rijkaard will be holding out if Ancelotti doesn't go to Chelsea it's probably his for the taking.

Regardless we'll probably just get Steve Bruce instead.

[The Kraig]

Yeah. Bruce is the definitely the safe choice. But I'd love to see Mancini on a regular basis. All of these Italian managers are great to watch.

[IAceI]

Problem is, we go with Bruce. We've appointed a Newcastle fan and can be accused of lacking ambition, which would be a very fair point. If today we were to announce Bruce as manager, I'd expect a year or two out of him and a few gems out of Bolivia, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala whatever, they'd probably do quite well and hopefully help us keep our Premiership status again. Which is what I want to see, if we can have a year where we aren't considered to be in the relegation dog fight, then that's a big step forward and then lets improve after that. But Bruce isn't gonna stick around too long before he wants something new.

Mancini, if he was to be announced as manager the whole of Sunderland would be euphoric. Every fan would be brimming with confidence and lauding our chairman and owner for showing the ambition that matches the fans' and expecting a great season which we'd all be anticipating. Imagine it, Mancini in charge of Sunderland. It's something years and years ago we could never have imagined, but the money is there. Throw it at him to get him to join, and then we can expect him to make some good signings - proven signings, Short won't have to worry about his money being wasted this year like it was by panic-buying and managerial-inexperience of Roy Keane last year.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for a Mancini or Riijkard, hell, even an Adrieense.

But I fully expect a Bruce or Strachan.

Guess it's just the slight pessimist inside of me.

[Crybaby Bunting]

The funny thing is that all of these managers linked to the Premier League would do well in a team like Chelsea on their own.

Looks like the Premiership might end up being 20 teams run by billionaires with world class managers... not that that's a bad thing

[Matt]

Why the hell would Mancini want to go to Sunderland... if Sunderland become as naive as Newcastle fans, I'm going to cry.

[IAceI]

Because we have a lot of money?

[Matt]

Didn't he turn down Chelsea before now? Besides that, you're still Sunderland, the team that came 16th this year. I seriously doubt that Mancini is going to Sunderland any time soon. Strachan would be a good pick up, as would Bruce, to expect much better is naive.

[The Quasi Juice]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for a Mancini or Riijkard, hell, even an Adrieense.

But I fully expect a Bruce or Strachan.

Guess it's just the slight pessimist inside of me.

I assume you mean Co Adriaanse. He received offers from both Ajax and AZ in the last month or so and he declined both. He wants to enjoy life to the fullest and so he's taking time off and he might never return again to coaching

[METALMAN]

I honestly don't understand what the problem with Strachan is. I think he'd be a fantastic manager for Sunderland. When he took over at Southampton they were in a very similar position to Sunderland now - perhaps even worse - and he made them top half contenders, got them to the cup final and as a result into Europe. I think if Sunderland fans think they are too good for Strachan they are deluding themselves.

If anything, Strachan is too good for Sunderland.

[IAceI]

He makes players run over people with studs on. We need more people like that.

And yeah, Matt, read my post. I said I expect us to get Strachan or Bruce, I'm not expecting us to get Mancini. But it's something to show some ambition, and hell, if Sky are telling the truth - and that's more likely than some papers People/Sun/Daily whatevers then fair enough.

Kraig do you have a source or anything for it? Would be interested to read it.

We should have made a good go at Jol, but he went to Ajax before we could even move. With the kind of money in the Premiership it's not uncommon to see a successful European manager to come to a not-as-good Premiership side because of the competitiveness of the league. Plus most managers will want to at least manage in the Premiership once because it's a good test to see how good they really are. Obviously even if we were to get someone like Mancini, there's always the chance he could do a Ramos. Hell, we could get Ramos who was terrible at Spurs in the Premiership but be fantastic for us, but obviously he isn't going to leave Real since they didn't actually do terribly this year. Even though they didn't win the league they played a phenomenal Barca side close in the league.

I seriously doubt Mancini will come to us, but to scoff at it and think its completely out of the realm of possibility is a bit preamture. Just happy to see Quinn sticking to his word, as he often does, and taking his time and really trying to bring in someone who can move the club forward leaps and bounds.

We've been strongly linked with Rijkaard and Bilic, so why not Mancini as well?

EDIT: Also pretty sure we ruled out Strachan pretty quickly from what Sunderland said. Then again I haven't actually heard Sunderland say they are 100% talking to Bruce, Wigan said we were allowed and they wanted £5m and then £3m for him. But all the talks been done by Dave Whelan, which doesn't shock me. Not saying we haven't been speaking to him, but since Sbragia stepped down Sunderland haven't actually said much in regards to negotiations with managers. Just that they're reviewing and speaking to numerous candidates.

SECOND EDIT: Got it Kraigy.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11695_5356110,00.html

For anyone whose remotely interested, or not. Or skeptical. Or whatever.

Edited May 31, 2009 by IAceI

[TheRossWalker]

Why the hell would Mancini want to go to Sunderland... if Sunderland become as naive as Newcastle fans, I'm going to cry.

From a Leeds fan.

[IAceI]

Why the hell would Mancini want to go to Sunderland... if Sunderland become as naive as Newcastle fans, I'm going to cry.

From a Leeds fan.

..from a Newcastle fan?

[METALMAN]

Why the hell would Mancini want to go to Sunderland... if Sunderland become as naive as Newcastle fans, I'm going to cry.

From a Leeds fan.

..from a Newcastle fan?

from a Sunderland fan?

Edited May 31, 2009 by metalman

[Matt]

Why the hell would Mancini want to go to Sunderland... if Sunderland become as naive as Newcastle fans, I'm going to cry.

From a Leeds fan.

Except I'm not one of the minority "BATES IS KILLING US RARGH WE NEED TO INVEST 20 MILLION THIS SUMMER AND GET BACK TO BACK PROMOTIONS WINNING BOTH LEAGUES BY JANUARY" fans.

[IAceI]

We're not deluded. We just want to have the success that Newcastle and Leeds once had so when we become rubbish again we can dream of the glory days and pretend we're still that good.

Missing out on UEFA Cup on goal difference is all I have at the minute, and losing to Millwall in the FA Cup Semi Finals

[Crybaby Bunting]

To be fair, it's not as if Sunderland are a dead cert to go down next year. They've stayed up for the past two seasons and will probably end up being a mid-table team next year.

Plus they have money, and to a guy who'll probably get a £30m transfer kitty anywhere else this looks like a great job.

Then again he might only be 'interested' in the job until Portsmouth offer him a contract... and Pompey are apparently far richer than Sunderland.

[9 to 5]

Well, they did have the best manager Britain has probably seen at the time.

Bob Paisley never managed Aberdeen

Paisley isn't even the best Scottish manager of all time.

[Matt]

I wouldn't say Moyes is the best Scottish manager of all time, not yet.