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Jordan Ayew is due to captain the Ghana side at this summer's World Cup. It's a guarantee he'll put in a lot more effort for them than he does for us. And when they play England, he'll probably turn into prime Roy Keane..

Sunderland ultimately had a happy ending. They're in a far stronger place than they were 10 years ago, just making up the numbers in the PL and content to finish 17th every year. Dread to think where we might be in 10 years' time - even if we last that long..

As if any of them would come.. 😄😄😄

It was actually Vichai who made him "director of football" and tolerated the numerous f**k-ups he made between the title win and the helicopter crash. But that's no excuse for Aiyawatt to fail to act now. Rudkin has set the tone at this club for far too long and the consequences are clear to see week in, week out.

Obviously the 50m raised from sales in the last transfer window didn't stretch that far..

Nelson and Page were both on the pitch for the whole first half. "Wonderkid" Monga has also had plenty of game time this season. Reality is, none of the academy lads are really ready for Championship football. And this would be the case even with Arteta or Pep as manager.

Cooper and RVN were equally as bad. Maybe even worse, as they had a better squad to work with. The strategy of "trusting the kids" is really bringing results, though..

He's a symptom not the cause. Not his fault Hermansen, Justin, Ndidi, McAteer and El-Khannouss were all moved on after he arrived. Nor that he was given a transfer budget of precisely zero pounds with which to replace them.

I live in a world where Jon Rudkin somehow wormed his way up into a position of "director of football" at a professional football club. He's shown THREE times in the past 18 months or so he doesn't have a clue on how to pick a manager. So there's every chance MC's successor could be worse, not better.

Oh, so THAT's why they were hammered 5-1 by Toulouse tonight..

All very well building a scaffold for this "manager". But he, like Cooper and RVN before him, are symptoms of the club's malaise rather than the cause. Until and unless our absentee owner has the sense to realise he and the club are being bled dry by a parasitical, inadequate "director of football", our decline will continue. But Jon Rufkin is given a free pass by way too much of our fan base - even on here - because many see him as "one of our own".

This the same Aluko who didn't even last half an hour on his debut? Lot of anger about this result, and rightly so, but the fault lies with a hierarchy who gutted the squad in the summer and thought (wrongly) that kids could step up to replace them. Still waiting for evidence that ANY of Jon Rudkin's academy products are good enough to wear the shirt.

Too right. Remember folk in our fan base (and not that old either) wanting him dead for the "crime" of seeking a move to a bigger club. All because certain people (hi Rudkin) weren't honest enough to tell us we were in deep financial doo-doo and desperately needed that move to happen.

It can't be said often enough. Cifuentes is a symptom, not a cause of the current malaise at City. If we had the same squad now that we had when he arrived, we'd be comfortably in the Championship top six. Instead, Rudkin flogged a shedload of players and hoped the academy lads, plus a couple of loanees, would be able to cover the shortfall. Except, Jordan James apart, they're not. As a result, Seagrave has become even more toxic, because senior players know neither the squad or manager are good enough to achieve promotion. So the likes of Winks, Soumaré and Faes - three of the highest paid players in this league - sit idle for months. As both Ruben Amorim and Enzo Maresca have found in recent days, creating a "bomb squad" at a club brings dire consequences, especially when overseen by directors of football installed or promoted way beyond their ability. TL:DR Sacking Cifuentes to bring in yet ANOTHER dud (the fourth in a row) would be a monumental waste of time, money and effort.

Whatever side Cifuentes picks, let's hope he treats the Cup far more seriously than he did last season. Neither he nor (far more importantly) the club can afford defeat in this game.

The same Mavididi that set up our winner?

They do, but still somehow won 3-0 at the swamp earlier in the season. Hope the hammers can pull off a similar result this time around.

Yet another Rudkin puppet? Is that REALLY something to look forward to? Especially as we'll probably be gazumped for James and Fatawu will be flogged to the highest bidder after the World Cup. Then we'll REALLY have a team to whinge about, especially as NONE of Rudkin's academy kids are really all that..

Charlton away comes to mind. The same two players saved us then too!

There's NEVER any excuse to quote a story from the S*n. Some of us remember when that publication tried to smear half the City squad as rapists. It's no friend of ours (or of football, ask any Scouser), never has been nor ever will be.

Of course, such folk never, ever, EVER post on here.. 😄😄😄

There are quite a few folk on here who wouldn't be guaranteed to pass Key Stage 1.. Plenty of other issues to challenge the happy-clappies on..

Still been covering the club's heavy losses in recent times, when other owners might have looked to pull the plug. Though he could have made more effort to enquire how such losses were incurred in the first place..

Ermm.. Aiyawatt and King Power do that too - and have done so ever since they took over the club, fifteen years ago. That's part of the reason why the majority of our fanbase still give them the benefit of the doubt. Regarding the incident last night, the individual/group attacked need to put in a formal complaint to the club - with copies being sent to local media. Herlihy and co. have occupied the moral high ground ever since the episode at Norwich last month (for which UFS, unfairly or otherwise, are currently being blamed). Fans need to act to reclaim this territory, otherwise Rudkin and Herlihy will stay in their posts for life.🤮

But at that time we were also getting regular 30k+ crowds for the first time in decades. That gave us an advantage over the rest of the league. Thousands have walked away from the club in recent months. Doubt many of them will return while Aiyawatt and Rudkin remain in charge..