Optimism's the way forward this season - View from the North Stand

2:47pm Friday 8th August 2008

RIGHT, I'm going to be optimistic this season.

At the end of last season, I refused to get carried away with our manager's vow to take the club to the next level.

In fact, my words were: "...like it or not, we're still going to be fishing from the same ponds as the bottom sides for a while yet. With all this talk about Sunderland pushing on to the next level, it sounds great and I'm genuinely excited about it. But fans need a reality check..."

If I'd returned from my summer break a month ago, I'd have been saying "I told you so," while warning of a tough season ahead with a small squad.

I was starting to lose faith with Roy Keane, there were no movements on transfers, other clubs were signing players that we could or should have gone for - I was hating pre-season and dreading the visit of Liverpool.

Then there was this claptrap story about us signing four players from Tottenham. I said that I'd be happy with one of them - Tainio - and did not expect in my wildest dreams to see the other three.

We were being used by their agents to engineer a move to another club, probably Everton or Aston Villa, or even Portsmouth.

Then we go and sign three of them. Chimbonda, Tainio, Malbranque. Not just bit part players from Spurs, these boys were big hitters. Add to that the signing of El Hadji Diouf and I was on Cloud Nine.

I wasn't convinced by Keane's promise of the next level, but his ambition clearly rubbed off on these players. All four of them have played European football in the last two years. All four have played in the Premier League and have a decent amount of appearances under their belts.

It's completely foreign for Sunderland to make such signings. How dare they?

The modern Sunderland supporter is well-versed in defeat. He deals well with rejection, he rather relishes the underdog status, the only sniff of Europe would be a package holiday to the Costa del Sol.

He sees potential in utter carthorses. Because he knows no better.

There's no way around it. The four signings are faultless. Yes, you can point to Diouf's history of being fond of parting with his saliva, but that was a few years ago. He went to Bolton and has since been a model player.

Malbranque missed one game last season. Tainio has won trophies at every club he's played at. Chimbonda wears gloves in the Autumn. When did we ever have a player that wore gloves in the Winter?

I walked into a bar in Sunderland in December in my donkey jacket. Some fella looked at me and said: "Haway soft lad, lose the coat." The bouncers had frost bite.

And another thing, we don't know what good football is. Two or more passes is a flowing move. Two or more touches by a player is a surging run. A Cruyff turn is always bound to go wrong. An overhead kick rarely lands shorter than Fulwell.

We've set our stall on industrious, tidy, solid football. Difficult to break down, take our chances, defend the lead. We stayed up with as much luck as industry. Creativity and magic had nothing to do with it.

The average Sunderland fan is happiest in adversity. When we got to second place in the 2000-2001 season, at least 200 fans staged a sit-in protest. Well, call it a protest, they were more rigid with shock.

I may be overplaying our status as a small club, but in recent years - certainly as long as I've been around - we've had precious little to applaud.

So, optimism it is then. Europe, anybody?

I love the first weeks back after the close season. A few fans go down to training, to see the players run up and down without touching a football.

In some ways, it's like the first day back at school used to be after the six-weeks' holidays.

Your best mate is two inches taller, one's got a beard. The fat kid lost all his weight but is still known as the fat kid. One lad's voice has gone so low that when he speaks, the blackboard shakes. One lad's voice has gone so high that hounds gather at the school gates.

Pre-season friendlies are initially confusing. I spent ten minutes of the Sporting Lisbon game wondering who the thin, dynamite-like midfielder was playing for us. It turned out to be Kieran Richardson.

Anthony Stokes and Daryl Murphy have had their highlights re-done. Roy O'Donovan looked like he'd come straight from borstal with his crew cut.

Nyron Nosworthy scored. I'm still in shock.

Luckily there were no trialists to confuse us.

Back in the day, when I used to cover non-league football, the team I was watching had so many trialists that they had to use two sets of the home kit. A team sheet was supplied with names and shirt numbers, but it descended into farce when I realised there were two number eights, two number 12s and oddly, three number nines. I put my pen down and went home.

Eating Out