- 5 months ago
Connor Bromley joins James Copley to discuss Sunderland's thumping 3-0 win over West Ham in the Premier League.
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00:00hello welcome to the raw podcast brought to you by the sondland echo my name's james copley and
00:22i'm delighted to be joined by my old mate connor bromley for a raw podcast debut connor how you
00:28doing mate i'm good i'm glad to be making a debut what a time to make a debut after a special weekend
00:35it's something i know it's uh it's not bad is it and i think we worked out the other days and it's
00:39about seven or eight years since we've been on a podcast together yeah i would guess that our last
00:46podcast together would either be uh the wolves final day of the championship season or possibly
00:53the fulham away game which was second last so that's what yeah end of the 2018 season so pretty
01:01long time since uh me and you have blessed the airways with our presence together i don't think
01:07anybody will remember us together on the old roger report podcast anymore i think like with that old
01:11now that i think it's just it's gone by the wayside hasn't it and there's so many good podcasts around
01:16now that i don't think anybody really remembers us no i don't think so it's funny at wembley i was
01:21sat next to a kid and he must be about 15 years old and when we won the game he was like i can't
01:27believe something not going to be in the premier league i just that's never happened and i was like
01:31god that really puts it in respect of how long ago it was that we were doing our podcast because
01:36that kid would have been like seven probably never been in the state of a light and now he's
01:4015 buzzing at wembley to be in the premier league and like it's pretty much an adult i mean it's
01:45mad isn't it because we we started featuring on that roger report podcast when sunland had just been
01:50relegated to the championship and we were studying at the university of sutherland at the time as well
01:55both doing sports journalism under neil farrington having a great time but at the beginning of that
02:00season we never thought we'd get relegated to league one never mind spend four seasons there like the
02:07stuff that's happened in those seven eight years is is crazy playoff final losses you know
02:12heartbreak semi-final losses it's it's been it's been some journey hasn't it yeah and i felt that on
02:19saturday as you know what it is i'm getting like uh i say a little bit older i mean i'm only 31 it's
02:24like i'm an old man but it's i've got a little bit older and when i grew up something like pretty good
02:29largely like growing up as a kid they were in the championship they've been promoted but on saturday
02:33i felt like a bit of a wave of emotion more so than i even felt in the playoff final that like
02:37god like that journey we've been through and like even on like a personal level for me you know you
02:41you do rope report stuff you work for the club you come out you get made redundant and covid the club's at
02:47its lowest point when i was there i don't know if i take blame for that but they were at the lowest
02:51end i don't think you can take any blame for that i think a couple of other people that can
02:57probably maybe i didn't help but uh they're at the lowest end though you know we were seeing
03:03sunland in you know i remember like even being buzzing about scoring last minute winners away at
03:09rochdale and stuff yeah yeah you know positive memories but you know last minute winners at
03:14rochdale who are now in the national league morgan who nearly went out of business who only played
03:18there three or four years ago to see where the club is now it's it's it's mental and you can't
03:23help but feel that tinge of emotion on saturday when ready to go is blasting as the players come out and
03:28the stadium's full and it's a sunny day and we've got players like granite shaka you know donning the
03:34beautiful red and white stripes it's like absolutely bonkers to think where we even were three or four
03:39years ago to where we are now no absolutely we'll come on at the west hand game connor but i wanted
03:45to talk you know a little bit about that period that you that you had at sutherland association
03:50football club i don't think people will be too familiar with the history but you actually got a
03:55job your dream job you know working in the media team what was that like and then the disappointment
04:01of it coming to an end and i really felt for you at the time you know watching from afar it seemed like
04:06such a a bad situation obviously the club wasn't doing too well as a as a fan it must have been
04:12hard professionally it must have been hard but you've you've done okay since so it's sort of all's
04:16well that ends well yeah to be fair i don't think it was um the right sort of fit for me i didn't really
04:23didn't love that sort of job not to make this into like a fuller's what was me thing i did enjoy
04:29being in there but behind the curtain when this is like the thing that you love this is yeah yeah you'll
04:34have it covering sutherland as a journalist as well but when you're behind that curtain and you
04:38see all the interactions you see sort of the things you don't expect to see whether it's squabbles among
04:44players whether it's like you know when ada mcgidi got like dropped from sutherland and stuff and
04:48you're in there and you're seeing these things and you can't talk about the stuff that's going on and
04:53it's it's not great necessarily to have that peel behind the curtain and it's i think sometimes
04:59games on saturday while it would be amazing to obviously be working the game and you know sat in
05:03the press box and stuff and in a lot of ways it's better to be a fan like being a fan yeah
05:07love it you just love it it's your thing you're getting you're buzzing about it you're not worrying
05:12about anything else it's just that's the thing you're doing so i get why people want to do it
05:16like that sort of job yeah it is really really good and i think you know when we were coming
05:20through together we talked about the dream being whether it be work for the club or work and for the
05:25it goes you do that that was the thing we we fantasized about that job that you got to do
05:29and it turns out that at the time it just wasn't what we thought no well i gotta remember i mean it's
05:35like stuart donald charlie methan yeah yeah you know there's a lot of stuff i mean charlie methan
05:41i mean not that i mean i like charlie methan you know controversial and me and him got along pretty
05:47well but my god we used to have some arguments because my views on the world was just so opposite his views on
05:53everything football politics and stuff i mean i remember going to an ashton work in men's club
05:57with charlie methan and when we were walking in the door he was like if my mates knew i was here
06:02right now they would be laughing that's why i struggle with charlie methan because it's a little
06:07bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing situation it's funny you should say that about wanting to be a fan
06:12and stuff because i i do feel like in my job it's an absolute privilege and i love it i love every second
06:17waking up in the morning doesn't actually feel like going to work at times you know love the people
06:22i work with and it is fantastic but i was saying to my friend ken today when i was out walking the
06:27dog that hopefully it doesn't end for a long time but when it does end i am really looking forward to
06:31that first game back as a season ticket holder because that's that'll be the first thing i do
06:35is is go and buy a season ticket and it's hard particularly at times like wembley and coventry at
06:41home when you just want to go absolutely nuts but you can't because you're you're in a you're in a press
06:46box it it is difficult finding that balance isn't it yeah being an alleged professional who can't uh
06:53alleged is that alleged is the right word yeah that's exactly yeah i mean i think it was different
06:59when you work for the club you can wear that a little bit more you know you can yeah yeah yeah
07:02cheer a little bit more when you've got the sunderland badge on but yeah when you're a journalist
07:06it's frowned upon in it to celebrate it is it is a little bit in terms of how it ended for you at
07:12sunderland though i remember listening to chris brown and i i don't know if sort of you felt this
07:17but when he left the club and was told that you had to go obviously he's a southern fan his dad
07:21played for sutherland but he then found it really difficult to to reconnect until years later did you
07:27find that initially or was it just a case of well it's over but the club's still here and i'm still a
07:32fan it's difficult in it i don't know i mean i didn't like feel any sort of uh jealousy that i wasn't
07:39there like i didn't feel like that oh god i should be you know cover although i did a little
07:43bit i remember the league one playoff final connor god who's like a media person at sunderland um
07:48who people probably don't know but i remember he was on the pitch like for the celebrations and i was
07:52like oh you know that actually i suppose could have been me really considering all the things but
07:57no i i slipped back into it quite quickly i i just love sunderland and i've always it's just always
08:03been my thing and i think as well i'm from a newcastle supporting area which and i live in
08:07gatehead now which is pretty actually it's surprising the amount of sunderland fans that
08:11live in gatehead but it is obviously a mag heavy area jason jason jones our our reporter at the
08:16ego lives in gatehead big yeah mattie hewitt who's um chronicle he covers sundown a lot or
08:22he used to be the chronic he covers sundown a lot as well and he lives in gatehead i sometimes see him
08:26at gatehead games but yeah i live in a mag heavy area and that i think intensifies your fandom
08:31done it because i'm having to defend my football club like all the time and most of my friends are
08:38newcastle fans i mean the amount of my friends who even when sundown are signing players now are like
08:43i don't even know who they are and i was like i've just heard of granite jagger mate that's that's it
08:47they're just like oh jagger's a good bit of business that's a that's a wider point in football generally
08:51isn't it i mean i don't know if you listen to the the pundits do their previews but like i listen to
08:56the rest of football's premier league preview they gave something about 90 seconds and they were
09:00just like say something just aren't good enough no analysis no discussion of what they've done
09:05signing young players yeah they're not good enough they'll go down right cool thumbs up i mean that um
09:11the the match of the day analysis from wayne rooney i i thought was good but i just thought
09:16the sheer thing was completely bizarre whether it was supposed to be a joke or not it didn't really
09:20come across that way like for those that haven't watched it he just sort of didn't say anything and
09:25looked quietly fuming when he was asked by mark chapman but i can remember sheerer back in the
09:30day actually giving us a fair amount of credit especially under steve bruce i just i thought
09:34it was weird to be honest but i do think you're right i think a lot of pundits maybe is a sleeping
09:39on us a little bit but that is easy to say after you've just hummed three uh west ham three yeah no
09:45it is and it will be very very different if you know dan ballard doesn't care that chance off the line
09:50and if you know because i was talking my cousin's a leeds fan and he was talking to him today
09:54but obviously they're playing against everton and i'd said to him you know like people talk about
10:00the atmosphere of sunland and leeds like oh that's worth you know extra points over a season i was
10:05like yeah but something at the weekend the atmosphere was incredible it was something go
10:09one nil down in 10 minutes and then i was struggling to get a foothold on the game that atmosphere is a
10:14hindrance it's it's toxic in there it's not nice we've all been at sunland when it's been like that
10:19and ellen road is the same if leeds are losing one or two nil tonight by halftime that crowd is going
10:25to be going bananas because they're expecting to be doing all right so it's funny how football works
10:31now everyone's talking about how amazing the southern atmosphere was i've seen reports where like
10:34you know bbc5 live couldn't hear they couldn't hear the producers yeah yeah the headphones and stuff
10:39and like god you hear so many good stories that make you proud to be a southern fan like yeah you know
10:43what we are absolutely massive and the fan base is awesome and when it's electric like it is it's
10:48class but you've also got a you know factor and it can be a hindrance this season if we're losing
10:53games if we're 2-0 down against brentford after 20 minutes it's not going to be a nice place to be
10:59yeah it's uh it's funny you should say that about ellen road actually because under my god sundland
11:04went there and i covered the game it was nil nil we played like five at the back it was a bit of a
11:09dodgy master class actually and the ellen road crowd because leads were going for promotion at the
11:15time but looking like they were showing the first signs of maybe bottling it and i remember thinking
11:20the crowd that day i was like wow this is bordering on a little bit toxic fast forward
11:26suddenly go there under reggie slabrice we we take the lead but then those two pascal stroke goals the
11:32crowd really stuck with with leads and the team that day and it was a really really good atmosphere
11:39and i think it really helped sort of power them on so it is interesting you say about the crowd
11:44what i would say is that the past like four games or five games really with sundland i think they've
11:50sort of embedded this little bit of belief in the crowd i'd like to think that maybe this team have
11:55earned connor like a little bit of of leeway if things do go slightly south during the season which
12:01let's face it it's probably going to happen isn't it with with sunday being in the premier league
12:04i mean i watched the liverpool bournemouth game and that scared me deeply to be honest because
12:09the quality on display so i think there's going to be tough times but i think hopefully there's a bit
12:13of a connection between the manager the playing staff you know the coaches and the fans now where
12:18they'll get a bit of leeway if they do you know put it in on the field and they do run and they do try
12:22hard yeah and you see um i've seen a lot about the running stats this morning and how something had
12:28like i think it's four of the the top five runners it was obvious on saturday though that like i hate
12:34to say you wanted it more obviously the professional footballers every team wants it a lot but it does
12:40just feel like on saturday you know we wanted that result so much and west ham obviously wanted it as
12:46well but we just looked like we were determined to get something out the game and i i think that
12:52fans can see that you can see if the team's trying even when like you know ranildo there was a point
12:58where he lost the ball on the edge of the box and he's not like worried about it he's just like right
13:02get back in position figure it out make sure you're back in there i think i did it a couple of times
13:07and the fans don't mind that if you take on a man and you lose the ball don't sulk about it just go
13:12back in position and get it i mean i if i'm playing five a side i'll talk about it and i won't get back
13:16in position but i suppose i'm not a professional footballer but this is why they get paid the big
13:20bucks and you can see the difference in quality in the team compared to last season i know you're
13:24playing against better quality teams but that midfield three that sunland have got you on the
13:30that's one game that i don't want to get like two uh i think we're allowed to get carried away for
13:36once yeah just just for once in our entire history we can get a bit carried away
13:40i agree and i think that those three playing together with enzo lafay backing them up and
13:45even you know dan neil i know there's there's issues around dan neil and you know chris riggs
13:49probably not going to play a ton of games this season or certain start but that midfield three
13:53of sadiki diara and xaca that is a scarily built midfield three and the way the recruitment team
14:00has put that together where you've got xaca who covered a lot of yards i mean i know people are like
14:04oh you know he needs the legs around him well he's covering a lot yeah i think he was second or third
14:09wasn't he yeah and then you stick the the pace of sadiki and diara in everything that they bring
14:15it's frightening and that midfield three will get some points this season it helps out defensively
14:21and in the attack as well just the protection they offer i think what's what's really good about that
14:26midfield three is that it's quite finely balanced so habib diara i really like him because when he
14:31gets the ball his first thought is to look up and either drive forward with it or play it forward
14:36now he's probably going to lose lose the ball at times but i don't sort of mind that because
14:41that's that's his game and that's fine and you need players like that but when you've got to know
14:45a sadiki who's covering a lot of ground and he drops into the the left back and the right back
14:49position even center back a couple of times when people were were piling forward and then you've got
14:53xaca sort of orchestrating behind that i think it's it's a really impressive midfield balance and i think
14:59what was even more impressive is that sunderland as the attempt to under reggie
15:03labris surrendered quite a bit of the ball as well but they still had that tactical discipline
15:08i thought was a bit of a a bit of a labris tactical master class to be honest over potter i thought
15:13west ham's wing backs did cause us a little bit of a little bit of an issue at times um but i thought
15:19it was it was just classic labris wasn't it this is how we're going to play this is how we're going to
15:23set up i'm a pragmatist i'm not bothered if you're going to have more of the ball i'm not bothered if
15:28pundits say that you know we are unastetically pleasing or they don't like watching us like
15:33we're going to come and we're going to win this game and i'm not bothered if we have 12 possession
15:37or 13 possession he's just i love him in that sense he's like he's the anti russell martin isn't he
15:43you know coming up with southampton and just trying to play out for the back there was there was none of
15:47that really with southern you know they can pass it if they need to of course they can but it's about
15:51picking those moments and ironically now the pundits are starting to wake up the next day and
15:57and praise sublin for being a bit more pragmatic because everybody's sick of seeing promoter teams
16:01get relegated yeah i saw gary neville didn't he he came out and said it was lovely yeah he was very
16:07nice yeah he was very complimentary of us not do the the sort of ipswich style where you pass the ball
16:12on the back but i think that that's the one advantage that something have over both leeds and
16:17burnley and i hate i know everyone is grouping them three together and the discussion is a lot
16:22lead southern burnley because of what's happened with the newly promoted teams but i think it's valid
16:27in a lot of ways to talk about it and i think sondland of the three
16:31farger is pretty regimented in how he plays i don't know if you'll check that their recruitment's
16:36very interesting they're both big physical players yes that that's changed and maybe they'll not be as
16:42heavy on the passing but essentially daniel farger football relies on you being technically the
16:46better team that's what it relies on scott parker football is defensive rigid but they got pumped
16:53three nil at the weekend and didn't look anywhere near as defensively sound and that's that's the
16:57thing about scott parker football in the premier league is that i'm not really sure what it looks
17:01like because he's such a championship specialist doesn't he and then you've got reggie who doesn't
17:06have a i've seen he doesn't have a style he doesn't have like a specific no i am playing it out from
17:12the back i am going to make sure that you know the ball has to see all thirds of the pitch before
17:17it gets through he doesn't look like that he looks at every single game is how can my players win this
17:23game of football following his principles of things like you know making sure you run a lot making sure
17:28you're pressing at the correct times and blah blah blah but it's it's all about to him how to win those
17:33individual games and i don't think a lot of managers i mean you can even put in graham potter on this in
17:39the weekend graham potter i don't think had thought massively about how something play he just went
17:46and lined his team up and went this is how we play and i don't care and it's interesting that isn't it
17:52because games hinge on moments but i thought for 20 minutes of the first half west ham looked quite
17:57good you know there was the robin roof save i think ranildo nicked one off um bowen in the box and
18:03obviously there was the dan ballard clearance now all of the all of those things have to be done the
18:07save needs to be made the defenders need to do the job but it's interesting isn't it that
18:12sondland won that game deservedly but yet west ham still had moments and i think we're gonna have to
18:16probably get used to that in the premier league again i go back to the the 4-2 liverpool
18:21bournemouth game the other day liverpool were tuning up and cruising and the game hinged off a
18:25somber's lie mistake and all of a sudden bournemouth were were right back into it and i think we might
18:30have to to get used to that might with it there's going to be a lot of back and forth in the premier league
18:35yeah and also you know the quality of the sutherland goals all three goals was absolutely
18:42outstanding yeah yeah you're not gonna score goals of that level in the premier league every week i
18:48mean i think it was what 0.7 xg or something funny enough they missed their easiest chance of the game
18:53yeah yeah yeah but the xg no point you're not going to score three goals off 0.7 i know people
19:00don't care about xg but i think it's a pretty good indicator of where the game is and you're not always
19:06going to do that you know next week against burnley who i mean that that's a fascinating matchup in
19:11itself but next week we definitely all done one as well from last yeah if we get a penalty
19:17yeah you've got to bring them on yeah yeah surely it's got a jack around penalties though surely um
19:25but yeah i just i don't know i think i think it's just really fascinating where the club is right
19:30now and i'm really looking forward to the next few games to to see oh yeah you know we've got
19:35burnley and brentford and palace but burnley and brentford in particular coming up and they've
19:38both had stingers on the opening day the fact we've won our game like takes a lot of pressure off
19:44but if we'd lost at the weekend and we're going to burnley both teams have lost you have to you know
19:51and i think it is a must win for sutherland don't get us wrong but the the pressure is not as strong
19:54on us as it is on them because if they lose that game at the weekend they they probably think already
19:59this is going to be a horrendous season well and there was the the stat emerged wasn't there that no
20:04newly promoted side won until october last season in the premier league which is it's just insane so
20:09for something to do on the opening day it ticks a lot of boxes i want to talk about the two wingers connor because
20:13i didn't really say this publicly because it is just pre-season and obviously there's a bedding
20:19in process and that cost a lot of money and just generally don't like to be too negative but talby
20:24and adingra i wasn't really too impressed with them during pre-season they didn't really catch me
20:28you could tell they had a bit of talent so i was interested to see coming into the premier league
20:32season how they how they would do against west ham i thought both of them were really really solid
20:36particularly from a defensive point of view um both of them got assists as well and while they
20:41weren't sort of in full flow in an attacking sense i actually thought they were they were really solid
20:46for the debuts yeah but it's difficult to argue against everything you've said there i would agree
20:52entirely with everything stop the podcast
20:58no i think the thing with talby in particular is i've seen a lot of criticism on him and i think people
21:05every year because we are so obsessed with football like people who love sunland and football generally
21:10they're obsessed you watch pre-season games you know i've watched every pre-season game apart
21:14from one and when you do that what that means is is you're obsessed over things because you treat
21:20them like a normal match even though they're not as important you do and you look at it and you go
21:23talby just looks like he's not in the game i thought like at times he looked like quite weak
21:27and he wasn't dribbling past men and then you see it on saturday when it means something when the game
21:33matters and every everyone goes up probably 60 70 percent they're willing to you know stretch for
21:39the extra ball because if you think a footballer you know if you're playing a pre-season game and
21:44you can stretch to a ball but you think oh actually there's maybe like a five percent chance i might
21:48over stretch and do yeah of course you're not going to do it are you if there's a 50 50 challenge you're
21:53not going to go for it because why would you the game means nothing and then you see the game actually
21:58start on saturday you see that intensity is like up i mean we if you were at the the real valocano
22:04game i know it was like a mixed team but the intensity in that game from so it's just not
22:08there non-existent it's not existent and you watch on saturday i mean i would be interested to see what
22:13the mileage was of the sunland team when there's an 11 on saturday compared to what it was against
22:18valocano and other games in pre-season and i bet you it's massively up every player's putting in
22:24probably an extra two or three kilometers and that's the difference that you can't read too much
22:28into pre-season too much and this is what we saw at the end of last season when we basically had a
22:33pre-season within the season and yeah absolutely yeah no i mean i've seen sutherland draw in
22:40dortmund and then get relegated i mean last season we were we went to bradford and we we weren't
22:45very good at all to be honest i think the standout that day was remain mundle but yeah it is hard to draw
22:50conclusions from pre-season but when you're running a youtube channel and trying to write stuff for the
22:54sun and echo you you do need to come up with some stuff as well so it's it's definitely a fine
22:59balance in terms of the day itself though connor and the game i mean clean sheet first win at home
23:04first win in the premier league after promotion and both your forwards score and there's always a
23:09little bit of a question well not even a little bit a massive question over promoted forwards coming
23:15up from the championship to the premier league can they adapt will they be able to score and they've
23:19both managed it i mean it's it's dreamland isn't it really absolutely remember where we were 12 months
23:26ago when everyone was saying sutherland forwards basically just haven't scored a goal i think we've
23:30got like one russell goal at middle and and getting rejected by kiefer moore and stuff like that and
23:35now we've got two really really good strikers to be fair to kiefer moore though he did he's done more
23:41solid like oh yeah you definitely repaid the first didn't he absolutely did he did he did more in a
23:48sheffield united shirt than he probably ever could have done in a sutherland shirt so yeah you just
23:52you just know he would have flopped as well you just don't yeah yeah he would have but no i think
23:57getting your forwards on the score sheet you know i feel like my ender and isidore suit premier league
24:03football i feel like that i completely agree completely and as well with the way that because people
24:09talk about the difference between something sort of in the first half of last season the second half
24:13and actually what the difference is is the opposition went oh something they're actually
24:17really good so we're gonna have to play in a low block that's why something in the second half of
24:21the season were not as good going forward and not as exciting it's just because at the start of the
24:25season teams thought something were rubbish or were a bottom half team i mean the sheffield wednesday
24:30game is a perfect example of that was yeah do you think danny roll wouldn't have approached that game
24:36if he played something in april he wouldn't approach it in the same way but what we'll see
24:39in the premier league is is that teams will probably give a little bit of disrespect to
24:45someone i don't mean that in like a you know they're in the dressing room taking the mick out
24:48of them i just mean they will look at the game and go right we can play our game we can dominate
24:55the ball we can do all these things that plays into how we like to play which is in the transition
25:00and isidore's goal that third goal he scored yesterday which was not a carbon copy but very
25:05similar to the one he scored at coventry when coventry were doing what premier league teams do
25:09ie pinning you in he will get a lot more chances this season and he's such a good transition player
25:15and my end is exactly the same he's a good transition player we will benefit from that this
25:20season the concern is is if managers cotton on and go oh actually i'm we're not willing to
25:27let something give us the ball you know and we're gonna have to try and play our game to play against
25:31something but i don't think premier league teams will do that i think they'll stick to their way
25:35because they'll look at something that is newly promoted and think we can dominate them in the
25:38areas we want to dominate but it's good news for us i think we'll see not similar we'll not win every
25:43game 3-0 we'll see games like saturday at the stadium light a lot this season where we're able to
25:49hit teams on counter attacks and surprise them in the way that we play and suddenly as well there's a
25:54little bit of depth development i mean we've still got the lad from on loan from chelsea to come in
25:58there's there's competition for places all over the pitch and i think that's a really good thing
26:03a lot's being said about the midfield and and particularly on the wings with with the likes of
26:07sort of dan neil chris rig or patrick roberts but i i see that as a really good thing i think players
26:13need to be pushed they need to be challenged you know what better person from dan neil and chris rig
26:18to learn from them than granite shaker he's going to set the standard he's going to sort of drag them up and
26:23i i think the players that are still at the club are going to relish it and i i don't think that's
26:28a bad thing at all no and it can't i think if the players are sulking about it if if you know one of
26:34the players who was established in the team last season is whinging oh you know i can't believe
26:40it i've helped you get promoted and now you've dropped this but they'll watch that game on saturday
26:45and think well that's the standard you know daniel will look at that and go patrick roberts will look
26:50at that and they'll go wow okay that's the level i need to reach to get into this team and get this
26:54team going because you know we i love those players i love dan neil i think dan neil gets such a hard
27:01press he's such a good footballer he does he gets he gets a ridiculous press from i think mostly for
27:08people on social media i would say but it offends it does it actually offends me and it hurts me
27:12feelings when sort of the likes of dan neil and patrick roberts are almost discarded as not good enough
27:16and i'm like do you know what they've done for the club like it's yeah it's insane it's insane to
27:21me that it is and i think that those players do have a part to play for southern this season but i
27:26i think reggie's you know hinted at this he said that they need to find the level i think he said
27:32with dan neil you know he's got he's learning off shaq he's only 23 years old he's basically saying dan
27:38neil needs to figure out how to be a premier league player and learn off the players that we brought in
27:43that's essentially what he's saying so i think it's a shame that we're not seeing these players
27:48but at the end of the day you look at that team on saturday and it's incredible but also i hope
27:53i'm gonna jump the gun here potentially but i hope we're gonna at least talk about omar alderay
27:58i was just about to say that that was the next point that even okay even in adversity it went well
28:05for sundown obviously jensen seal picks up the injury heartbreaking for him because he's he's had
28:09injury problems thankfully it doesn't look like it's going to be too bad but he goes off the pitch
28:13and suddenly alderay comes on and he's absolutely fantastic i've heard the words stan varga and
28:20arsenal mentioned a couple of times about them for for those that know but yeah i mean what an
28:25introduction he looks a player and a snippet 10 million quid as well i was reading some comments
28:29from the getafe president and they got to lose him for that price as well so i mean all hail the
28:35recruitment model at the moment i think absolutely although getafe did win two nil yesterday clean
28:40shoot so well done there they didn't miss him that much um but no he came on and he was
28:45oh just different you know when you you watch a player and like sealed nothing he had a good game
28:50and like nothing against him yeah it's not a dig on him but he can't do that with his left foot for my
28:55end accounting lesson no it was i sent that back i didn't actually realize in the game that it was
29:02i'll direct i just thought because of where the cross came from i just presumed it was probably
29:05ranildo or yeah yeah right that i played the ball and then actually afterwards i was watching the
29:10game back and i was like is that our new center half who like as well would seem that he had like
29:16awful his long passing was good but his short passing was not great well it was yeah terrible
29:22because getafe just didn't have the ball last season did they yeah so like you kind of when i'd looked
29:27at this i was like oh well is this guy just in football manager players they're called no nonsense
29:33defenders you know is he just literally like a head kick i'll defend it and that's it and he
29:38absolutely is not like this is a guy who's just played in a david beckham-esque ball also from like
29:46probably 50 yards out like not on the wing he's like so between the halfway line of the box and he's
29:53played this unbelievable cross perfect to my ender my ender who's probably about four inches shorter
29:59than the the west ham center back and up against three sets three center backs
30:06you're like that's incredible but that is like the different
30:10class that you get when you move up a level and you're able to assign a player like that like it's
30:14it's bizarre i just oh a word for ranildo as well for um for ballard's goal when he when he steps
30:21out with the ball i thought that was i mean he was in the right back position as well he you know
30:26he gets the ball has the wherewithal to sort of step out in front of two west hand players
30:30gives it to a dinger and he bends it in i guess again that's sort of welcome to the premier league
30:35and you know we should expect defenders to be involved quite heavily in the build-up play because
30:41that's the quality you've you've got all over the pitch and i'm not saying Sunderland's fullbacks over
30:46the years in the championship haven't been good because they have been but this this feels like a
30:50a little bit of a another level yeah it absolutely does and like ranildo and hume to be fair like
30:58well actually i think hume we must say like nothing came down his side all game
31:02he's so so good he's one of my favorite ever Sunderland's like 250 grand from linfield for
31:08god's sake it's ridiculous absolutely incredible like he he snuffed everything that came onto his
31:14site there was a few times i tried long balls and he was just able to read them so like
31:17fair play trey hume absolutely fantastic ranildo i thought he was just composed like he just added
31:25just that experience and you can just tell that he's played a lot of games at a very high level
31:30he's playing the digo simione team like he knows what he's doing and it's again it's he's saying that
31:36that it's not a flashy sign and when ranildo came in it wasn't looked at it was like oh it's a free
31:41transfer he's 31 and southern fans are conditioned to think that a 31 year old is basically a walking
31:47yeah like and you look at him he's like he's quality you look at these running stats he's ran
31:53pretty much the most of any player that we had at the weekend and just fair play like fair play for the
31:59the club getting that sort of deal done like i think it's fascinating and i would love to have
32:04been behind the scenes i wish netflix were about for the summer i mean they must be few men having
32:09covered like the the league one bit and then a little bit of the the promotion season and then
32:14all of a sudden all of this good stuff's happened and they're not around to do it yeah they probably
32:18are but i think imagine looking in and seeing what the conversations were at the club when the club won
32:23the playoff final they clearly had a plan pretty much just there to be executed for when they went up
32:30i mean we have got pretty much a full strength team brought in by the first game of the season
32:35there's two weeks left of the transfer window yeah like that that's historic historically we do not
32:40do things like that i mean in the championship we found simon plays in advance very difficult
32:44exactly and if you look at every other team in the premier league leeds won the league for i think it
32:49was the 4th of may that the season finished in the championship the premier league the relegation
32:54was settled from about christmas so every team in the premier league had time to know what they were
33:00doing we had the least time by a mile we were probably at least six weeks behind every team
33:06in the premier league and championship who were going in there and we have been the most forward
33:11team in the transfer market look at the issues that newcastle have had in the transfer market
33:16look at what we've done we've had everything sounded we had ranildo they must have been talking
33:20to ranildo insane to him probably a while ago if we go there must have been conversations going on
33:25yeah but like before the season the regular season ended really but there has to have been
33:30do you think as a fan though that's really reassuring that the club is so forward i think
33:38even everything to do with the stadium that just doesn't happen you don't just win promotion and go
33:41right we can spend 10 million quit doing the stadium they obviously knew that that was like right we're
33:46going to do these things if we go up and it's planned that's there ready to go and i think everything
33:50at the club right now for everything from when that black cats ball incident happened with newcastle
33:56yeah yeah less than the skies maybe horrendous but from that point on the brought in david bruce
34:02yeah he's done a good job the club is just really taking itself up to a premier league level like it
34:09is a premier league football club right now it's not a we when we fell into league one we were like
34:14a sort of we were pretending we're a premier league football club but actually we're a tin pot league
34:20one club that's what we turned into yeah it's now this is a genuine like premier league football club
34:25i mean that that's what i like i've talked about quite a lot but holistically and you've touched upon
34:29it sudland are investing in every area of the football club it's not just about the playing stuff i mean
34:35they've they've bolstered the backroom staff with gosolfi coming in obviously reduce the bruce has
34:39had a few more assistants they've got the the specialist set peak set piece course now coach
34:44now they've invested at the academy of light as well significantly modernizing that and it's such
34:48a great facility the academy of light but it doesn't take long for these things to slip and when you
34:53don't get investment over a long period of time suddenly that june and the crown can can you know
34:58decay quite quickly again the stadium of lights needed some stuff doing it for a while but that's
35:02happening but the little things as well like the shirts listening about the hummel deal i think people
35:07feel very connected don't they and that's good i want to get back to matters on the field because
35:10i want to talk about dan ballard and and robin roofs because obviously i mean dan ballard what
35:15more can you say just an absolute colossus and i thought robin rufus's debut was was really really
35:21really solid command of his area good with his feet saved his shots when he need to i mean again at like
35:27at 10 million quid or 11 million quid however much he cost he could be a real real bargain
35:32yeah robin roof's massively impressed me like i i if not often you bring in a keeper that has that
35:40sense of like calmness and when the ball but the last time had corners and he's just like if you put
35:45this anywhere near my six yard box i am punching it i don't care i am getting there and you look at
35:51manchester united yesterday and their keeper and he's got no command of his box and arsenal saliba's
35:56able to just move him out the way and and obviously the score was really really poor that to be
36:01fair that was so yeah i mean he just needs to i mean goalkeepers get so much protection anyway i
36:05don't know what he's expecting but just go over the top of him and get the ball yeah you'll get the
36:09foul you'll you if you miss it you'll get the foul and roofs roofs won't allow that i say that we'll
36:15play arsenal and that'll probably happen but roofs won't do that like you can tell with him he's he's
36:20so big he's got such a command he's so calm for a player that's only played one year of professional
36:26top level football he looks like a seasoned pro he's like 22 years old he reminds me a lot of when
36:31we're brought in like mignolet although mignolet didn't have a great debut but when mignolet like
36:35got going he had that sort of feeling of such a calm goalkeeper who was just reliable and didn't make
36:40many mistakes and this guy i think is is exactly that he's he's command of that six yard box is
36:46better than any keeper i've seen at sundown for obviously we've been in league one to be fair but
36:50for a long long time i've been able to come out and just get that ball out punch it i'm gonna win it
36:55and that's incredible and i and i like anthony patterson i'm i'm very appreciative of what
37:01he's done for the club you know i'd back him and i think he does have a future but it's having watched
37:08him having watched robin roofs it's it's clear to see why they've they've brought him in because
37:12he does the things that perhaps patterson isn't as good at and yeah i agree and i think that the club
37:19look at uh when thomas frank did that interview on monday night football a few years ago and they
37:24asked him how does a newly promoted team stay up and he was like you've got to be really good at
37:29set pieces you've got to be able to defend them and score them and i know at the weekend technically
37:34we didn't score a set piece but we scored set piece s schools you know that we did yeah we definitely did
37:39yeah and that's a you know it crosses from deep clearly something they've talked about we're
37:44going to cross the ball in from deep and attack those balls and you see on the defensive
37:49set pieces alderete wins the header to start the isador goal because he's so strong in the air
37:55in the goalkeeper and the reason why west ham had to play that ball all the way at the edge of the
37:59box the corner was because they knew that every time they were hitting it in the six yard box our
38:04keeper was punching out the way and they weren't able to get any any look on it and that's what the
38:08club have done they've looked at their recruitment and it's so clear that they've went we need a goalkeeper
38:13who is strong to command crosses of the ball and they've literally picked up the keeper that was the
38:17best at it in europe last season that they could attain so that that's what they haven't haven't
38:23also haven't also missed out on a couple of targets as well so i think that just goes to show the level
38:27of depth in the scouting department because i mean god kind of how many times over the years have we
38:32had a target in mind particularly in the premier league days berini for example when we couldn't get
38:37berini the first time it felt like the sky was going to fall in didn't it and we didn't really get
38:42anybody else it it felt for a long time that southern used to fixate on these on these transfer
38:47targets we more often than not we wouldn't get them and then that would be us in a relegation
38:52struggle again but now obviously football's moved on a little bit from there but we have a list of
38:57targets that we go through now exactly and it's it's so well planned you look at all the players that
39:03they've brought in this summer the only one that i think doesn't really fit what i expected was the
39:08master who was signing that that felt a bit left field and a bit random i don't know if that was
39:14because i've seen as well people saying that actually that might be the the left wing because
39:18he can't play forward it could potentially be that because they didn't get loriente in the way and
39:22happy with their other targets maybe they thought right well we'll bring him in and play left back
39:26left wing and that can sort of cover that area of the pitch that's the only one that to me didn't
39:31really make sense but every other player i totally understand the logic as to why they bought them in and
39:36that's fair play they clearly had talk like diara when he came in they sold bellingham and they just
39:42went we're going to use that money to buy this lad over here and right now i mean i was talking to
39:47the people i got the mattress and i was like right now i know it's we've just won 3-0 but would you
39:52rather have job or would you rather have that midfield that they've built today yeah you'd probably
39:59i wrote a little bit about this it's coming out at 11 30 on the website shameless plug but it's it's
40:04incredible really how quickly we've all forgotten about joe bellingham i mean this
40:07high profile 30 million pound exit box to box midfield that we all loved embraced the club
40:12really took us to heart and we've forgotten about him already and it's no criticism of him it just goes
40:17to show how well i think sutherland have managed that situation yeah and i don't know do you do you
40:23ever watch the youtube channel all ending i don't know if you've seen yes he's very very good very good
40:28yeah and he did a video before the start of the season and he's obviously just so much more sort
40:33of clued into this sort of stuff than me i'm very like observing i just like watch the game and go
40:37that is good i'm gonna i'm gonna get him on instead of you next week yeah you could try so but i watched
40:43his video anyway and he before the start of the season he was talking about how sutherland have
40:48targeted 20 million plus sign-ins and how that makes a massive difference like ipswich didn't do that last
40:54season yeah leads have largely not spent above 20 million pounds as far as i'm aware this season
40:59largely went under and we've brought in i think four or five 20 million pound players and then we've
41:04also brought in players that look at like siddiqui and granite jack are obviously you know if you were
41:09to sell granite air siddiqui today what would you get for siddiqui right now it's probably probably
41:14another five or ten million on them like definitely yeah exactly so like something he pointed out though
41:19that while something are right and some of them are right some of the file people are writing
41:24something off right now the reality is is we've been able to close that gap by signing in those level
41:30of players yeah and yeah you know that means that we've got as many 20 million pound per spares as
41:35wolves you know and that should stand us in very good stead this season and i think again that comes
41:41back to the the plan that the club and you've also got players in there like ballard who you kind of
41:47touched on before he looks like he is built to play in the premier league he didn't look out of
41:52place at the weekend so that's another player that if you sold him tomorrow you'd probably be
41:57commanding somewhere in the region of 15 or 20 million pounds yeah i think so possibly even possibly
42:02even higher it's interesting you mentioned the massive outbrew transfer and how it doesn't really
42:06fit in with with suddenly and i completely agree but don't you think that this sort of recruitment
42:11model they do like a bit of a left field gamble every now and again just if it if it's in budget
42:15they'll they'll go for a like a bit of a maverick like a pervader sometimes it works sometimes it
42:20doesn't but it's interesting to me how they they seem to get all of this business done and they've
42:25done it historically in the championship as well and then they'll go and have a little bit of a gamble
42:28on on on somebody that could be maybe he's a little bit special but we're not quite sure and i do find
42:33that interesting actually yeah and i think so and i think that i suppose the reality is is you're never
42:40going to hit every transfer 100 this is not me writing off a masuaku i'm not saying that it's going to be
42:45terrible but you're not going to get every transfer 100 and maybe it's just a case of
42:49you know backing yourself isn't it it's backing yourself to go do you know what our data suggests
42:53that masuaku is going to be a very very good player for us and he's happy to come in and probably be
42:59cover for left back and left wing he's cheap he's a free transfer and it helps us to be able
43:03to add elsewhere in the squad and they probably just thought yep that's a it's possibly as a date i
43:08signed it it's possibly that he fits the way that they play he's quick he's physical all the stuff
43:13i've read on him suggested he's good air really gets up and down the pitch is pretty good in an
43:18attacking setting he loves he loves a step over as well apparently yeah which left back is great
43:24yeah and that's probably what they've looked at though and they've went you know what
43:27we're probably going to be able to get him in quite cheap he's probably happy to be a cover player
43:32and he's got premier league experience happy days what more can you ask for yes we have we've got
43:40people watching from um australia two people from australia actually which is uh which is very nice
43:45but we are going to end it there because we've gone for 43 minutes i could probably do another 43
43:50minutes i think connor but we've got other things to do and everybody else has got better things to do i'm
43:55sure but please tell us about what you're up to at the moment you were at the daily mirror now you've
43:59gone off and down on the youtube route please plug that and tell us all where you can find it
44:04oh yeah i mean so i left the daily mirror in uh the start of july no technically the start of always
44:10but yeah sort of july ish and um because i've been unemployed an unemployed bum i've been like
44:16really really busy so i've got my own youtube channel which covers sunland which is just my name
44:20connor bromley i also have a youtube channel that covers sort of outside the big teams in the premier
44:25midi because nobody's doing that and um i've also written a book which i haven't released yet but
44:30i have a book that will be coming out soon oh nice what is it i didn't even tell you about this
44:36no you didn't oh crossword book nice yeah so i was just sort of thinking about things that i could
44:43do that fits my uh niche so i've written the book it's all printed i'm just waiting to have the club
44:49approve it and say that i'm allowed to use a picture of the same light so hopefully i'll get that this week and
44:53then uh it should be sometime sometime next year that'll be then yeah it should be hitting shelves
44:58probably at some point i'm hoping that i can get it actually on sale by the the brentford game
45:04oh that would be good yeah that'll be a quick turnaround so i think i'll be going through
45:07a love supreme but i've not crossed the i's and dotted the t's on that but yeah you know
45:12three copies sent at the sun and echo in exchange for in exchange for good reviews you don't ever
45:17i'm joking we are we are impartial yeah well i mean you know i'll do you a nice sign copy
45:24oh yeah that'd be great yeah that's what you know that's what i needed you know coming into
45:29the christmas period was a sign something from connor bromley you've got a nice blank space on your
45:34wall there so you could put a nice framed i could do you like a framed place just on that shoulder i
45:41actually really need to up my game in terms of like backgrounds because i just i haven't got a
45:45good background in this house but in fairness we have been renovating it so but yeah i've got like
45:50i've only there's only one piece of southern memorabilia on the wall and it's clive tillsley's
45:55commentary chart from the sheffield united game so that wouldn't really translate well to camera
46:00because it's just all i mean it's beautiful but it's just all little writing that you wouldn't be able
46:04to read there it's a good fit though is it like original original it's it's like a reprint but um
46:11he sent me it actually it was really nice i think he he contacted me and a couple of other people just
46:15for various different bits of stats um which was bizarre getting a call from clive tillsley before the
46:21the sheffield united game was crazy um so he sent me one which was which was really nice i think he did
46:27like similar for roger report as well he i think he's very meticulous in his research he gets in contact
46:32with local reporters fanzines and stuff like that so yeah really nice guy actually no i i've had some
46:37dealings with him in the mirror he had a podcast with martin o'neil i don't know if it's still going
46:41but them two i used to listen to that but it stopped it was on global wasn't it and that's uh
46:45it's got a distance i think i might i might ask him about it i interviewed martin o'neil and i was
46:49just fangirling him the whole time that um that like eight months ended up martin o'neil was bloody
46:55amazing it was one of the best series ever that's pretty much what i was saying it's like it's just
47:00incredible it was brilliant the g goal i mean yeah and that three three man city game as well
47:06do you remember that that was yeah yeah yeah twice i think wasn't it yeah yeah anyway we are
47:12seriously digressing added time that's what i heard yeah added time we'll definitely do another one of
47:17these because i think there's uh there's definitely mileage in them isn't there oh my god yeah just you
47:23know contact me and as an unemployed bum i'm pretty much always available so you can uh you can get us
47:28any time oh brilliant thanks for joining us connie you can find connor over on youtube look
47:33out for his new book release as well on social media thank you for joining us at the echo you can
47:37look at all of the latest sun and contact content over on our website and thank you once again for joining
47:43we'll see you next time
47:51we'll see you next time
48:01so
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