00:00When can we get carried away? Dean says, can we all get carried away? Andrew says, how far can we go? Owen says, shall we get carried away? Jonathan says, is this real life or just fantasy? Colt says, how will we fare in Europe next season?
00:15And Tony Norman's love child says, just how far can this team realistically go? So, yeah, there we go. I think there's a lot of excitement. Absolutely. Some fans should be getting wildly carried away. I think there's absolutely no two ways about it. I think, I'm sure Luke and I won't mind me saying, but I saw him very briefly in the mix zone. Great to see him back on the bench yesterday. And then he said how far we've come.
00:41And it's incredible, really, when you think about some of the challenges that the club has come through. I'm sure a lot of people in that way. And yesterday were at some pretty, pretty tricky away days back in the League 1 era. So I think you should just enjoy the fact that it's a team who is giving absolutely everything for the shirt, but also has the quality to compete at this level. So absolutely get carried away. From my perspective, putting a bit more of a, I don't want to say, I don't want to say realist.
01:09I think Sunderland where they are on merit. I think there's a few things that make me think that this level of points that they're gathering is probably not fully sustainable. I think that, you know, I've mentioned it before, but, you know, if you compare Sunderland's fixtures to Sid Burnley, who've played Liverpool, Man City, Man United, I think that Sunderland, while they've been brilliant, have had a relatively generous run, they haven't played any of the teams who were going to make it really, really difficult for them yet.
01:33So I think that's obviously an important point. I think that, you know, December is going to be a massive challenge when six or seven players go at the Africa Cup of Nations.
01:41It doesn't look quite as severe at the moment because with the defenders, Michele Alderete, with people like Chris Reid coming into the team and making a really good impact, Enzo really settling into the team now and playing well.
01:52There aren't actually, you feel like someone you're going to be able to name a competitive team, but the fixtures are going to come around so thick and fast during that period that that is going to be a challenge.
02:03The other thing I would say is that, you know, yesterday on another day could go a slightly different way.
02:07And that's not to say that, you know, Sunderland might have got a point and that would have still been a really good result.
02:10You know, Crystal Palace away, Sunderland did really well to get a point, but, you know, maybe if Robin Ruffs doesn't make one of those incredible saves, Crystal Palace nick it.
02:17So that's not me being negative. I just think at some point Sunderland will come out on the wrong side slightly of these close games where there's quite fine margins.
02:27But I also feel really, really confident about this team because they're responding to every test that's been put in front of them.
02:36They've won at home, they've won away from home, you know, they've won late.
02:40I think that the team is in a really, really good place.
02:42And I've said it before this season, I'll say it again, that, you know, even though yesterday Nottingham Forest had some big chances and they did,
02:48it wasn't like their XG was massive. It wasn't as if Sunderland were just giving up massive golden opportunities all the way through the game.
02:54Sunderland have a platform whereby you know that they've got the ability to stay in games for long periods.
03:00And that makes me think they've got a really, really good chance of staying up.
03:03So I still think there's going to be spells where we maybe go through a few games without a win.
03:08I think that's going to be difficult moments.
03:10There's definitely going to be challenging games where Sunderland don't get anything out of it.
03:14But can you get carried away? Of course you can. Why not?
03:17What's the point if you're not getting carried away at this stage?
03:20I think seeing players like Granit Xhaka in a Sunderland shirt, he might be the best player I've ever seen play for Sunderland.
03:25And it's just so exciting.
03:28I think that's the good thing about going through the really, really difficult times.
03:32It allows you to really, really appreciate it when things turn.
03:35And I think it's just we're all sort of living this collective dream really at the moment,
03:39watching the team play with this quality and also this fight.
03:42I think that's the big thing as well. So, yeah, happy days.
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