Team Name - Sunderland Association Football Club

Short Name - SAFC

Nickname - The Black Cats, The Mackems

Rivals - Newcastle United, Middlesbrough Football Club

Founded - 1879 (As Sunderland District & Teachers)

Stadium - The Stadium of Light

Capacity - 49,000

Division - League One 

(Side Note - I will be using Fifa 21 as a simulation for this project. My laptop can't handle football manager)


Background Information
Sunderland are about to embark on their 3rd straight season in England's third division, after coming close to promotion during the 18/19 season, agonisingly being defeated by Charlton Athletic in the League One Play-Off final with the final kick of the game, to last season's 19/20 season being suspended, and then being ended on the basis of Points Per Game, Sunderland found themselves staring a third season of third division football in the face. They're hoping for a third times a charm kind of deal, as they've parted company with current manager Lee Johnson, and appointed Jake Collinson as the manager. That isn't the only thing that's changing at The Stadium of Light, as new ownership has come in the form of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, yes you've heard that surname before. The Louis-Dreyfus family were heavily involved with French Ligue 1 side Marseille, until they sold their stake, now Kyril, who didn't have much say in how Marseille was run, wants to show his family and the footballing world he can run a football club. and he's chosen quite the project here with The Black Cats. 

Sunderland fans will have a lot to look forward to over the coming week, as the 2020/2021 fixtures will be released, will The Black Cats start the new campaign at home or on the road? Sunderland's new man in the dugout Jake Collinson will also hold his first press conference this coming week, since being appointed Sunderland manager. This is before the looming pre-season schedule the club have lined up, will Collinson finally be the man to get Sunderland out of League One and promoted to the EFL Championship? 

Is this a soccer thing?

Feb 3, 2021 22:30:18 GMT 🤯 said:

Is this a soccer thing?

It most certainly is.

haway the lads!

Chief Executive Jim Rodwell unveils new manager Jake Collinson to the Press

The new Sunderland manager was unveiled at a press conference today by the club's chief executive Jim Rodwell, it will be the club's 15th different manager in the dugout (If you include caretaker managers) in the past 12 years. Jake Collinson has been tasked with guiding Sunderland to the EFL Championship this coming season, he will be handed a tough task considering the previous 3 mangers (Jack Ross, Phil Parkinson & Lee Johnson) 



Jim Rodwell: "First off I'd like to welcome you all for joining us at this time, we hope you're all safe and well during these times. Now it isn't any secret why you've been invited here, you're all here to see the new manger, before I hand things over to him I'd like to explain why the decision was made to part company with Lee Johnson, and appoint a relatively unknown man at this time. First off we'd like to thank Lee Johnson for his time here at the club, while his ideas were refreshing, myself, the current and new board members felt it was time to make a change, and a positive one at that to ensure that the club return to England's 2nd division this coming season. We drew up a short list and interviewed potential candidates, yes the names you saw touted in the media were true, but they didn't really interest us past the initial stages of the process, that is where Jake Collinson came into the frame and blew us all away with ideas for the club for both on and off the field. We felt he was head and shoulders above anyone we had interviewed up until that point, and better than anyone we had interviewed after him. I am proud to announce Jake Collinson as the new Sunderland manager, a local lad for his local club. I will now hand things over to Jake"



Jake Collinson: "Thank you, Jim and good morning to you all. I'd like to start off by saying how proud and privileged I am to be taking over as Sunderland manager, it is a club that is close to my heart, I am a former season cardholder for the club, I've been here for some of the club's highs and the club's lows, we currently find ourselves in the middle of a global pandemic with fans being shut out from stadia and arenas across the continent, and that kills me as a fan, I know it will kill the people of Sunderland not being able to come to the game, to see the lads in action and to see their friends after a hard week's work at graft. That's why I will personally make sure the lads perform on the pitch each and every week, home and away to make sure they give their all to those fans that aren't allowed into the stadiums, something they can all be proud of. Now, why am I here as Sunderland manager? Well Jim has already explained the process of what he went through, I don't think I've explained what I was doing when I got the call. It was just your usual Sunday morning, just doing some stuff around the house, then I got the call from Jim to say that I had impressed with my interview with himself, Stewart Donald, Charlie Methven and the incoming Kyril Louis-Dryfus, basically I impressed the entire ownership group with my ideas and plans on how to get this club back up to where it belongs. It may sound like a repeat of what previous managers have said, going back to Simon Grayson in the championship, I am sure you've all seen the inner workings of the club and the men before me on the Netflix documentary 'Sunderland Til I Die'. It dreads me and horrifies me whenever I go back to watch it, I was there living it. Especially the two Wembley defeats, those were hard at the time to stomach, more so when you're watching it back and seeing the emotions from all the fans on display. I'm going to do my best to ensure we have a team to be proud of, a team that will challenge and a team that will gain promotion. I'm going to take charge of training later on today, I'm certain that after a few sessions and few preseason games, I'll have an idea on who to keep, who to offload and who to bring in that can reinvigorate this team. All I can say at the moment is this will take time to get right initially, but I am fairly certain that things will click very fast and we will be looking at a club and team to be proud of again"




Jake Collinson will take charge of his first training session this afternoon, before the club start their pre-season schedule later on in the week. Also coming later on in the week are the club's forthcoming EFL League One fixtures for the season, the club will find out at a later date their cup fixtures as they're in 3 cup competitions this campaign, The FA Cup, The Football League Trophy & The League Cup respectively. 

Sunderland's League One Fixtures revealed

Sunderland's full league fixture list has been released today, Sunderland start their League One campaign away to Blackpool, with their first home league fixture coming a week later at home to recently relegated Hull City. The Black Cats end the campaign with an away tie to Peterbotough United, will they already be promoted to The Championship by then? or will they be in the play-offs or worse?


Now the dates in the list below are provisional, as some may change depending on the cup progress of either Sunderland or their opponents this season. Fixtures are makred with A for an away game or H for a home game.




August 2020
1st - Blackpool A
8th - Hull City H
15th - Oxford United A
19th - Lincoln City A
22nd - Doncaster H
29th - Gillingham A



September 2020
5th - Portsmouth H
8th - Ipswich Town A
12th - Peterborough United H
19th - Plymouth Argyle A
26th - Burton Albion H



October 2020
3rd - Fleetwood Town A
10th - Crewe Alexandra H
14th - Shrewsbury Town A
17th - Rochdale H
24th - Northampton Town A
31st - AFC Wimbledon H



November 2020
14th - Charlton Athletic A
20th - Wigan Athletic H
24th - Swindon Town A
28th - Accrington Stanley H



December 2020
5th - Milton Keynes Dons A
12th - Bristol Rovers H
19th - Ipswich Town H
24th - Portsmouth A
27th - Bristol Rovers A
30th - Gillingham H



January 2021
2nd - Doncaster Rovers A
9th - Charlton Athletic H
15th - AFC Wimbledon A
23rd - Lincoln City H
30th - Oxford United A



February 2021
6th - Northampton Town H
9th - Rochdale A
13th - Fleetwood Town H
20th - Burton Albion A
27th - Milton Keynes Dons H




March 2021
5th - Accrington Stanley A
13th - Swindon Town H
20th - Wigan Athletic A
27th - Shrewsbury Town H




April 2021
3rd - Crewe Alexandra A
10th - Hull City A
17th - Blackpool H
24th - Plymouth Argyle H




May 2021
1st - Peterborough United A

Not the biggest soccer FUTBOL fan but I've grown more interested in learning about it recently. I was kinda hoping you'd be using FM for this. Haven't played FIFA for years but soccer games are infinitely more fun than watching for me personally. Anyways, here's hoping you can reach the Premiership! "Sunderland Till I Die" is a solid series; looking forward to a simulated version of that with hopefully better results.

Feb 5, 2021 1:01:01 GMT rad said:

Not the biggest soccer FUTBOL fan but I've grown more interested in learning about it recently. I was kinda hoping you'd be using FM for this. Haven't played FIFA for years but soccer games are infinitely more fun than watching for me personally. Anyways, here's hoping you can reach the Premiership! "Sunderland Till I Die" is a solid series; looking forward to a simulated version of that with hopefully better results.

It pains me to watch every time that series on Netflix, knowing what I know about those two charlatans currently in charge.ha ha 

 

Sunderland drawn away to Harrogate Town

League One Sunderland have been handed an away tie to League Two Harrogate Town in the first round of The League Cup, Jake Collinson's men travel to The EFL newcomers on the 11th of August. Harrogate Town are excited for their 'First Ever' League Cup tie, more so at home to a 'Giant' like Sunderland. Harrogate Town won promotion to The Football League, after winning in the National League play-offs last season, they beat Notts County 3-1 in that 2020 Play-Off final, who in turn were hoping to make a quick return to the Football League. 



On the tie Jake said "It was nice to see the tie, I am excited that we've been drawn away to Harrogate Town. Just like every game of football though, we can't underestimate our opponents, cause on the day anyone can win a game of cup football. With all due respect to them they're a tricky side, I've seen them play against teams last campaign and it frightens me. Although I have asked one of our lads what they're like, you know with Jack Diamond playing for them on loan, he says to expect a test".