Last words on the 2011-2012 Salut! Sunderland ”Who are You?” awards …
It is always a pleasure to bring happiness into other people’s lives and Aston Villa supporters seem such a grumpy bunch of folk that it is an even greater pleasure to be able to cheer one them up.
Just to conclude the business of this year’s end-of-season ”Who are You?” awards, let us hear from our winning trio.
Forget the bad-tempered Villa fans who strayed here to complain about Stephen Goldsmith’s well-argued thoughts on the subject of the ”projects and dreams” of footballspeak (or, if you want to read it, go to this link: https://safc.blog/2012/05/darren-bent-qpr-wigan-and-liverpool-dreams-projects-and/).
And meet Stuart Jinks, better known as Jinksy, who won first prize for a set of answers that proved a good deal more entertaining than the 0-0 draw that followed.
Jinksy is now choosing his $200 worth of clobber from soccerpro.com*, but wrote to us in the following terms after being told of the judges’ verdict:
Well thank you very much and to all that voted for me I salut you (see what I did there). This has come as a very nice surprise at the end of a very nice week for all Aston Villa fans. We all now know what the munchkins felt like when that house fell on the wicked which of the north or was it south? There’s a feeling of optimism surrounding our club again and the dark clouds have moved on. Looks like Randy might be having a cheeky punt on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, I’d prefer Lambert or Rogers but hey we’ll get behind whoever it is and hopefully have a team that is sent out to try and win the game, that’s all we ask for.
Again thanks for asking me to do the interview in the 1st place I enjoyed it. Also a big thanks to soccerpro.com.
What becomes clear is that our winners have a habit of supporting clubs that then go and sack their managers. Jinksy got his wish with Alex McLeish. Our second-placed interviewee was Keith Conneely, a Liverpool supporter from Ireland and in mixed frame of mind about events at Anfield. Forgive our distinct lack of modesty in not editing out Keith kind’s words about Salut! Sunderland:
The joy of winning this prize has somewhat tempered the mixed emotions of losing our iconic manager midst a wave of ambivalence and soul-searching. Thanks for asking me to write on your site – it’s a very impressively assembled and well-written set-up.
Thank you, Keith, winner of a Euro 2012 top from the magazine When Saturday Comes*. Which greatly suited third-placed Steve Bishop, whose club Wolverhampton Wanderers dumped Mick McCarthy as relegation loomed. He, Steve not Mick, wanted a year’s subscription to WSC and, thanks to Keith opting for the top, gets one.
He hasn’t mised a Wolves game in 35 years (next parole hearing due soon) but overcame the grief that sort of commitment and endurance causes to tell us:
Very gratifying. I buy WSC when I come across it but I’ve not taken out a subscription for a few years now [and] I’d like it to read on the long trips to Boro, Brighton, Palace etc, WOL (that’s a new acronym I just invented, Weep Out Loud or maybe Wail as you prefer).
And that, you’ll be relieved to hear, is the last word on the awards – until next time.
* Salut! Sunderland offers special gratitude to the sponsors: http://www.soccerpro.com/ and When Saturday Comes
** See Jinsky’s interview here: https://safc.blog/2012/05/33797/
*** See Keith’s interview here: Liverpool and ”the debt we owe Sunderland fans”
**** See Steve’s interview here: Wolverhampton Wanderers
