John McCormick writes: how could Pete Sixsmith have known that my car failed its MOT this morning? (Have you seen these new fail notifications? I got a big bold FAIL repair immediately comment, along with something advisory about my rear brake disks. That said, the Mrs went out in it this afternoon).
I presume that’s what his e-mail was about but it could have been about next season’s fixtures. I expect to be at the Charlton game but am a little less certain about a London trip to take in AFC Wimbledon at the end of the month. If you have a spare ticket let me know.
Or could something else(s) have been happening in the world of football? Let’s catch up with Pete’s catchup:
AN INTERESTING DAY
What a day!! The sun is cracking flags here in South West Durham and momentous events are taking place.
The GCSE marking is going nicely at the moment despite it all being on line and forcing me to spend all day looking at a screen full of exam papers rather than a screen full of Ready To Go and Big and Bouncy (I read it for the gardening tips).
The day started well when this week’s Round the Horne had a filthy song from Rambling Sid Rumpold, a wonderful scene involving Dame Celia Molestrangler and ageing juvenile Binky Huckerback and Julian and Sandy as all-in wrestlers. It was topped by this exchange between Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick;
KW (having introduced HP as the next Sir John Gingold (sic); “Tell him what Michael Redgrave said to you, Hugh.”
HP “What, about me bothering his daughter?”
Collapse of not quite so stout party in kitchen and toast all over the floor.
It got better. A visit to Morrisons in the thriving hub known as Bishop Auckland, revealed various flavours of Hartleys Jellies at 7 for £3.00, not only a bargain but a dish fit to serve before a King.
Then, on the bus home, after a fascinating chat with a man who worked in B and Q, I heard the news that Jack Rodwell had come to an agreement with the club and was on his way. Where to, we do not know. Some say to MLS in the Good Old USA, where he can live under the benevolent dictatorship of The Donald (Trump, not Stuart) and play in a league made up of all nations.
Others said that he was going to Aris Salonika in the Greek Super League. My brother lives in Thessaloniki so I immediately fired off a text to inform him of this and suggested that he contact Jack and offer him a room in his house for half of his final week’s salary from Sunderland. The retort was that he would offer to be his Greek agent for that which would probably enable him to buy the Parthenon, Nana Mouskouri and the entire production line of Ouzo for the next twenty years. He also said that he would tell his Aris supporting friendly fisherman to hide the souvlaki from Jack.
They would get on as Phil is supremely fit, doesn’t work at all and thoroughly enjoys his sport (cycling) – so that’s one out of three for Jack. They both lived in Southport, so they can exchange memories of The Guest House, The Barons Bar in The Scarisbrick Hotel and the delights of the Lawnmower Museum.
It’s been a long drawn out affair with Jack, but I imagine that he is as glad to see the back of Sunderland as Sunderland is to see the ever broadening back of him.
Then, having waded through a mire of questions that had to assess the differences between two observations on Martin Luther King, I reclined on the couch to watch Germany v Republic of Korea, a game that I would have expected the Europeans to win and move into the last 16 of this rather entertaining and utterly splendid World Cup.
Wrong. They were useless. They looked like men walking through a field full of treacle. There was no energy, no intelligence and no idea. In fact, they looked like a team of Jack Rodwells. And out they went, with the Republic of Korea (not to be confused with The Democratic Republic of Korea so beloved by The Donald – Trump, not Stuart) scoring twice in the closing minutes, reminiscent of Ji-Dong -won’s sole strike for us against Manchester City in the days when we played several levels above Rotherham United.
I mention them because they have signed a player we were keen on (Clark Robertson from Blackpool) who opted for them as he didn’t want to play in Division One. He’s in good company, as Honeyman, Asoro, Maja, Cattermole, Oviedo, McNair and various others aren’t too keen on the prospect either.
So far, we have signed a couple of decent players from Hearts; I have seen Alim Ozturk and he looks as if he could well be ok. Jon McLaughlin, the keeper, has not appeared on my radar, but he surely can’t be any less confident than Jason “Tommy” Steele; Brighton fans must be hoping that Ryan doesn’t get injured.
I saw Chris Maguire play for Rotherham United Reserves against Hartlepool United, one afternoon at Billingham Town (the pleasures of being a pensioner) and he looked a wee bit disinterested. Hopefully we don’t have another Rodders on our books.
Anyway, I am back to the marking, wading through the problems that Herbert Hoover had to face between 1929-32.
Whatever they were, they can’t be much worse than those that Jack Ross is looking at.
At the start of last season I was more disappointed as I thought we were signing League 1 players to play in the Championship. I wasn’t confident that I was going to enjoy the experience any more than I had the previous season under Moyes.
I agree about the standard of players we are signing but in my mind the difference is that firstly the club is still handicapped by the extravagances and wasted money that has been inherited from the previous regime.
Secondly, I have no great expectations in terms of how quick I want to see the club progress. I accept the fact that the new owners are having to cut their cloth to get the club back onto a firm footing.
Whilst they are undoubtedly wealthy men the have not got the billions that Ellis Short had that allowed him to squander so much of his personal wealth and take the hit he did.
Instead I am hoping a) we will be competitive in this division, b) the team will play attractive football that I will enjoy watching, c) the players who don the red and white stripes will show desire and commitment, whatever their ability and d) that the club rebuilds the relationship with the supporters, the city and the region that has been lost in recent years.
I’m not too bothered about getting back into the Premier League in two seasons. Instead I’d like to see a slow steady consolidation from the ground up and in the meantime having enjoyable match days again.
I just hope our fans can be patient and cut the new owners, manager and players some slack for the coming season and then hopefully we will be in a stronger position than we have been for several years. The chopping and changing of managers hasn’t worked and plenty of big name, big money players haven’t been value for money.
Let’s wait and see and give the new regime a chance to rebuild from the bottom up before we start slagging them off.
Well if you do Malcolm, I’m afraid you are going to witness “rock bottom” – we are now going to sign a player that BURTON ALBION don’t want!!!! Is anyone else disillusioned with the dross we’re looking at buying? I mistakenly thought that the stature of our club might be an appeal to League 1’s best players! But as always my optimism where Sunderland is concerned has been well and truly squashed. My prediction is that we will languish in the lower reaches this coming season. Thus far I am thoroughly disappointed with incoming transfers – Maguire failed at Bury and they got relegated to League 2 for Pete’s sake!!!!! WHAT IS GOING ON Mr Donald????
Must get to Morrison’s tomorrow! Those Hartley’s 10 cal sugar free jellies, combined with mixed berries and Alpro soya yoghurt have become my go to dessert!
What with the departure of Ellis Short and now JR together with the results of my low fat/no beer regime and my improved mobility, I really have no excuse not to attend the SOL next season.