Colin Randall

Salut! Sunderland was edited by Colin Randall up until December 2019 - read more

Haway! It’s awards time again with Bournemouth, Middlesbrough, Swansea making early running

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Jake: ‘with thanks to all opposing fans who participate’

Monsieur Salut introduces our annual HAWAY awards, with thanks to the supporters of all clubs played by Sunderland in league and cup this season who contributed to the series …

Cinema does it with Oscars, BAFTAs, Cannes and the rest. Pop has the Brits and Grammys. Salut! Sunderland brings you the HAWAYS, honouring the best interviews with opposing fans – the Highly Articulate Who are You? awards.

We are delighted once again to have a trio of generous sponsors. The rough-and-ready shortlist is with judges but I shall extend the process this year to allow a popular vote, using the same criteria including the fact that my suggestions are intended as no more than a guide.

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Arsenal ‘Guess the Score’: just a matter of how many Defoe scores?

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Jake: ‘this is one I made now’

We all know relegated teams like to turn it on for the swansong. After the meekest of surrenders to Swansea, SAFC players – especially those with an eye on lucrative summer transfers – will accordingly raise their game at Arsenal. Two for Defoe, one more for Billy Jones as we romp to a 3-1 win. Mmm ….

Sunderland AFC: a club that can hire the dross we’ve seen hired and embrace CEOs and directors of football who bring only misery can still find the commercial nous needed to sack backroom staff and get rid of such a SAFC institution as the programme editor, Rob Mason.

We’ve plenty more to say, Messrs Short and Bain, so watch this space.

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A daughter asks: what is Jordan Pickford worth, should Liverpool buy him?

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He’s one of our own, but may soon be supporting us and not playing for us

We all know Monsieur Salut’s football-playing younger daughter Nathalie is not a Sunderland fan. OK, she quite likes us, maybe we’re her second team. She’s been dragged to see us a few times in her life. But her allegiance is Liverpool mainly because as a kid, she fancied John Barnes. So, what now for Jordan Pickford? We’ve all seen the crazy prices – crazily low as well as high – but what would you be happy to pay for him if your club was not Sunderland? ….

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Arsenal v Sunderland Who are You?: ‘acutely uncomfortable’ Moyes, faltering Wenger

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Jon Ryan: ‘Ozil and Sanchez would have fitted into the Invincibles’

Colin Randall writes: it is beginning to feel like a farewell. People supporting other clubs who have written, or been interviewed, in the past at Salut! Sunderland have been popping up again and this time it’s as we prepare to depart the Premier League. Will we have the stamina to find 46 ‘Who are You?’ candidates, plus fans of teams we meet for probably one round in each cup, next season? We’ll see.

Jon Ryan* is a friend, former colleague and lifelong Arsenal supporter. He misses the great occasions at Highbury, thinks the Emirates a great stadium as new ones go but little more than ‘part of the London entertainment scene’, and is worried about Arsène Wenger having been a great admirer. He’s been sympathetic all season towards SAFC but identified a need for change that hasn’t been forthcoming …

Naomi, a granddaughter already hooked

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Wrinkly Pete: Sunderland’s glass in smithereens but mine’s still half full after Swansea

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Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete

Peter Lynn is as disappointed and cross as anyone, but finds reason to look back with affection on at least one aspect of Saturday’s last Premier League SAFC home game for a season or more …


Well, my SOS – as in Save our Sunderland – never arrived but as Monsieur Salut has pointed out in recent weeks, the crystal ball predicting survival has rather let me down and finally shattered.

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Moyes on the Boys after Swansea cruise to victory: ‘SAFC deserved nothing’

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Moyes on the underperforming Boys

There really is little more to say. The best moments of the afternoon were 1) Rob Mason’s interview with Nick Barnes about being ‘let go’ by the club from his exemplary editing of the club programme (another rotten SAFC decision, but what a noble interview without a trace of bittneress) and 2) the sight of Bradley Lowery being carried on to the pitch beforehand by Jermain Defoe. For the rest, David Moyes got it right a couple of days ago – he and the players should have been hanging their heads in shame. Here are his usual post-match thoughts, …

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Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 0-2 Swansea City. Bravo Rob Mason, shame on Sunderland

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Jake: ‘was that a whimper I heard? No it was nothing’

Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith wondered at half time, Sunderland two down and looking like little boys lost, whether it was worth staying. He did. And continued to see a team devoid of leadership, character, flair or even – in many cases – passion. Embarrassing, Sixer said later. As bad as, if not worse than, anything he had seen in 53 years supporting our club. His seven-word verdict below is unchanged from half time, after which we had a clear penalty denied and a good chance spurned by Billy Jones but never truly seemed able to save the game …

Having led us to this sorry moment, our esteemed owner Ellis Short and his chief executive Martin Bain were watching from the stands. They, like the manager and players, should have been hanging their heads in shame – and not least because of their thoroughly rotten decision to get rid of the SAFC programme editor Rob Mason, a wonderful club historian and servant who deserved better than this shabby end (his pre-match interview with Nick Barnes oozed class, dignity and total lack of rancour) …

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Forget Oscars: the HAWAY awards are what matters to fans of Everton, Stoke, Chelsea … and Shrewsbury

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Jake: ‘with thanks to all opposing fans who participate’

Salut! Sunderland gets big hits for “Who are You?” interviews, the Q and A sessions with opposing fans that we publish before every game, writes Monsieur Salut.

And at the end of each season, we present the Haways – Highly Articulate Who Are You? awards – to those our judges deem to have been the best.

It is entirely subjective but a spot of fun. If any reader who follows the series wishes to have a say, please just leave a comment (using your correct e-mail address, which is not shown but I can see) and you will be contacted.

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Relishing victory at Hull and time to Guess the Score vs Swansea

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Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete

Monsieur Salut writes: talk about killing two birds with one stone. Peter Lynn has put away – probably smashed – the crystal ball that kept telling him we’d stay up. But he hasn’t lost the faith in an broader sense. He was at Hull and will, I imagine be at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

So read on, enjoy Wrinkly Pete’s reflections – and then guess the score in SAFC vs Swansea. Anyone can enter and the first reader to predict the correct result will eventually get a prize. Usual prizes – a suitable mug or the Nick Barnes Matchbook mini-version, either producing a small donation to the Bradley Lowery appeal fund – – and usual rules …

Ah but there is a great prize and it aids the Bradley Lowery campaign

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