Here are the last five of the clubs in League One apart from Blackpool, Bolton, Bury and Sunderland, who will arrive presently, by which I mean when I get round to it.
As ever, visiting fans are welcome to post comments, corrections, updates and their thoughts on their and other clubs’ prospects for the season.
For earlier posts in this series try these links:
Clubs beginning A-L: Rambling through Accrington, Coventry and Ipswich to Lincoln. How do Sunderland’s rivals shape up financially?
Clubs from M (MK Dons) to R (Rochdale): From MK Dons to Rochdale via Oxford, Peterborough and Portsmouth: it’s a short financial ramble
Colin Randall
From MK Dons to Rochdale via Oxford, Peterborough and Portsmouth: it’s a short financial ramble
There was only one answer. I had to split the piece and cover only five clubs, meaning there will be a part three for the last five and part four for the Lancashire Bs and Sunderland. These will arrive at some yet undetermined point in the future, bet you can’t wait.
Rotherham: where better to celebrate Sunderland’s promotion?
This time last year, we were wondering whether a May weekend in Southend would be our promotion party. We know what happened to that fond dream.
How do you all fancy Rotherham as the ideal place to celebrate a return to the Championship?
It’s just a provisional list, liable to change for international demands, congestion caused by cup ties and TV.
And it starts with a home game against Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven’s lifelong football passion, Oxford United.
We have no idea what kind of line-up will be available to Jack Ross for Aug 3. We do know the team will get a hearty backing with 22,000 season tickets already sold. And it is clear beyond doubt that after the disappointments of the season just ended, a good start will be expected.
Lasses cannot play football. Will the Women’s World Cup finally bury this falsehood?
Who, like me, looked on in admiration at Janine Beckie’s corners for Canada against New Zealand and thought, “let’s hope …
An evening with Nyron and helping hands for a Sunderland school and the fans’ museum
Roy Keane famously said the less time Nyron Nosworthy spent on the ball, the better for all concerned. He was probably right; a much-loved cult figure at the Stadium of Light, Nyron in possession anywhere near our goal was nevertheless cause for apprehension, not excitement.
But Michael Ganley and his colleagues at the Sunderland AFC fans’ museum are confident our Nyron will be on the the ball to everyone’s benefit when he attends a fund-raising event there on July 5.
Rambling through Accrington, Coventry and Ipswich to Lincoln. How do Sunderland’s rivals shape up financially?
I thought I’d take a look at their finances. Nothing detailed, just a skim through any entries at Companies House and a quick perusal of a search engine, enough to kill some time I have and satisfy idle curiosity. My idea was to divide the twenty into two and cover 10 clubs each time. After that matters should have moved ahead with the Lancashire Bs and Sunderland’s takeover and I should be able to revisit these four.
Simon Grayson, Steve Bruce, Ahmed Elmohamady, David Meyler, Paul McShane: a Hull of a connection
John McCormick writes Did we get rid of Simon Grayson too early? There are some stats that say we could have and you might want to look back on my end of season review before reaching a conclusion. And what about Steve Bruce? It’s just on ten years since he was appointed by Sunderland, only to be sacked some 2½ years later when we were mid-premiership. Only ten years? Mid-Premiership? It seems like a lifetime.
Bruce then went to Hull, where he became a hero before walking out, which appears to be the norm for Hull managers this past decade, with Nigel Adkins having followed Marco Silva and Leonid Slutsky in not completing or renewing a contract (Mike Phelan is the exception, he was sacked).
After Nigel Adkins announced his departure Simon Grayson seemed to be an early favourite to take over. Perhaps he still is, although I haven’t seen his name for a couple of days. Personally, I wish him well although Hull could prove to be a poisoned chalice, and he’s drunk enough from them recently.
We’ve exchanged a few players with Hull, too. Frazier Campbell is still with them, having re-signed in 2017, and others who have worn both sets of stripes are still plying their trade in various leagues (even Paul McShane until his release by Reading at the end of the season), so I thought I’d dip into the archives and take a trip back to June 16th 2013, when our guest, Sam Campbell, looked back on a few tempestuous years, for Hull, not us.
Will Hull’s tempestuous years continue? Assem Allam is still there, apparently holding out for better offers, so they might Until we know, here’s the excellent piece Sam wrote exactly, and only, six years ago, with an introduction that also reflected our status at that time:
Sunderland’s retained list: Who’s yet to take a walk? Who’s yet to arrive at our doors?
We know there’s a lot of rebuilding to do. We know we have some expensive players on our books who we really can’t afford. And we know we have some talent we want to keep.
So there’s a balancing act to do, and our retained list is just the start. Some of these players won’t be here when the the season kicks off. Others will.
The big question for me is what kind of club are we building? Are we buyers or sellers? We’re League One, which means bigger clubs – and there are many of them now -can attract our players, both those established and worth a bit more, or youths who can be lured away to the lights and the likes of Anfield Stadium.
We do have prospects. Our Academy is coming a little bit good, some of the better lads seem willing to stay, and we can afford players beyond the scope of many of our competitors. It looks like an interesting pre-season is beginning.
Salut! Sunderland presents: The best goal I ever scored/never scored
John McCormick writes: It was M Salut himself who got me going, but only after Malcolm had chipped in with his two-penneth (one penneth before, one penneth after). Both described goals they had or hadn’t scored in the “comments” area of a short post about the naming of George Honeyman as captain, and the spark behind their reminiscences was a phrase used by one of our readers, Brian, in a comment of his own.
So I’ve chipped in with my best (almost only, though I did score twice in a University intramural league and had a third disallowed) goal and we hope you’ll do the same to liven up the dull days between the announcement of fixtures and the actual getting to them. No prizes, I’m afraid, just the honour, the glory and the adulation that will no doubt come from our readership as they recognise you as a true hero of football.
From Morecambe to Blackpool, Blackburn, Bolton and Bury, then Liverpool, Everton and Tranmere. It’s an Historic Lancashire Ramble
WordPress seems happier with Win7 than Win10, and a change of computer has let me add more content and repost the report I did a few hours ago:
It was January 2017 when I last reported on this side of the Pennines, which is not surprising, given the season(s) – and close seasons – we’ve had recently. it’s a bit quieter now, so I thought it a good time to revisit before things get lively again. Some of the clubs I visited have improved their circumstances, others have seen their situations worsen and quite a few of them are now sharing a division with us, not all in the best of circumstances.
Indeed, some will make you wonder why all the fuss about us finishing fifth and missing out on promotion against Charlton, who themselves are not in the best of circumstances, given the owner is looking to sell and appears to have already given up on promotion, although he hadn’t ruled it out completely yesterday.
Charlton fans are welcome to post their thoughts but Charlton are not the issue today, the focus is firmly on the historic County of Lancashire…
