Colin Randall

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

Salut! Sunderland’s 13 years, SAFC’s 13 managers. A Sixer series: (1) Roy Keane

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Roy Keane, as portrayed by Owen Lennox
Roy Keane, as portrayed by Sunderland artist Owen Lennox

Elections are a time for presenting old policies as new, re-announcing expenditure plans as if part of a bold, vote-winning new programme. Salut! Sunderland gets in on the act by re-announcing Pete Sixsmith‘s farewell series as the site winds down after very nearly 13 years.

Sixer came up with the idea of describing each of the 13 managers seen at Sunderland since the site first appeared at the beginning of 2007. For the first instalment, he recalled the towering ups and ultimate down of the Roy Keane era.

One of those annoying technical issues that have become so prevalent restricted readership of a typically fine Sixer read. Hence the reproduction of the piece today ahead of the second episode, which will look at Ricky Sbragia’s short spell in charge.

At the time, we longed for better. Keano’s pulsating promotion season was followed by tough struggles in the lower regions of the Premier League fixture. But we survived. And viewed from the closing months of 2019, when the team staggers from bad to worse and manages to exit three cup competitions before a new manager has his feet properly under the table, they were positively golden times.

As we lick our wounds after the latest abysmal performance, beaten 1-0 in the FA Cup first round replay at Gillingham (see Phil Parkinson’s reaction here), let Pete take up the story …

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Sixer’s Gillingham Sevens – Jozy’s looking good right now

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John McCormick writes: Although comments are still not being processed, which must put a dampener on participation, Wrinkly Pete did manage to get this into the system after Pete Sixsmith’s review of the Roy Keane era:

What a fitting way for the website to close – a Sixer Series. Fascinating too that he should choose the managers to focus on…. ”the ones what always gets the blame”. I look forward to episode 2.

Wrinkly Pete is totally correct in his appreciation of the other Pete, but not totally correct when he says the site is closing. It is true that the site is winding down but it will be around at least until fees already paid run out, and who knows then? So it’s quite possible there will be posts into 2020, and I’m sure some traditions will continue, one of which is a seven word text at the conclusion of each game.

In Mr. Sixsmith’s absence someone else does the text, which explains the asterisks at the start of each text, but not any superscript numbers.

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Salut! Sunderland’s 13 years and Sunderland’s 13 managers: (1) Keano

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Roy Keane, as portrayed by Owen Lennox
Roy Keane, as portrayed by Sunderland artist Owen Lennox

As Salut! Sunderland winds down, Pete Sixsmith comes up with an idea to keep us occupied in our remaining weeks. He will describe each of the 13 managers seen at Sunderland since this site was created at the beginning of 2007.

That means he starts by remembering the short, explosive reign of Roy Keane. It may be recalled that when Keano took over at a salary of £1m-a-year shortly after a calamitous start to the 2006-2007 season, he responded to a warts-and-all, player-by-player appraisal of the squad he was inheriting by saying: ‘Good grief (or similar)? I should have asked for £2m.’ …

Yet for a time, he made it work, a sensational bottom-to-top romp to promotion as champions followed by a hard-fought survival year back in the Premier League. Then it went wrong as Sixer explains …

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Wycombe, Oxford, Coventry and Fleetwood intrude. But what about Peterborough, Rotherham, Doncaster and Portsmouth?

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Another international weekend with Sunderland players called up. You might wonder how, given that we’re a League One club and we can barely  score, never mind keep a clean sheet. But let’s be thankful for small mercies, not only does it give the players a weekend without conceding, it also gives me a chance to bring us up to date before Pete Sixsmith starts a new series (I won’t tell you what it is but I will assure you of its quality) that will take us to Christmas and the site’s wind-down.

For my part, I’ll be keeping things brief. I still have neuropathy following my treatment (follow the link to find out what I’m on about)  and it’s likely to last a lot longer. Typing isn’t easy and creating and manipulating graphs takes forever, which explains why this lot aren’t a uniform size.

Still, things could be worse, I’ve now had two all-clear blood tests and we are still within spitting distance of the playoffs, as you will see below:

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Sixer’s Scunthorpe Sevens. Sunderland ironed flat

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Pete Sixsmith sent a bonfire night seven word text concerning the probability that we wouldn’t be making a trip to Wembley in the EFL Trophy.  Tonight’s match provided an opportunity to keep the flame alive. Pete was watching  Spennymoor beat Boston  so I coined a seven-word text of my own not long after  Luke O’Nien crowned  a pathetic display which ended an apathetic group stage.

Then, at the final whistle Pete popped up with his own seven words. You can see his and my thoughts below:

(We still can’t post comments on this site. If you wish to make an after- match, or any, comment of your own you can always have your say at Salut! Sunderland’s Facebook group. Click on any of the preceding four words. If you are told that you need to join the group, you can do so easily. Approval is very quick.)

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Not quite viral (2): a small world mourns Salut! Sunderland’s demise

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       M Salut always liked this Jake banner

Monsieur Salut writes: as the world now knows, Salut! Sunderland’s days are numbered. If you missed the news, it’s here: https://safc.blog/2019/11/the-end-of-an-era-salut-sunderlands-journey-will-soon-be-over/ (and no, I didn’t say Brexit was the reason, just that it was one reason – as you’ll see if you read the piece at that link).

The tributes and regrets continue to flow in via their various routes e-mails, Twitter, facebook and probably others I haven’t thought of.

Since we cannot publish comments, for reasons we have not been able to identify and correct, I shall use these pages to reproduce some of those we have received. There will undoubtedly be more …

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Not quite viral (1): a social media world reacts to Salut! Sunderland’s doom

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The Jake illustration that says its all

Another of Monsieur Salut’s messages: news of our imminent demise has touched a nerve. Plenty of people have written about what Salut! Sunderland meant to them and how they’ll miss it. One other Sunderland-related site says our writers would be welcome there. SAFC.com promises room at the club site. It’s all very sad, but at the same time uplifting to know we mattered if only a little.

Because of our technical issues, only one reader was able to post – or try to post – a comment. It came from Stephen Walker, ‘Fulwellender’:

“Sadly, it hasn’t been long since I knew of your existence. Nevertheless you have brightened my day more than once, and being an exile from my home town, I have enjoyed reading a much better standard than most dohsters around. I fervently hope you and your good lady have a seamless route to enjoying life as you are now [a reference to comments in my pre-farewell piece and the impact the spectre of Brexit is having on our lives]. I salut(e) you, sir!”

Messages of goodwill and sorrow have also arrived via other sources so let us indulge ourselves and share some of them.

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Sixer’s Gillingham Soapbox: ‘I worry about the state of the club’

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Sixer as an unwanted replay looms: ‘The way we are playing at the moment, we could do without any kind of game’

AS YOU ALL KNOW, WE ARE CURRENTLY UNABLE TO PUBLISH COMMENTS. BUT THANKS TO JEFF BELL, WHO TRIED TO POST THIS: ‘A fabulous report from this fabulous site. We will miss you more than you know.’

Monsieur Salut writes: after our announcement of imminent demise, Salut! Sunderland has the look of the undead. There are a few weeks to go before we cease to function as an active site (Dec 31) and much will continue as before until then.

For Pete Sixsmith, suffering at the Stadium of Light as Sunderland failed to overcome Gillingham and advance in the FA Cup, much continued as before on the pitch. He describes an afternoon he would sooner have spent elsewhere and frets about the state of our club.

M Salut would like to thank the many readers who have left kind messages on social media; these will be collated and reproduced in due course …

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Sixer’s Sevens: Sunderland 1 Gillingham 1 is not a good omen

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Pete Sixsmith has sent some interesting seven word texts in recent weeks, many of them on the pessimistic side. The most recent alluded to the probability that we won’t make a trip to Wembley in the EFL Trophy, although our cause is not yet dead.

This weekend’s game also provided an opportunity to travel on the Wembley Wagon. At half time Pete texted “comfortable without being totally convincing”, and how many times have we got to that stage thinking a 1-0 lead wasn’t enough? Of course, it wasn’t as Gillingham equalised almost from the kickoff and then held on for the draw.

So our journey’s not yet over although if Pete’s texts – two of them again – are any indicator we won’t be going anywhere soon. Or will we?

(We still can’t post comments on this site. If you wish to make an after- match, or any, comment of your own you can always have your say at Salut! Sunderland’s Facebook group. Click on any of the preceding four words. If you are told that you need to join the group, you can do so easily. Approval is very quick.)

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The end of an era. Salut! Sunderland’s journey will soon be over

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ESSENTIAL UPDATE: please see this link – https://safc.blog/salut-sunderlands-mark-twain-moment-were-not-dying-but-in-reanimation/ – to find oiut what . is happening to the site

IF YOU WISH TO OFFER YOUR VIEWS ON WHAT APPEARS BELOW PLEASE WRITE TO this e-mail address AND YOUR COMMENTS WILL APPEAR IN DUE COURSE – THERE HAVE ALREADY BEEN MANY KIND MESSAGES ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND THESE WILL BE REPRODUCED HERE

YOU CAN ALSO COMMENT AT OUR FACEBOOK GROUP. This is the link

Monsieur Salut, aka Colin Randall, has a personal message for the valued readers of Salut! Sunderland …

All good things come to an end. Or so it is said.

Whether Salut! Sunderland is seen as a good thing can be left to others to judge. But it looks very much as if it is coming to an end.

After very nearly 13 years, in which time the site has been visited more than 4.2 million times (that’s using a statistical counter installed some time after our launch so the true figure is higher), I have decided I can no longer devote the time I consider necessary to maintain the high standards we have consistently aimed to achieve. Salut! Sunderland will not be regularly updated after Dec 31 2019 and may not be updated at all. Some time is left in the hosting agreement with GoDaddy and the site will still be visible until that ends. A sleeping but doomed beauty is my fanciful description..

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