Colin Randall

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

Bolton Who are You?: ‘isn’t he a bit like Bale?’

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Who can they possibly mean? Are there lots of Egyptians in Bolton?

So Sunderland, our own El Bale and all, take on the high-flying Wanderers on Saturday. But this is an emergency “Who are You?”. It always seems tough, for some reason, to find Bolton fans to do this feature, and the search hasn’t been helped by illness, at their end and ours. We haven’t quite given up, but this may have to do …

Teams of highly trained Salut! Sunderland sleuths scoured Lancashire, indeed the world, for someone answering the description “warm, witty or wise supporter of Bolton Wanderers.

Mindful of our great tradition of getting an opposing supporter to preview each match (except when every Stoke City fan seemed to be saying “rearrange off and f*** into a well-known phrase or saying”), we kept going until the very end. And then the end came. Sadly, our intrepid search party had drawn a blank.

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Mid-term reports (1): SAFC should be top by now

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Imagine: top of the Premier without needing to fret about Manchester United’s game in hand. Even writing the headline could make you feel dizzy. It is such a priceless thought that Salut! Sunderland will leave to others to conduct their own mental arithmetic and conclude whether Bill Taylor, in the first of our mid-term reviews as we approach the end of the year, has his sums right …

Here we are, getting closer to the halfway point of the season and the Cats are, give or take a place, two-thirds of the way up the Premier League table and only 10 points behind Manchester Untied.

Not so dusty, eh?

Well, yes and no.

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Blackburn lunacy sums up new breed of owners

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Salut! Sunderland writers are rallying to a sick man’s cause. Bill Taylor has contributed the first of what is intended to be a series of mid or middish term reviews, and will get the ball rolling tomorrow. First, our mysterious Birflatt Boy emerges once more from the shadows to offer a rant on growing managerial instability …

It’s the festive season for most of us, but the start of the silly season which was heralded by Chris Hughton’s dismissal last week has arguably been trumped by the news that Sam Allardyce has been dismissed from his job at Blackburn Rovers.

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Big Sam, the pickled poor and Salut: all sick as parrots

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This is what the Wikipedia entry for norovirus says:

The disease is usually self-limiting, and characterised by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain; and in some cases, loss of taste. General lethargy, weakness, muscle aches, headache, and low-grade fever may occur.

It sounds as if that’s what I’ve had since not too long after the Fulham boredraw. It’s been nicknamed the skiver’s complaint and no virus, but a measure of its impact on this self-proclaimed sufferer is that he has not only avoided a drop of alcohol for 72 hours but has never felt less like taking one.

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The Fulham Soapbox: no outing the Cottagers

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Was even X Factor more entertaining that this, without costing £35 to watch? A bore draw with little to relieve the tedium beyond the magnificence of John Mensah. At least Pete Sixsmith enjoyed the pre-match real ale …

Last year at Craven Cottage, we succumbed to a Bobby Zamora goal, saw Anton Ferdinand limp off and began an awful run which left didn’t end until late February.

Twelve months on, we took a point in a dull 0-0 draw, Anton Ferdinand limped off and it is difficult to see a repeat of last year’s trials and tribulations. But is taking a point off Fulham enough?

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Fulham 0 SAFC 0 Observed: no seasonal sparkle

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A draw at Fulham is not a bad result. But it came in a game of few thrills, little quality, hardly any talking points – except the question of whether Mark Hughes told his players to go out and rough up John Mensah in the knowledge of what the loss of the injury-prone centre back would have meant. Let us say no more than it looked that way a couple of times. Pete Sixsmith went into action again for The Observer…

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A case for the defence – and prayers for Mensah’s fitness

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All week Salut! Sunderland has been promising a new writer, and here he is: Neil Ruttley, who popped up with this thoughtful look at the defensive problems – and options – confronting Steve Bruce …

The coming month will be pivotal to Sunderland’s season, a month in which Steve Bruce has much to ponder.

If he gets it right, Bruce could become the most succesful Sunderland manager since Peter Reid. If he gets it wrong, the current cold snap could become another “winter of discontent” as he likes to describe last year’s 14 game winless run.

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