Colin Randall

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

Who are you? We’re Manchester United (2)

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helge

That’s more like it, Salut! Sunderland said mischievously: a Manchester United supporter in the Red Devils’ heartland of – you guessed – Denmark. But Helge Conradsen* is not just another far-away, never-been-to-Old-Trafford gloryseeker. He heads Denmark’s branch of the MUFC supporters’ club, has 47 years’ service as a United fan, owns a dog named after Cantona and is probably the best-known and most knowledgeable of all the club’s Danish fans. We love the way his brother “was once” a supporter of Sunderland (how can such an allegiance be fleeting?) …

Salut! Sunderland How does a Danish person end up supporting Manchester United fan? Why not Hull City or Derby County, for example, or your local club in Denmark?

I was 10 when I saw my first FA Cup Final on Danish TV. It was in 1963. Manchester United played Leicester City. I didn’t know anything about the teams but the team in the dark shirts (there was no colour TV then) played really well. A small striker caught my eyes. I found out that the name of the team was Manchester United and that the name of the player was Denis Law. Since then Manchester United have been my passion and Law my favourite player. I follow both English and Danish football but nothing can compare with Manchester United.

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Who are you? We’re Manchester United (1)

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liam2


This may be a first. A fan from the City of Manchester has been found, verified as a United supporter and persuaded to preview the game at Old Trafford on Saturday. That was cheap and grossly unfair, or at least United fans would say so. Of course there are Man Utd supporters in Manchester and the surrounding area; it is just that there are so many of them in far-flung corners of the word that the global glory-seeking jibe comes naturally to the lips or keyboard. Liam Bradford*, assistant editor of United first fanzine, Red News, and press officer for the Independent Manchester United Supporters’ Association (IMUSA) puts us right. Next stop? Denmark! …

Salut! Sunderland:

The last United fan in the Who Are You? series at Salut! Sunderland was a 100 per cent Manc who gets very irritated when people say they’re a world brand, not a proper club. What say you?

HOW VERY DARE YOU!!!!!!! We are both! As much as we hate to admit it, we are a successful football club that got turned into a worldwide recognised brand. What you do have to consider is that no football club means no brand where no brand means that there’s still a football club. We have to be a proper club don’t we? How do you define “proper club” anyway? founded in 1878, but we aren’t a proper club? It’s difficult isn’t it? The long and short of it is that we have to understand now that we are both customer and fan to a team that is both football club and world brand.

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The Kenwyne debate: a critic speaks

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jeremy

For Pete Sixsmith, any remaining question marks concerning Kenwyne Jones’s commitment, ability and contribution were removed on Sunday afternoon, not when Darren Bent handed him the second penalty – to Steve Bruce’s subsequent fury – but when he cut across to put us back in front with the sweetest of strikes. Jeremy Robson has been one of Kenwyne’s fiercest critics. Did Sunday bring about a damascene conversion? Jeremy explains why he stills wants more …

Did the real Kenwyne Jones stand up against Wolves, Salut! Sunderland asked?

If ever there was a loaded question along the lines “Have you stopped beating your grandmother yet?”, this was it. Undeterred, I will get back to the question, and unlike politicians who might meander around the subject for so long that the question becomes lost in the mix, I will give a concise answer. Did KJ stand up. Well, he certainly got off his stool.

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Soapbox: keeping the Wolves from the door

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Debate? What debate? Pete Sixsmith watches Sunderland score five without quite performing as if about to storm into the top four. But one thing that did please him (apart from reaching a points tally that leave us just 28 short of safety) was goal number three. It prompted Pete to give short shrift to doubts about Kenwyne Jones …


The great Kenwyne Jones debate was surely shelved at 5.35 when he moved across the front of the goal, left two defenders for dead and whipped a 20 yard shot past the Wolves keeper. It put us 3-2 up, and as Mick McCarthy’s men s legs were beginning to wobble, set up what looks, on paper, like a comfortable 5-2 win.

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Did the real Kenwyne stand up today?

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Salut! Sunderland is looking this week at Kenwyne Jones, whose performances seem to have the power to divide Sunderland fans between unwavering admirers and serious detractors. Will today’s two goals, in the 5-2 home win against Wolves, settle the argument? Don’t bet on it, says Colin Randall …

Take a look at the Premier top scorers’ list tonight and you’ll see that Sunderland have two strikers riding high: Darren Bent on six, assuming the decisive deflection rules out his claims to a second goal today, Kenwyne Jones on four.

That’s a healthy showing. But Kenwyne has still not won his way back (after last season’s decline in form) into the hearts of all fans and, if paper talk has any basis in reality, has – or, maybe after his two goals today, had – some convincing to do for Steve Bruce.

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The celebs who support Sunderland: A-list or Z-list?

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Colin Randall has only himself to blame for being lumbered with a search for celeb supporters of Sunderland. He accepted the task cheerfully. He should have known better, having previously done a Famous on the Fulwell piece for A Love Supreme. But he persevered …

It was probably the most crushing condemnation of all the work we put into making Salut! Sunderland a half-decent site.

In one of those periodic threads at Ready to Go about celeb supporters of Sunderland, I yet again pointed out that the most comprehensive and reliable list, with interviews, had appeared here. And someone came back like a rocket to say he hadn’t even heard of half my candidates.

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Who are you? We’re Wolves (2)

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If Andy Nicholls played the long ball, with a few elegant runs here and there, our second Wolverhampton Wanderers supporter, Garry Dingley*, found via the Wolves-Mad fan site, prefers it short and sweet. And he grows in confidence as he goes on: an unknown third slot for relegation is filled, a few questions later, by Stoke City. Read on to see who else he reckons will go down, and who he thinks will win on Sunday. Salut! Sunderland thanks all Wolves fans for their interest – plus Jody Craddock for permission to showcase his art …

Salut! Sunderland: A lot of our fans wondered how Mick McCarthy might have done with the money available to Keane and Bruce. Has he had enough at Wolves and has he spent it wisely?

I think he could of done with a little bit more so we could get one or two players in with Premier experience. He does seem to rely on players who have played for him before thought.

On that note, Greg Halford seems to be picking up a lot of five out of tens in newspaper player ratings. He was a great disappointment at our place. Still not up to it? What about other signings from Sunderland eg Neil Collins and Jody Craddock?

Halford as been moved to full back now and as played well there. I never liked Collins but Jody isn’t a bad player at all now.

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Who are you? We’re Wolves (1)

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If no one minds, this week’s Who are you? feature, ahead of SAFC v Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday, is an in memoriam edition. It honours David Graves, a Wolves-supporting colleague and great friend who died in a diving accident seven years ago, and Jake, the baby taken by cot death syndrome a year later from Jody Craddock, a centre back who has been a model of commitment and professionalism at both Sunderland and Wolves. Fittingly, the game is previewed – in the first of two Black Country contributions – by Andy Nicholls*, another Wolves man with a Mackem connection …

Briefly, David was a reporter I had known since our days together at the Press Association. He was extremely good at his job but also a committed family man. He, his wife Diana and their two boys deserved better than that he should die while diving in the Bahamas. He would have been my first choice to answer questions prior to a Wolves v Sunderland encounter.

Equally briefly, Jody – coincidentally a big fan of Bahamas holidays – was still a mainstay of our defence when he and his wife Shelley, lost Jake at just five months. Jody, a gifted art student when at school, returned to canvas to work through his grief. His work – which can be seen and bought at his own site – illustrates (with Jody’s consent) this series of excellent responses from Andy Nicholls, from the top Wolves fan site Molineux Mix. Our thoughts are with both families.


And here are the questions …

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