Colin Randall

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

Will the real Mauricio Pochettino stand up or feel ‘entitled to go down’?

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Jake: ‘will VAR and punishment after the crime just make cheats better at cheating?’

Monsieur Salut: would I have taken survival last season, would I take survival this season, if it depended on a blatant act of cheating by a Sunderland player? Easy to say no when, in the heart, you might mean yes, maybe or depends. But I’ll stick to my guns and say no. And whatever individual fans feel about matters affecting their teams, football as a sport should rise above natural human instincts to win at whatever cost …

A realistic breath of fresh air or a deplorable attempt to defend the indefensible? That appears to be our choice as we assess the Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino’s efforts to shrug off diving as unimportant.

Salut! Sunderland has never sat on the fence. Diving is cheating. It should have no place in the game. Perpetrators ought to be boiled in oil or, if medieval punishments are out of fashion, suspended for three or more games. When a Sunderland player dives, as Dele Alil does so often for Spurs, we make no attempt to defend or excuse.

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A boy in tears. Remembering Manchester United and Munich 60 years on

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Lining up for that last game together, against Red Star: (L to R) Edwards, Colman, Jones, Morgans, Charlton, Viollet, Taylor, Foulkes, Gregg, Scanlon, Byrne. By Scanpix, via Wikimedia Commons

Monsieur Salut writes: no one at ESPN will mind, I am sure, if I repeat an example of my own work for them to mark the anniversary of the Munich air crash that inflicted such terrible losses on Manchester United’s Busby Babes, and the journalistic talent of their city, 60 years ago today. This is how I remembered it in a piece published before a SAFC-Man Utd match five years ago. There will be small changes to make it more relevant to our supporters or update the text, which necessarily applied to the game I was previewing for ESPN. Sunderland were still in the Premier League and the article as it originally appeared would therefore seem a little outdated …

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Bristol City Guess the Score – and are we harsh on Ellis Short?

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Have a go. It costs nowt (rather like most of our recruits)

 

Monsieur Salut writes: this is really the new instalment of Guess the Score. Enter below the scoreline you expect, hope or fear at Ashton Gate on Saturday. If you are first with the correct result, you will win a prize though you must have a UK delivery address to receive it. Ha’way the Lads and all that but forgive me if there seems very little else worth saying about a game most of us probably have uneasy feelings about while hoping for the best …

 

Yes, I got angry at the weekend and directed some of my anger at our absent, reluctant owner. Yes, he has plenty to answer for.

One crass comment in his tame, underarm bowling sort of interview with the official club site in November particularly annoyed me. He complained that anything that appeared in the media about him was based on speculation or invention because “I don’t talk to the press”.

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Sixer’s Ipswich Soapbox: a waste of time and money

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Pete Sixsmith

John McCormick writes: I started Pete Sixsmith‘s report on yesterday’s game at 11.01 on Sunday. It took me about 20 minutes. I can’t tell you how long Pete spent writing it but given its usual high standard you can be sure he put some effort into it.

If you felt so inclined you could calculate how much Jack Rodwell earned in that time*.  Or estimate how much effort was made yesterday. Alternatively, you could ask yourself – why bother?

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Sixer’s Sevens: Ipswich double tells us a hard truth

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Jake: ‘it’s not always pretty’

John McCormick writes: It’s half time and we’re 2-0 down in our first game after the closure of the transfer window. I blame Ellis Short. I’ve previously supported him as a good thing; now I think he’s tearing the heart from the club.

Pete Sixsmith’s seven word text, sent immediately as the game ended – without another goal – can be taken as corroboration. It describes exactly what happens when a decent manager in a great club is starved of funds.

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The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Ipswich Town

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Pete Sixsmith

John McCormick writes: I’m quite sure I was at the Stoke match Pete mentions in this report; Ed, his brother and I certainly did go to the Victoria Ground at the start of one season in the late sixties, but yet again we have a home game which eludes my memory. Surely I was there.

No matter, Pete Sixsmith was definitely there, and 50 years later, more or less, he does us proud by recalling the game:

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Sunderland’s transfer window: bring on Coleman’s cavalry charge or fear the worst

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Pete Sixsmith then (not so long ago) … paper rounds and worry mean he’s a lot trimmer now

Monsieur Salut writes: I asked Pete Sixsmith to cast a critical eye over the ins and outs now that the transfer window has slammed shut – shattered? – on us. I did not expect to find him absent from duty running in sheer joy up and down Busty Bank (which takes the envious souls of South Church up to Shildon). I didn’t fear we’d need to drag him from celebration drinks at whatever they call the Surtees or Red Lion these days, shouting all the while in praise of our saviours Ellis Short and Martin Bain. I sort of expected the cool, measured, underwhelmed appraisal that follows …

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Ipswich Town Who are You?: ‘my Mackem brother-in-law said SAFC would go up’

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Monsieur Salut writes: on Twitter, where we found him, he goes by the name of ITFC COYB. Darren Elmy* is a Glasgow-based Ipswich Town fan who would normally have been at Saturday’s game as he loves visiting Sunderland and has Mackem family connections. Unfortunately he cannot make it but we do have his thoughts on both clubs and the match.

Darren’s a professional gambler; we hope he loses any stake he places on his predicted scoreline – 1-1 – but hammers the bookies if he hedges his bets with money on an emphatic home win …

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The Lars word: Sunderland’s a Yo-yo team

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Lars Knutsen touching base

John McCormick writes: the transfer window has closed. Did Coleman get what he wanted? A keeper and an experienced forward – yes, although maybe not the ones originally on his radar. A defender and a midfielder up for the fight – yes, and the Scousers I’ve spoken to rate Ejaria. So will we stay up?

There’s a poll running so you can give us your opinion and to help you decide we have Pete Sixsmith later and Lars Knutsen right now:

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