Monsieur Salut writes: it’s early July so that means, after an exhilarating Women’s World Cup (can we please sign Rose Lavelle and Janine Beckie?), it’s Wimbledon and the Tour de France.
A while back, we had a series about ‘another team I like’ which evolved into ‘my other sporting passion’. Before petering out, it produced one or two decent entries (and some some intriguing promises of entries, not in the end fulfilled).
Watching French TV as the peloton was winding its way through the lush Marne countryside reminded me of Pete Sixsmith‘s splendid piece about why he loved this competition. Martin Emmerson, when not commentating for BBC Newcastle on Durham County Cricket Club, is another fan. Here, from 2010, is how Sixer saw it then …
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Ipswich or Portsmouth? Rotherham or Peterborough? How about Lincoln or Coventry? It’s your choice
Last season our punters got it more or less right and correctly predicted most of the top six. Luton were missed but that was mainly down to the Coventry Ninjas, whose hijack of last year’s poll pushed them (Luton) out of the top places.
Maybe the ninjas or another club’s fans will do the same again this season. As far as I’m aware the polldaddy vulnerability that allowed multiple voting still exists and all I can do is disable the ability of readers to see the results in real time. That might change how the poll coding works (it’s built-in and can’t be changed) but it takes something away. A pity, but there we go.
I’ve got a lot on for the next few weeks so I won’t be conjuring up a novel method of tracking and displaying our chosen clubs’ progress or the lack of it. All I’ll be doing is monitoring the accretion of points for now, though I might come up with something different later in the season.
As always, your comments are welcome. We hold posts for moderation but they do go up eventually, subject to meeting commonsense rules of decency, manners, libel etc.
Salut! Sunderland welcomes Lee Burge, competition for Jon McLaughlin
Fans, understandably, look at new signings and, if a player is coming on a free transfer, feel underwhelmed and wonder whether progress is actually being made.
Long experience has taught Monsieur Salut to avoid rash judgements just because July starts without any major new additions. On that wretched but sometimes useful thing that is social media (beware, Trump’s there a lot), there are already early signs of concern, dismay and even panic among Sunderland supporters. Trump hasn’t yet expressed a view.
But Lee Burge, a goalkeeper newly released by Coventry City. arrives at the SoL as stand-in and competition – PLEASE, not as a replacement – for the excellent Jon Mclaughlin. He and Conor McLaughlin, a full back from Millwall, appear to be Jack Ross’s choices and for as long as we keep the faith in Ross, we must trust his judgement.
And come what may, Burge and McLaughlin – their photos appear by courtesy of safc.com –
deserve and get the traditional Salut! Sunderland welcome.
Lee Cattermole out, another McLaughlin in as Sunderland preparations move up a gear
A commonsense end to a long-serving player’s Sunderland career or a shock announcement few saw coming: two ways of seeing today’s news that Lee Cattermole has left with immediate effect.
Cattermole’s departure makes sense because a League One club really should not be paying an injury-prone midfielder a reported £40,000 a week. In any case, financial fair play rules oblige SAFC to cut their wage bill.
Just Blackpool and Bolton, the financial ramble continues without Bury or Sunderland.
I expected to be finishing this series with a single post. It’s just not possible. While things have moved ahead with Blackpool, they seems to have stalled at Bolton and Sunderland still have to get out of the starting blocks. And as for Bury, their can has been kicked far down the road in the hope of allowing a solution that it reached the start of next season. Unfortunately, that only seems to have allowed more problems to build up, or at least existing ones to grow.
And with that the word length just kept getting bigger and bigger and the page length longer and longer. So once more I’ve decided to split the page and give you a where we’re at with Bolton and Blackpool and leave Bury and Sunderland to another day.As ever supporters of both Blackpool and Bolton are welcome to chip in with their corrections, additions, thoughts, observations, even hopes, subject to the rules of decency, libel and so on. You maybe held for moderation but any posts meeting our standards do go up eventually.
From Rotherham to Wycombe Wanderers via Shrewsbury Town, Southend United and Tranmere Rovers: our third financial ramble
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
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.