League One comprises 24 clubs. Three of them, Bury, Bolton and Blackpool, are entering, exiting or plodging in the clarts of receivership. Leaving them and Sunderland aside gives us twenty clubs.
I thought I’d take a look at their finances. Nothing detailed, just a skim through any entries at Companies House and a quick perusal of a search engine, enough to kill some time I have and satisfy idle curiosity. My idea was to divide the twenty into two and cover 10 clubs each time. After that matters should have moved ahead with the Lancashire Bs and Sunderland’s takeover and I should be able to revisit these four.
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Simon Grayson, Steve Bruce, Ahmed Elmohamady, David Meyler, Paul McShane: a Hull of a connection
John McCormick writes Did we get rid of Simon Grayson too early? There are some stats that say we could have and you might want to look back on my end of season review before reaching a conclusion. And what about Steve Bruce? It’s just on ten years since he was appointed by Sunderland, only to be sacked some 2½ years later when we were mid-premiership. Only ten years? Mid-Premiership? It seems like a lifetime.
Bruce then went to Hull, where he became a hero before walking out, which appears to be the norm for Hull managers this past decade, with Nigel Adkins having followed Marco Silva and Leonid Slutsky in not completing or renewing a contract (Mike Phelan is the exception, he was sacked).
After Nigel Adkins announced his departure Simon Grayson seemed to be an early favourite to take over. Perhaps he still is, although I haven’t seen his name for a couple of days. Personally, I wish him well although Hull could prove to be a poisoned chalice, and he’s drunk enough from them recently.
We’ve exchanged a few players with Hull, too. Frazier Campbell is still with them, having re-signed in 2017, and others who have worn both sets of stripes are still plying their trade in various leagues (even Paul McShane until his release by Reading at the end of the season), so I thought I’d dip into the archives and take a trip back to June 16th 2013, when our guest, Sam Campbell, looked back on a few tempestuous years, for Hull, not us.
Will Hull’s tempestuous years continue? Assem Allam is still there, apparently holding out for better offers, so they might Until we know, here’s the excellent piece Sam wrote exactly, and only, six years ago, with an introduction that also reflected our status at that time:
Sunderland’s retained list: Who’s yet to take a walk? Who’s yet to arrive at our doors?
We know there’s a lot of rebuilding to do. We know we have some expensive players on our books who we really can’t afford. And we know we have some talent we want to keep.
So there’s a balancing act to do, and our retained list is just the start. Some of these players won’t be here when the the season kicks off. Others will.
The big question for me is what kind of club are we building? Are we buyers or sellers? We’re League One, which means bigger clubs – and there are many of them now -can attract our players, both those established and worth a bit more, or youths who can be lured away to the lights and the likes of Anfield Stadium.
We do have prospects. Our Academy is coming a little bit good, some of the better lads seem willing to stay, and we can afford players beyond the scope of many of our competitors. It looks like an interesting pre-season is beginning.
Salut! Sunderland presents: The best goal I ever scored/never scored
John McCormick writes: It was M Salut himself who got me going, but only after Malcolm had chipped in with his two-penneth (one penneth before, one penneth after). Both described goals they had or hadn’t scored in the “comments” area of a short post about the naming of George Honeyman as captain, and the spark behind their reminiscences was a phrase used by one of our readers, Brian, in a comment of his own.
So I’ve chipped in with my best (almost only, though I did score twice in a University intramural league and had a third disallowed) goal and we hope you’ll do the same to liven up the dull days between the announcement of fixtures and the actual getting to them. No prizes, I’m afraid, just the honour, the glory and the adulation that will no doubt come from our readership as they recognise you as a true hero of football.
From Morecambe to Blackpool, Blackburn, Bolton and Bury, then Liverpool, Everton and Tranmere. It’s an Historic Lancashire Ramble
WordPress seems happier with Win7 than Win10, and a change of computer has let me add more content and repost the report I did a few hours ago:
It was January 2017 when I last reported on this side of the Pennines, which is not surprising, given the season(s) – and close seasons – we’ve had recently. it’s a bit quieter now, so I thought it a good time to revisit before things get lively again. Some of the clubs I visited have improved their circumstances, others have seen their situations worsen and quite a few of them are now sharing a division with us, not all in the best of circumstances.
Indeed, some will make you wonder why all the fuss about us finishing fifth and missing out on promotion against Charlton, who themselves are not in the best of circumstances, given the owner is looking to sell and appears to have already given up on promotion, although he hadn’t ruled it out completely yesterday.
Charlton fans are welcome to post their thoughts but Charlton are not the issue today, the focus is firmly on the historic County of Lancashire…
Salut! Sunderland’s HAWAY award-winning entry and two noble gestures from Bristol Rovers and Walsall
Monsieur Salut writes: by tradition, Salut! Sunderland reproduces the Who are You? interview that has won our top HAWAY award. There is a twist, and a much-appreciated one. Doug Shields, a Bristol Rovers fan and the author, said he would prefer his prize to go to ‘a decent charity in Sunderland’. The runner-up, Richard Hall (Walsall), immediately made a similar gesture, asking for a replica top to go to an inner-city Sunderland school, perhaps as a prize for its summer fete. There you have it: football’s antidote to the shame brought by lowlife hoodlums running amok in Portugal in pretence of supporting England.
I shall offer an Art of Football print – the Sunderland range can be seen here and is superb – to the newish Sunderland fans’ museum and am open to suggestions as to the school. If I receive more than one approach or recommendation, I shall draw a winning school at random (provided it broadly fits Richard’s geographical preference). Thank you, genetlemen …
Jordan Henderson and the Liverpool fans’ mantra: ‘he’s not really all that good’
John McCormick writes: wasn’t it good to see Jordan Henderson picking up that trophy the other day? It wasn’t his first, either. Way back in 2011-12 he’d been on the winning side as Liverpool picked up the League cup. He’d also been a runner-up in a few competitions (FA Cup, Europa League, Champions League, Premiership and so on) had captained his country in the World Cup, and, generally, proven to be a bit of a canny player. Yet, not long after he left Sunderland, I remember listening to Liverpool fans explaining why he just wasn’t good enough for Liverpool and how he’d never replace Steven Gerrard [the sniping from sections of the Liverpool and England support has continued – Ed].
There were similar criticisms about his selection as an England player after he made his senior debut in 2010 and, indeed, it was a while before he earned another cap. Yet we knew all long, didn’t we? At least Stephen Goldsmith did. Here’s what he wrote just 7 years ago, on June 5th 2012, under his byline “Goldy’s Logic” and with the title:
Salut! Sunderland’s HAWAY awards: Bristol Rovers, Walsall and Rochdale take the honours
The season is over and Sunderland couldn’t quite get across the finishing line. But there were positives, says Monsieur Salut, despite the failure to achieve what everyone wanted and the club needed.
Salut! Sunderland‘s modest contributions to the season’s brighter aspects included a good deal of fine writing for which credit is due to Pete Sixsmith, Malcolm Dawson, John McCormick, Wrinkly Pete, Rob Hutchison, Bob Chapman, Paul Summerside, Bill Taylor, Lars Knutsen, John Marshall and whoever I have overlooked.
And then there were the Who are You? interviews, in-depth interviews with fans of opposing teams before each game.
Our fellow League One clubs proved a tremendous source of wit and wisdom as the interviews mounted up. It is now time to offer some rewards to those responsible for the best of them.
The latest Wembley heartbreak: a Charlton view on why they won and what Sunderland will do now
Monsieur Salut writes: back in January, before one of those games against Charlton we probably should have won but didn’t, our Addicks ‘Who are You?’ interviewee, Richard Justham, told us: ‘I think you will win the league. You have a squad not just a team and would have more pulling power than the rest of us in the January window .. if you wanted to sign – let’s say – Tom Eaves from Gillingham to help you over the line I am sure you would have both the finances and prestige to do so. Partly for this reason I suspect you will brush away Barnsley, Luton and Portsmouth’.
Well, we know what happened instead. Here is Richard’s Charlton perspective on the playoff final, what went wrong for Sunderland and what will happen next …
End of Season reviews (7): Sunderland’s Season, Sixer’s style
John McCormick writes: For some reason the newsfeeds that pick up Salut! posts didn’t pick up the original of this one. There may be technical solutions involving spiders, RSS feeds and index urls but we’re taking a shortcut by reposting this article under another title. This will help ensure that Pete’s prose gets the readership it deserves. Those of you with RSS subscriptions might be slightly put out to find you have essentially the same post twice while some might be annoyed to find that logging on was pointless. For that, we apologise. Others, of course, will enjoy a second opportunity to read the Master’s work and say no apology is needed.
And wasn’t it good to see three former Sunderland players turn out for Europe’s top final, and to see one of them, and a special one of them at that, lift the cup.
Colin Randall, aka Monsieur Salut, writes: week after week, men and (less often) women report for newspapers, radio and television on football. Some are extremely gifted, other are less so but perform their duties to the best of their abilities. Bosses, as ever, will get away with not paying people if they can but by and large these writers and broadcasters receive salaries or fees for their efforts.
On sites like ours, usually with very limited income and sometimes with none, the work is willingly done for free. We are fortunate to be blessed with excellent contributors; just take a look at the articles from Malcolm Dawson, John McCormick, Bob Chapman, Ken Gambles, Wrinkly Pete, Lars Knutsen, Bill Taylor, John Marshall and others too numerous to mention. Jake, alias John Clark, chips in with neat illustrations.
Pete Sixsmith towers above all but the very finest of the professionals with his outstanding combination of footballing and general knowledge, natural eloquence and wit. As a journalist, I have been edited as frequently as I have edited others, among them some important others. Pete’s prose never needs more than the lightest of touches.
His material reward is next to nothing, save for the rather rare share of modest advertising revenue and the odd – and also rare – freebie.
Salut! Sunderland‘s audience can number a few thousand on exceptional days but more typically hovers somewhere in the high three figures. Sixer richly deserves to be read by many more. Here is his review of the 2018-19 season, another piece of splendid writing to close the series …
