Content

Oxford United vs Sunderland prize Guess the Score. Return of the Donald derby

by
There IS a prize and you know what it is.

The start of a busy 11-day spell for Sunderland takes Jack Ross’s side to the Kassam Stadium for the second leg of this season’s home-and-away Donald derby.

Our owner’s connections and allegiance to the opponents are well known.

He and Charlie Methven, minority shareholder and executive director, have shown heartening commitment to SAFC since taking over from the absent and disillusioned Ellis Short. But both are fervent OUFC supporters and will remain so to their dying days even though they have – literally – bought into the passion and yearning for success on Wearside.

Read more

We know who owns Wolves, but who owns football?

by
Before the Fosul era: an example of the art of Jody Craddock, a former Sunderland and Wolves stalwart, and reproduced with his consent

Stephen Benton, a sportswriter, notes the impressive turnaround in the fortunes of Wolverhampton Wanderers since being taken over by China’s Fosul Group in 2016: promotion back to the top flight last season and currently seventh top after another fine result, 3-1 winners at Everton. And he raises question about the powers behind the sport …

After a change in their club’s ownership, all Wolves fans in Wolverhampton had a wonderful year.

The new owners – a Chinese investment group called Fosun International – booted out the manager Kenny Jackett (the chief executive officer Jez Moxey stepped down on his own), replacing Jarrett with Walter Zenga and then Zenga by Paul Lambert before finally settling for Nuno Espírito Santo, a Portuguese international at various levels though he never won a full cap.

And with the close involvement of superstar sports agent Jorge Mendes, the team signed a dozen players. The result: Wolves finally returned to the Premier League after being out of it for six years.

Read more

For we are Sunderland, and we know not to get carried away

by

I’m no different from anyone else who visits this site in that I don’t know whether or not we will go up at the end of the season. I tend to be optimistic, while some of our readers (at least one, anyway) are not, and I think the majority side with me.

Here are four comments (or extracts from comments) made in response to posts on our site, and a few numbers from me to chew over in respect of them. Have a think about them, then form your own opinion – and why not then share it with us, like the good folk below?

Read more

A belated welcome to Will Grigg from Salut! Sunderland – and Christopher Murphy

by

Kathryn is very welcome to the pages of Salut! Sunderland. And so is her son Christopher, who reached 13 the other day.

Before one more welcome event, the match that brought three points against Wimbledon, the pair of them had the chance to meet Will Grigg, signed at the last minute on Thursday but still not quite match fit, in the SAFC club shop.

Read more

Sixer’s Sevens: Wimbledon make it hard for Sunderland

by

Pete Sixsmith sent a text at half-time: ‘A distinctly underwhelming and goalless first half’, at which point I had to head out to the railway station.

I suspect, from the little I picked up on my return, that the second half didn’t provide much of an improvement. But we won, and Pete’s instant post-game seven word text recognises that, if little else (and Gary Bennett made the obvious point at the end that with new men in the team and Honeyman just back from injury, it was natural that there would be rough edges) … :

Read more

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: AFC Wimbledon

by

John McCormick writes. Like Pete Sixsmith I enjoyed watching Wimbledon v West Ham.  But with one eye on the weekend’s  League One results and next week’s fixture I couldn’t help wondering what effect their well-earned win will have on AFC Wimbledon. Will it have knackered them so they can’t compete with our well-rested heroes? Or will it bolster them for what is going to be a bumpy ride to May.

Pete, of course, doesn’t just watch Wimbledon on TV. Let him pick up the story, and tell you in his own inimitable words how he goes about things:

Read more

Wimbledon Who are You? Should that West Ham upset make Sunderland wary?

by
Mark Sturges (right) with his supporters’ group banner

What a result that was, says Monsieur Salut. But why does it always seem to happen like this? A player goes months without scoring, a club keeps losing as if for fun, a manager is sacked … and then we come along. The variation of the theme this time is that Wimbledon,rock bottom of League One, suddenly hit a flash of form and dispatched Premier League opposition in the FA Cup. I heard a Hammers fan on TalkSport yesterday and he was apoplectic that his team – otherwise going nowhere special, upwards or downwards – couldn’t muster the spirit and quality to overcome such a modest obstacle to progress in one competition where glory might just be possible.

Our first of possibly two Wombling Who are You? interviewees, Mark Sturges*, answered the Salut! Sunderland questions before the FA cup tie, but his additional thoughts were invited. It’s fair to say there was an air of grim resignation about his original replies but he now adds ths: “The team played very well- surprising as we’d lost 0-3 at home to Fleetwood on the Tuesday. This team has proved we can compete so must start showing that in the league IF we are to have a chance of survival before it’s too late’ …

Read more