John McCormick writes: we have a manager and the transfer window’s open. A new chapter in the SAFC story is about to begin. But we also have history, some good, some not so and we would do well to remember it. So here, with the hope that the players running up alps in Austria will find it when they when they plug themselves into their alternative worlds, is some of that history, courtesy of Pete Sixsmith.
Should I be disappointed? Not with the goings-on at the offices and by the officers of Sunderland Football Club but with the response to my“who’ll be the top six” poll. In 2015 our “who’s going down”poll had over 7,000 votes cast, last year we had over 2,500.
This year it wasn’t until events at the club brought in new readers that we got past 1,000 votes. To date we have had perhaps 200-300 readers bothering to take part. What’s more, whereas in the past we have had interesting and entertaining comments from fans from other clubs this year we had had nothing. Is this what the championship’s like? Or is it the Ellis Short effect? I don’t know.
Pete Sixsmith reports that it’s cold, wet and miserable where he is – presumably Sixsmith Towers, deep in County Durham. It’s not much better here, down south in Liverpool.
But news has come in that we have a manager. Is that sufficient to warm the cockles of our too-chilled hearts? I think it might be, and so does Pete, judging by the welcome he’s penned for Simon Grayson:
First a club statement on Simon Grayson’s appointment as manager. Read it here or see a summary in the footnote*.
And secondly, apologies to Martin Bain, chief executive, and Simon for hacking their phone conversation. In fact, it’s so exclusive that it isn’t true. All imaginary, just a spot of fun – and a warm welcome to the new boss …
See club statement on Simon Grayson’s appointment as manager at this link https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/2017/june/grayson-named-sunderland-boss The breathtaking decision taking to allow Jermain …
Paul Summerside sees reason and maybe even hope in the Grayson option
See club statement on Simon Grayson’s appointment as manager at this link
Paul Summerside went on strike last season, boycotting games because Sunderland were persisting with David Moyes. He senses a lot of underwhelmed reaction from supports to the approach to Simon Grayson but feels he is not only a potentially sound choice, but maybe the only one open to us …
Well it would seem Ellis Short’s Plan A to asset strip, lean down and sell on, in order to recoup the majority of his investment, is a non-starter.
Was it ever a starter?
Certainly not at £90 million.
Now to Plan B. Get the club stabilised and then promoted (in order to carry out plan A).
So we have reached June 29, the retail launch of the new and controversial home kit (I still like the front, hate the back) and a time of the summer when all the big or ambitious clubs, and most of the ones that are neither, are well advanced in preparing for the coming season.
All except us. At least, that was the case until just now.
Talks on selling the club have collapsed, Ellis Short is staying as owner and moves are afoot to bring Simon Grayson from PNE as manager,
UPDATE: See club statement on Simon Grayson’s appointment as manager at this link
John McCormick. Here we go again – but this time it’s different
I was away last week and didn’t log on much, on account of having a temperamental handheld device (a tip – don’t drop your computer onto a tiled surface) and iffy connections courtesy of a not-so-local bar.
But log on I did, twice.
The first time, it was to find three quarters of our readers thought our chances of immediate promotion were scuppered.
For Sunderland supporters, the close season has been one big mess. Going down had been unpleasant, all the more so because of the passive, passionless way we embraced relegation.
Losing the manager, David Moyes, was disruptive but perhaps no huge hardship; his negative outlook had made him an unpopular figure from far too early in his reign. But since? Jordan’s gone, Jermain’s going, Borini and Kone look for ways out and others may well follow, Ellis Short wants out too and still, five weeks on, no replacement for Moyes. Things could finally start to move this week, with possible new German owners and, just maybe, a quick and exciting (Klinsmann, or is that altogether too ambitious?) managerial appointment.
Monsieur Salut mourns the passing of a much-loved friend, former colleague and occasional occupant of Sunderland away ends …
It has been a rotten time as far as bereavement is concerned. My next door neighbour in France, seemingly fit as a fiddle when he came round for drinks nine months ago, fell ill soon after I returned to the UK and died a couple of weeks ago.
Vin Garbutt, one of my favourite folk singers (he was much more than that: a great wit, writer and man) died earlier this month.
And all of us, all of us who are civilised I mean, grieve for those who perish in such appalling disasters as the Grenfell Tower fire or are killed by terrorist toerags (except when they manage to kill only themselves or be killed, as in Paris and Brussels this week).
And now, my own former colleague and friend Graham Noble has passed away.
