Moyes on the Boys after FA Cup boredraw: deserved praise for Rodwell

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Jake: ‘not much to write home about, boss’

Monsieur Salut writes: now that we’ve done away with the nonsenses of ‘Dear Colin’ at the beginning and ‘All the best’ at the end, e-mails from the manager have an impersonal and sometimes perfunctory look. But what else could David Moyes say about the drab affair that was Sunderland 0-0 Burnley, the outcome probably the worst of three options? I’ might have liked a fuller explanation of his thinking, when throwing on a defender for a midfielder as his only (very late) substitution, but there we go. I share his satisfaction at Jack Rodwell’s improved form (my man-of-the-match too) but this was another game best forgotten …

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Sixer’s FA Cup Sevens: SAFC 0-0 Burnley. As Jake put it, ‘zzzzz….’

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Jake: ‘zzzz…zzzzz….’

Monsieur Salut writes: To no great surprise Pete Sixsmith preferred Shildon vs Atherton Collieries in the FA Vase. He kept in touch via Barnes and Benno, describing a drab game short on quality and ending goalless before all of 17.632 souls (but my emergency seven-worder appears for now). With a replay almost the last thing Sunderland wanted, and young Joel Asoro on the bench, David Moyes had sent on John O’Shea late as his only substitution. Mmm …

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Defoe: West Ham’s insult, Premier interest and red lines Sunderland must impose

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            ************            ************            ************            ************            ************

ESPN FC ran a fascinating survey on whether their blogger for each Premier League club – Monsieur Salut does the honours for Sunderland with occasional stand-ins by Mr Sixsmith (think Colin Todd on the bench for Gareth Hall and you get the picture) –  would buy Jermain Defoe and if yes, what they’d pay.

The brands – so many of whose supporters find it a struggle to locate “their” club by pointing to a map – all voted the same way: No.

Everyone else, save for West Brom, jumped at the idea.

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FA Cup Third Round: five good, five bad. Everton, Notts County make both lists

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Bobby Kerr and the FA Cup, May 5 1973, from Art of Football

… in which Pete Sixsmith looks back on the good, bad and exceedingly ugly FA Cup 3rd Round ties he remembers with affection or disgust …

Excitement levels among Sunderland supporters, it has to be said, have not been high over the impending FA Cup tie with Burnley.

I have my ticket due to the Cup Ticket option but am considering missing out in order to watch a tasty FA Vase tie between Shildon and Atherton Collieries. But it did get me thinking about epic and disastrous third round clashes in the past.

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The SAFC Burnley Who are You?: ‘I’d take FA Cup and relegation’

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‘Andy: ‘hoping for more of the same’

When Andy Robinson*‘s ‘Who are You?’ interview was published before Sunderland played Andy’s club Burnley, we agreed he would also do the honours for the FA Cup game a week later. That game is almost upon us and Andy’s comments on the FA Cup, and what it means to him, will endear him to many readers just as did last week’s interview. As for the game at Turf Moor, Saturday, safe to say Andy enjoyed it more than us. He starts with his reflections on Burnley 4-1 SAFC – leading to his thoughts on this weekend’s match …

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Calling Defoe, West Ham, SAFC: (1) stay, (2) dream on, 3) keep

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Sunderland have rejected a £6m bid from West Ham for striker Jermain Defoe, Sky sources understand

Salut! Sunderland pays relatively little heed to rubbishy transfer window speculation.

In the past, much or maybe most turned out to be untrue, no more than the manipulations of clubs and agents or the imaginations of football journos.

But these days, clubs – some clubs, then only sometimes – are more open about their wishes and their dealings. We already know Slaven Bilic fancies bringing Jermain Defoe back to West Ham. We know Crystal Palace, absurdly located in one of the worst places to get to in London, even from London. want him, too.

These are my messages more fully:

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Sunderland vs Burnley: aiming for revenge in FA Cup Guess the Score

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Jake: ‘let’s make beating them more than a consolation prize, Lads’

Monsieur Salut introduces another prize Guess the Score ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup 3rd Round to at home to Burnley, against whom we have something to prove (though most of us might feel strongly that the point should be made, and three points taken, when the return league fixture comes round in March) …

No one won the three-for-two New Year Guess the Score, in which readers were asked to predict both the Burnley and Liverpool scorelines and – if right – win three mugs.

That is hardly surprising since only in the deepest recesses of pessimistic hearts would a Sunderland supporter (most entrants always being SAFC) would the prospect of a crushing defeat at Turf Moor seem a) a likely outcome and b) one respectable to predict.

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Sixer’s Liverpool Soapbox: surprised, nay shocked, nay absolutely gobsmacked

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Sixer, our man at the match

Malcolm Dawson writes: New Year’s Eve and the aftermath was spent down in the Midlands, with my mate the Leicester City fan who is convinced that he will be off to Cardiff to see the Foxes in the final of the Champions League, despite my reminding him that I have seen Leicester City play more often than he has over the past 30 years.

I travelled up the A1, kind of hoping that the accident which slowed my progress might delay me sufficiently to make the trip to the Stadium of Light impracticable. I had told the Liverpool fan I got talking to over breakfast at the Little Chef (excellent black pudding btw) that I was expecting a 3 or 4 nil hammering but I got through and made it to Sunderland just in time to park up and hear the team news on Radio Newcastle, before re-claiming my scarf from a certain Mr Sixsmith, who had taken it from my car after the Chelsea game, donning my thermals and making my way to my seat.

Well worth the effort and a typical experience for Sunderland fans everywhere. We can get beaten by poor sides then play well against the title challengers but, unlike when we played the Pensioners, we got a point from a decent performance. I’ll let Peter take up the story.

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The £5.53m joke: tell Crystal Palace, West Ham £40m couldn’t buy Defoe

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***         Jake: ‘Jermain, you’re a star’         ***

Like most people, I have no idea what Jermain Defoe’s contract says about his right to leave Sunderland in the event of this or that bid being made.

Like most people, I know that Slaven Bilic rates him as highly as we do and knows his movement and his goals make him an unusually gifted striker. And our old pal Big Sam would apparently love to get him down to the backwaters of south London.

And like all Sunderland supporters, I believe that if Defoe shows the slightest hint of being tempted to join either club, or anyone else, Ellis Short should throw whatever it takes – money, the freedom of Sunderland if he has the ear of someone at the council, even David Moyes’s famed £30,000 watch – to keep him.

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