John McCormick asks: what do you think of the reformatted former Johnstone’s Paint trophy? Did we really need to fork out for a two year contract for a third keeper? Will Victor Anichebe prove to be better than Danny Graham? My answers are “undecided”, “no”, “yes but that means nothing”.
Rob Hutchison has his own opinions. Here he is playing Devil’s Advocate, in which he may take a view directly contrary to your own. You’re welcome to let him know what you think yourself…
Football, marathon running, academia and cheese … that’s the heady mix that sums up Lydia Bleasdale-Hill*, our Everton Who are …
Monsieur Salut invites entries for a prize edition of Guess the Score – and announces another little award, to a Sunderland-supporting television presenter …
Mug is one of those words that can jump up and bite you on the backside. So let it be said straight away that it is no part of Salut! Sunderland‘s mission to suggest that supporting SAFC, or following us at Twitter, makes you a bit of a mug. But we do have two beautifully designed receptacles of hot or cold drinks to give away.
Malcolm Dawson writes……it takes a lot to shock me these days but the revelation that there was a Football League …
Monsieur Salut writes: I almost disallowed the first line of Pete Sixsmith‘s latest piece. Turgid? Drivel? Snap out of it Sixer, a man I introduce to others as Salut! Sunderland‘s star writer: self-deprecation will get you nowhere though international breaks seem to get you to a lot of places (not necessarily including all the places mentioned above) …
Monsieur Salut writes: the original intention was to combine a small tribute to a sadly departed Boro fan, who often came to these pages to wind us all up, with an appeal for votes in a football blogging awards process and a shout-out for our 2,000th follower on Twitter. In fact, Twitter will have to wait and there will be no more than a passing reference in the footnote to the awards. This posting is dedicated to the memory of the Jack Wrightson, aka Smoggie, whose final wind-up was to gloat about his day at the Stadium of Light on August 21 …
The headline was going to read: “Vote for Salut! Sunderland. Welcome our 2000th Twitter follower. RIP Middlesbrough’s Smoggie”.
But in true order of importance, the death of a welcome irritant on the pages of this site easily took priority. So rather than just re-order the heading or the text, it seemed right to concentrate on Jack Wrightson, a lifelong Middlesbrough supporter who died just a couple of days after he had watched his team beat ours at the Stadium of Light.
There are times when contributors to this site hark back to the music of yesterday, and today is no exception. The transfer window’s shut (you can insert any other vowel of your choice if you wish) leaving me feeling underwhelmed, and a song from 1971 or thereabouts is in my mind. Not because I like it (I didn’t then and still don’t now). Not because it got to number 1 (it did, but then so did Benny Hill with a song about a milkman). It’s because of the refrain which starts the song and echoes throughout it.
Only, not quite. The song, “Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep” begins, “Where’s your momma gone?”, but my mind is playing it as “where’s the money gone?”
It has gone, and it’s a lot of money, which explains a great deal.
First, we applaud SAFC LAdies for a crucial 4-1 win at Doncaster Belles. Then stand by for the latest edition of Rob Hutchison‘s irreverent Devil’s Advocate, in which he may take a view directly contrary to your own …
With two tweets as the transfer window slammed shut, the sensible and always engaging BBC Radio Newcastle commentator on Sunderland games, Nick Barnes, summed up the frustrations of all those who support the club.
We can and should applaud the late acquisitions of Didier Ndong (he seems to prefer Ibrahim as his given name and Wikipedia awards him an apostrophe but we will go with the SAFC version for now) and, if regrettably another as on-loan signing, Jason Denayer.
But the £5.5m spent earlier on a pair of Manchester United reserves, who may yet prove worth their weight in gold, seems rash compared with the club’s steadfast refusal to reach a deal with Rubin Kuzan to bring Yann M’Vila back permanently to Wearside.
A very rushed posting but a very warm bienvenue to Sunderland’s latest francophone recruit, the Gabon international Didier Ndong from Lorient, for a fee of 16 millions euros, however many pounds that converts to post-Brexit.
Safc.com tells us he has joined on a five-year deal as David Moyes’s seventh arrival of the summer. That he came from the same club as Lamine Kone does not mean he’ll be demanding a transfer or new contract by Christmas.