Would you believe that some people, somewhere, think Man Utd will be relegated? And that others say the axe will fall on Spurs, Chelsea, or Man City. Some even say Arsenal will go down.
That’s democracy for you, so please, please, no histrionics, vitriol or gratuitous insults. There have been enough of them these past few weeks and it’s time for civilised behaviour between gentlefolk, like we always get when discussing football.
Sorry for the patchy appearance of new material here, John McCormick’s splendid efforts excepted. In the tetchy climate, I daren’t say what may, for most of the last week, have distracted some of us. Emanuele Giaccherini couldn’t always get a full game for Sunderland but stars for Italy at Euro 2016. Is it our fault or his? What on earth happens to so many players of quality once they pull on our shirt, Defoe being a class exception? Monsieur Salut tracks the Giaccherini days at Sunderland as viewed on these pages …
This is turning into one of the great modern stories: how a plucky little nation, scorned by the rest of Europe, lost to Iceland in Euro 16.
— George Caulkin (@CaulkinTheTimes) June 27, 2016
Bravo George Caulkin, self-described ‘chronicler of misery for The Times (North East football, mainly)’, for that clever piece of gallows humour tweeting. And now over to Pete Sixsmith, our own chronicler of doom punctuated by the odd shaft of light. Watching England was indeed like watching Sunderland for the first 30 games of most seasons. Sixer rises from his sick bed after a week of pain and discomfort to carry out his own Ofsted inspection ..
It’s been a few years since I’ve done a timely review of Deloitte’s “Money League”, which usually comes out in January or February (it was January this year).
But when there’s a battle to be fought there’s not much room, time or inclination to give some thought to a little piece of meaningless self-publicity, which is what the Deloitte Money League is, entertaining though it may be.
We started our season at Leicester with a line up that included Seb Coates and Costel Pantsilimon. Substitutes included Adam Matthews, who came on for Billy Jones.
By the time we got to the final game Seb Coates, Costel Pantsilimon and Adam Matthews were no longer at the club. Billy Jones, subbed 12 games previously and subsequently dropped, came on for the final fifteen minutes, replacing DeAndré Yedlin, who hadn’t featured at Leicester.
They weren’t the only changes. Our manager had long gone, as had Danny Graham, Stephen Fletcher, Emanuelle Giaccherini, and Liam Bridcutt, all subs for that first game. Our new manager had made room for players who could bolster a leaky defence and strengthen a porous midfield.
They were Lamine Kone, Whabi Khazri and Jan Kirchoff.
And the rest is history
Salut! Sunderland wishes to record the sad loss of Bill Richardson, a long-time Wearside exile who remained a passionate supporter of the club he left behind in a country he never revisited. He retired only last year but died yesterday (Tuesday June 21), apparently after suffering a stroke …
In our Mackem Diaspora series, Bill described himself in this way:
Born in Seaham ’47. Left for Natal, South Africa ’78. Moved up to the Transvaal in ’81 (Mpumalanga now) on the day Reagan was shot. Spent time in Swaziland, Cape Town (nuclear power station) so know what the problem is at Fukushima. Back in the old Transvaal now. Coal fired station. Never been back to Blighty …
Our cherished former manager Lawrie McMenemy may have apologised before for all I know for his part in dumping Sunderland AFC into the Third Division. He’s at it again (or should that be for the first time?). Who can remember those relegation playoffs against Gillingham without wincing, whether they were present or following from afar? And who can forget the nasty taste left in the mouth by McMenenemy’s rotten reign? …
Malcolm Dawson writes……the germ of an idea came to me as I pondered my stance on the upcoming referendum. I wanted to form an objective view as to whether or not it was better to remain within the EU or if in fact leaving was the better option. But all I was getting from both sides was unconvincing rhetoric and increasingly outlandish claims, designed to appeal to people’s prejudices on the one hand or to provoke a sense of fear and outrage on the other. The logical, if possibly subjective arguments I wanted to hear and which would allow me to make an informed decision, weren’t forthcoming. How I thought am I to decide?
This post has no purpose beyond letting everyone know they can not only have a punt on the outcome of matches at Euro 2016 by checking out Online Soccer Betting but still vote in our two current polls.
One, which has already attracted a lot of interest, invites your views on who will go down at the end of next season. There are plenty of contenders and Sunderland have a few unwelcome votes (all probably from opposing supporters), but our 5.8 per cent is manageable.
[polldaddy poll=9439592]
When I did my analysis of our midfield I said it would probably be one of two posts but there was so much to collect and compare that I decided to split the second part into two.
To begin, I’m using stats from hosted stats.com, Squawka.com and my own sums to look at individual performances.
Who do you think is better – Coates, Kaboul or Koné? How do they compare to John O’Shea?
And would you rather have Billy Jones than DeAndré the Throw-in Slayer?
Read on, and all will be revealed.
Or maybe not.