Chelsea out West: from R&W stripes to Las Vegas blues for Poyet

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'Is that my bus out of here that I see yonder?'
Jake: ‘tell us Gus, is Sunderland now just a bad dream?’

David Millward – universally known as Sid, after his band-leading uncle (Salut! Sunderland’s own Pete Sixsmith was very fond of Sid Millward and the Nitwits) – is a Chelsea fan who has graced at least two Who are You?s at this site.

When Sid, now exiled in New England, said he was heading west to Las Vegas for a convention of football’s most lovable fans – all based in the USA so presumably untarred by the Paris Metro brush – and that Gus Poyet would be the guest of honour, we felt a piece coming on. ‘Sure,’ he replied, ‘but it will be rather Chelsea focused. We went last year, the player who showed up was Michael Duberry, a lovely guy. This year we get Mario Melchiot as well as Gus.’

Well, he did warn us. All the same, here – for some midsummer quiet-time madness – is his account. He did try to mention us, but couldn’t quite suppress the temptation to be snooty …

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The Lars Word: from Keano to Advocaat – and then Big Sam?

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Lars Knutsen
Lars Knutsen

Lars Knutsen has had about as much ‘excitement’ as a Sunderland supporter can take. He wants the S word – stability – along with enhanced Premier status. Here, he looks back with some admiration on Roy Keane’s time at the club and ponders Dick Advocaat and succession. His choice for the Dutchman’s successor, assuming his stay is limited to one season, will divide fans …

Well we have had yet another “exciting” end to the campaign, and obviously all Sunderland fans are delighted that we stayed up, after what has become our usual late run.

Dick Advocaat did well for us, and won the hearts of the fans. Those tears at the Emirates told us that the club had got under his skin. With the right signings and his more attacking tactics we can do a lot better in 2015-16.

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Relegation 2016: Bournemouth and Watford, Norwich or Leicester. Not Villa or Newcastle (or SAFC)

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John McCormick:
John McCormick: I’m biased. Are you?

Casual visitors to this site might might not be aware that at the start of last season I made a prediction about who would suffer relegation from the Premiership and then tracked those clubs (and SAFC, of course) over the season. At the end of my final post of the series I set up a poll to see who readers thought would be relegated at the end of the coming season.

With almost four hundred votes cast you might think the results bear scrutiny. But think again. The average PL attendance is 36,000. MOTD can attract over 4 million.  More than 26 million viewers watched FA Cup action on TV during last January. So a few hundred’s  really small beer, especially as each reader can have three votes.

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Céad míle fáilte Stephanie Roche – giving SundIreland a new twist

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Stephanie Roche: courtesy SAFC
Stephanie Roche: courtesy SAFC

Stephanie Roche must have been chuckling into her Guinness – sorry, sports energy drink – as she favourited my tweet about the article my daughter Nathalie Randall wrote on her team, Old Actonians, gaining promotion to the Women’s Premier League. [Ha’way, Lass, give us a RT now and then, too – Ed].

If her spell with Houston led to nothing, I suggested, maybe Stephanie – famous for the wonder goal that won her second place to James Rodriguez in last year’s Fifa Puskas award – should consider joining Nathalie’s club.

Since her move to Sunderland Ladies was announced next day, she already knew she was heading to the women’s part of the team supported by Nathalie’s dad.

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Why do we always play Chelsea at the end of the season?

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John McCormick:
John McCormick: Where are all the local teams? Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Blackpool, even Wigan? All gone.

John McCormick writes:
So you’ve been onto the SAFC home page, clicked the appropriate icon and found the fixtures. No need for me to do much then, is there? Only, M Salut, who is travelling today, would be delighted to find the site that carries his name has not ignored this (pretty much) inauspicious occasion.

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One woman’s view: playing for Arsenal, Brentford and QPR; supporting Liverpool and Sunderland

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Nathalie is second from the left
Nathalie is second from the right

It’s not just Stephanie Roache with that goal, the one that won her second place in the 2014 Fifa Puskás Award and an invitation to Barack Obama’s White House St Patrick’s party. Nor is just the exceptional progress of Sunderland Ladies, against unjust official odds, to the Women’s Super League top flight.

Despite the curmudgeons who still cannot see merit in women’s football, the game is on the rise. And when you’ve seen it played well, and also seen Sunderland at Southampton, you begin to see why public perceptions have begun to change. Monsieur Salut’s daughter Nathalie Randall may not play for Sunderland or with Stephanie but her team, Old Actonians has just risen to Women’s Premier League status (SAFC Ladies are in the WSL now but were in the WPL until not long ago). Here’s her story …

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Who went down, who’s going down? Do dodgy numbers have the answer?

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John McCormick:
John McCormick: 1×1 is 1, 1×2 is four, 1×38 is 38 and that’s enough for safety.

At the start of last season I chose three relegation candidates  (QPR, Hull and Aston Villa) and two reserves (Southampton and West Brom) on the basis of PL history and some iffy statistics.

As you might expect, I got some stick from fans who didn’t like my forecast:

Mr QPR said “What a rubbish article, how can a Sunderland fan have any view on relegation when they will be one of the teams themselves”

Germany Tiger said Hull had improved significantly as well as: “You are the only one (and I’ve read a lot) who have Hull in a relegation spot, which suggests to me that there is still a bit of disappointment at being put to the sword 3 times last season by the Tigers and I predict a few more this season also….. oh if we could only play Sunderland every week… deep joy!!”

 Bald ugly bloke  was a bit more restrained, and perhaps a bit more optimistic: “Laughable that you have Hull City in the 3! The Tigers will be pushing top half.”

 Having been around for a few seasons, Swallavc was much more measured: “Aston Villa have been relegated in 0% of premier league seasons and therefore will be safe!”

I could go on, but what I’d prefer to say is that many of the readers, SAFC fans and others, were prepared to give their opinions on relegation candidates, as well as of my words . I’ll come back to this at the end.

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Jimmy Montgomery BEM: a richly deserved honour as Birmingham City would agree

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A day to remember
A day to remember

Salut! Sunderland is thrilled to join the chorus of praise for Jimmy Montgomery, who has been awarded the BEM (British Empire Medal) for – and this is an understatement – services to football over the past half-century.

The official club site talks of Monty as a “Sunderland AFC legend and club ambassador” and quotes him as saying: “I am absolutely delighted and it’s a great honour to receive this award. I’ve been involved with football for a number of years, in many different and enjoyable roles. I have so many great memories that last a lifetime and to share this one with my family is something that I will savour [SAFC.com wrote ‘saviour’ which seems a Freudian slip – Ed].”

SAFC’s chief executive officer Margaret Byrne – once, I believe, a member of the SAFC Supporters’ Association London and SE branch – described Jimmy as a “true gentleman … held in such high esteem by everyone in the city”, a view definitely held by Salut! Sunderland codgers who have come across him.

And let us mark the occasion by republishing a piece – without amending dates etc – that appeared during our 2013 series on the 40th anniversary of the 1973 FA Cup final that remains, in the broader public vision, Monty’s finest achievement in a career that took him beyond his Wearside home ground to Birmingham City, Vancouver Royals, Southampton and Nottingham Forest.

Credit: therokerend.com*
Credit: therokerend.com*

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Do they mean us? An ‘unsympathetic’ Arsenal view of Sunderland

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Jake says "Right - where's me pipe and slippers?"
Jake says: ‘boring, boring? Not a bit of it’

What is it about Arsenal? Some of us like them as a club, certainly by comparison with the rest of the London mob, and a few of us think the world of Arsène Wenger, myopia and all.

But when it comes to talking about us, some Gooners do have a special way with condescension. Forget the relatively recent times when Arsenal’s greatest ambition was for the clean sheet and single-goal win; anyone else doing it these days is “parking the bus”, worse still doing it “proverbially”.

We may make more clear-cut chances than them – Fletcher, twice or three times in the 0-0 draw at the Emirates and they came early in the second half, not late – but if the emphasis was on at least avoiding defeat, because that was utterly crucial to our survival, we must be anti-football and undeserving of sympathy.

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