Sixer Says: let’s offer a fond but grateful farewell to Jozy Altidore

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Jake: 'Jody scores, we're on the pitch'
Jake: ‘Jozy scores, we’re on the pitch’

The lads and lasses who support AK over in the Netherlands won’t be able to believe it. For them, Jozy Altidore scored goals for fun. Followers of the United States national team generally think he’s the real deal. But back in Blighty, in Hull and Sunderland, we all wonder about the lack of goals (a problem if you are a striker) and some, Pete Sixsmith among them, suggest Rugby League might have been a better option as the young Jozy contemplated his sporting career. For all that, Jozy Altidore deserves to be remembered as a player who gave his all and was, by all accounts, a great guy. Good luck, Jozy, but let Sixer take up the story …

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Tottenham-SAFC Who are You?: ‘we could have done with Defoe back’

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Jake has ways of making them talk
Jake has ways of making them talk

The headline was going to be ‘Gareth Bale is not diver, says Tottenham’s Spitting Image joker’, implying that this was a view only a writer of comedy could hold. Reports of Jermain Defoe’s rumoured, imminent signing – closely followed by other rumours that his pay demands will scupper it, and of course bearing in mind we are often used as bargaining chips by players/agents with other clubs in mind – inspired second thoughts, not least because our Spurs WAY volunteer, David Sapsted*, also mentions him.

As well as coming up with gags for Spitting Image, and about G Bale, Sappers is a veteran news hound – we worked together at The Daily Telegraph and he once, as news editor, ordered me to take an early cut so I could drive to Leicester in time for a midweek match (we lost) – and a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur (plus, for reasons we do not know, assorted other ‘second’ teams. Here is his irreverent look at all things White Hart Lane …

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With or without Defoe: Tottenham Hotspur vs SAFC Guess the Score rollover

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Jake hardly dares Guess the Score
Jake hardly dares Guess the Score

So, I awoke to an interesting e-mail from my friend Lesley Ciarula Taylor, from the Toronto Star newspaper, which was reporting that Sunderland had signed Jermain Defoe from the Canadian club.

The story had been in that well-known fountain or truth and wisdom, The Sun, and tweeted just before I’d turned in; it was an exciting proposition but no one else seemed to be reporting it and at least one SAFC fan on Twitter was pouring scorn on the source (‘I wouldn’t wipe my a*** with that rag’).

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Wrinkly Pete: sing your heart out for SAFC, but know our limitations

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Peter Lynn: Ol' Blue eyes is back
Peter Lynn: Ol’ Blue eyes is back

“I did it my way” by Gus Poyet

Peter Lynn writes: I’m not actually listening to Frank Sinatra while writing this but I guess that just about everyone knows the lyrics and I would like to suggest that Gus’s mantra for football management (or is it coaching?) not only embraces most of them but that he is absolutely right to continue to insist on doing it his way.

Let me explain.

He was chosen to save our team from relegation and did so.

He achieved this by being very pragmatic and choosing to play a “possession” game, reasoning that if we had the ball the other side couldn’t score and we would at the minimum get one point for the 0-0 draw which ensued. Of course, from the position we were in at the time of his appointment he knew that would be insufficient but probably reasoned that if the defeats stopped then the players would have more confidence and perhaps get breakaway goals that would give us enough wins and therefore sufficient points to stop up. That is exactly what happened.

So, why would he change the system that worked last season? He has many of the same squad of players and the new ones brought in during the summer have either failed or been injured, or both!

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Do they mean us? Ready to Go readers’ verdict on Salut! Sunderland

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Jake takes the jibe to heart and prepares to offer his services to small club in Madrid
Jake takes the jibe to heart and prepares to offer his services to a small club in Madrid


The saying about glass houses and stones hurtles into mind. Salut! Sunderland writers dish out criticism when they feel it is appropriate, so we must expect brickbats to be tossed our way, too.

I chanced upon a Ready to Go discussion on the merits and otherwise of sites/blogs related to Sunderland AFC. The usual dismay that some SAFC fans are simply unaware we exist soon gave way, by turn, to pride when praise was offered, disappointment when we were given short shrift.

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Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 0 Liverpool 1. Flat and devoid of energy

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NEWsevens copy

Pete Sixsmith described the first half of this defeat by Liverpool as ‘miserable’. Three minutes into the second half, Liam Bridcutt managed to get himself sent off for a soft second yellow. Ten men battled with enough effort but little quality to salvage a point. One of few players showing enterprise and guile, Adam Johnson, was hauled off. As a measure of SAFC woes, Danny Graham and Mikael Mandron came on (though Graham’s workrate was irreproachable). Expect Sixer to be in gloomy mood with his fuller account of yet another flat performance. He’s not happy with the team, nor does he see Gus Poyet as above criticism …

Jan 10 2015 SAFC (0) 0 Liverpool (1) Selection and tactics raise questions about Poyet

Jan 4 2015 FA Cup 3rd Round: SAFC (1) 1 Leeds United (0) 0 Scraped through after a shocking second half

Jake: 'when your secret weapon is Danny Graham you know you're in trouble'
Jake: ‘when your secret weapon is Danny Graham you know you’re in trouble’

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