From my French-Algerian electronic friend in Paris, Fahim Medjadji, come congratulations to “sonder land” on you know what and a look at the new Algeria World Cup top he is marketing.
I think it is excellent enough to warrant adding Algeria to my list of potential countries to support in Brazil.
Second place in Salut! Sunderland’s incomparable Haway awards – the Highly Articulate Who are You?s – was taken by a Manchester United supporter, Pete Molyneux*. How United would have thanked you for second place in the Premier League or, indeed, any other competition last season. Come to think of it, they did manage it, second-placed twice, against Sunderland at Old Trafford.
In his interview with Salut! Sunderland before our heroic win at Man Utd at the start of this month, Pete went on a bit because we needed to get him talking first of all about his famous/infamous banner protest of 1989, in which he invited Alex Ferguson, not yet a knight and not yet a United hero, to pack his bags. So we split the interview into two parts. But now we knit them together again; it’s a long summer read that will show those up to it why it came close to winning the Haway first prize …
His prize is a choice of tops from our imaginative friends at Campo Retro: 
Even a QPR-supporting friend thought his team was lucky. ‘Smash and grab,’ he wrote. ‘Someone should go to jail for that.’ Our own John McCormick, Liverpool-based, rued the loss of a grand day out (Wigan). Not sure anyone was too bothered about Brighton. But QPR won it and are back in the Premier. Monsieur Salut shares those thoughts but is pleased on two counts: his younger daughter, Nathalie, used to play for QPR Ladies, and Steve Colwell, Hoops fan and no stranger to these pages or the Salut! Sunderland Facebook group, is an all-round good bloke. Let him take up the story …
Melissa Rudd’s interview looked a winner in Salut! Sunderland’s Haway awards – Highly Articulate Who are You? works for us to produce the acronym – when it appeared before her club, Norwich City, came up to Sunderland and deservedly took a point. Her bad luck was threefold: two later entries that our judges collectively found to be even better, plus the Canaries’ relegation. Commiserations, Melissa, and thanks again. Your consolation as the final results are announced is to have your golden words reproduced below – and to collect her choice of prize as now described:
Melissa may choose between a year’s subscription to the great football magazine When Saturday Comes or a choice of WSC tops. If she visits http://www.wsc.co.uk/, she will get an idea of the options.
WAY has grown to HAWAY, simply because it seemed an appropriate acronym for Salut! Sunderland‘s annual Who are You? awards to those judged to have contributed the most interesting responses in the Who are You? feature that precedes every Sunderland game. It doesn’t matter too much whether we make this the Hello and Who are You? awards or dream up some other first words starting H and A. Our Oscars are, henceforth, the Haways.
M Salut has put the “Wembley and safe” series to bed, leaving me to come up with a different way of passing on my thoughts about the season. So here’s the plot for a play with ten acts, one for each month. You could use alternative titles such as “Much ado about nothing“, “The tempest”, A comedy of errors, or even “A man for all seasons” but I don’t think there’ll be many takers for “As you like it”
Salut! Sunderland will be keeping an eye on the World Cup. Our appeal for candidates for secondary (or primary for those hostile to England) support has yielded the following suggestions, here and elsewhere: Greece, Belgium, Chile, Portugal, Australia and Uruguay. Here, in a guest post* from Mike Larsson at superbetting.com, is a scene-setter reflecting on Europe’s prospects of presenting a serious challenge to the South American teams present at Brazil 2014 …
Forget the Man Utd old boy nonsense. Phil Bardsley may be a Salford lad, a United fan and a player who’d give his right arm to have had a proper Old Trafford career. But he was barely part of the playing set-up – eight appearances in five years. Until this week’s move to Stoke, he has effectively been Sunderland and Sunderland alone, with a commendable 200 games, seven goals (some of them spectacular and rather important) and just a few loan spells, all pre-SoL, at Rangers, Burnley, Villa and Royal Antwerp, to modify the impression of a solidly one-club man…
Few outside Hull – apart, maybe, from Brian Kerrigan, a former colleague of mine in Abu Dhabi who is from Cape Breton and knows of Humberside only because it was the birthplace of his favourite guitarist (Mick Ronson, if memory serves) – expected them to beat Arsenal in the FA Cup final. They got close, but not close enough.
But what about the real honours of the 2013-2014 season, the WAYS, or Salut! Sunderland Who are You? awards for 2013-14?
Monsieur Salut, borrowing a bit from Churchill, writes: this is not the beginning of the end. In fact, it’s officially the end of the grand Wembley and
BustSafe series. If you were within an ace of sending your own, it will have to appear as a comment. Pete Sixsmith casts his magisterial eyes over the vast majority of Sunderland matches and it is right that his views should serve as the climax to Salut! Sunderland‘s run of end-of-season reviews. Many thanks to all who have contributed; I hope readers have found their efforts stimulating … read on to see why Sixer is grateful to a certain Southampton defender