Niall Quinn’s crisis inquest (2): case for the defence

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Mrs Logic (before she mucked about with the colours)

Among the many responses to the Salut! Sunderland article headlined Bruce in, Bruce out? Offering a hand to a drowning man was this, an excellent posting from a fellow supporter who called himself simply Moongod, but turns out to be Richard Halma*. He correctly identified this site’s tendency (we’re fans after all) to soar heavenwards after a fabulous performance or during a good run and descend into the depths of gloom when things go less well. Optimism and understanding have every right to be heard as loudly as the clatter of brickbats colliding with targets. We’ve been downbeat – read the Case of the Prosecution. Now turn the coin for a rosier analysis …

Extraordinary. I read the exact opposite of all the negatives here and elsewhere in December. Elmo was a future world beater before Christmas, and now he compares unfavourably to Daryl Murphy …

The recent run of games has been very tough – the easiest on paper being Everton and Stoke away, two places where anyone could struggle to get points.

Couple that run of games (personally, I hoped for 10 points maximum from the last eight) with the loss of Darren Bent, and the absence of various others through injury, and the players have been left low on morale and confidence.

They are still the same players that took us to the heights from which we fall – and nobody was complaining when we were up there.

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Niall Quinn’s crisis inquest (1): case for the prosecution

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So Niall Quinn will hold an inquest at the end of the season to examine what has gone so badly wrong. We know inquests don’t actually have prosecutions and defence, but he could do worse than pore over the comments that appeared here yesterday as a Salut! Sunderland posting on the crisis topped the Sunderland pages at newsnow.co.uk … probably the most eloquently argued contribution, from Moongod, contained the sort of supportive and sympathetic messages Quinn and certainly Steve Bruce may want to hear, and has now been reproduced whole – click here -as the second part of this mini-series. But first, let us hear from Jeremy Robson, who is feeling far from sympathetic and questions a number of the decisions Bruce has taken …

Whenever Sunderland get involved in a relegation scrap, or after a string of bad results, there are invariably questions raised about the capability of the manager to get us out of the poor run and improve our fortunes on the field.

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Bruce in, Bruce out? Offering a hand to a drowning man

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Red & White in Black & WhiteMrs Logic captures the gloom


Later today, another Salut! Sunderland contributor will identify one glaring flaw in the Bruce Way (in fact it’s already up by accident so can stay!). One point in 24 undoubtedly leaves the club in crisis, one made all the more painful by memories of the false early-season promise. This site is open to other Sunderland supporters who wish to offer their considered views, as articles or in the Comments field. First, though, I wanted to get this off my chest …

By the sea in France. two hours or so after the final whistle at the Stadium of Light not so much put us out of our misery as plunged us into more, I played a minor part in pulling to safety a four-year-old girl who had fallen into the harbour.

When I say minor, I mean it. A younger, faster man was first to reach her and was able to lean over and grab her hand; I took the other.

It would take a hard man to draw any serious comparison between a child in danger of drowning and the game of football.

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Birflatt Boy and players who aren’t really ours: is someone having the lend of us?

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For weeks, he’s been silent, But Birflatt Boy has been provoked beyond endurance and is back on the warpath. In his sights: Steve Bruce’s over-dependence on loan signings, and one in particular. It is fair to conclude that BB was not among those casting shedloads of MOTM votes for Elmo earlier in the season (though it’s also fair to add that the Egyptian has champions among SAFC fans while some opposing supporters regard him as a real threat) …

Any hopes of European qualification that we might have had have been sunk.

And one of the many problems we have, to my mind, is that we are top heavy with loanees: Mensah, Muntari, Onouha, Welbeck, and of course our very own version of Forrest Gump, Ahmed Elmohamady, or “Elmo” for short. This one really is the runt of the loanee litter!

Five of them, and they have featured regularly this season. We still haven’t committed on anyone yet, even though a spokesman from Elmos’s club in Egypt was quoted as saying that to all intents and purposes “he is now a Sunderland player”.

But you can’t build a team with players that belong to somebody else. Especially when they are like this fellah!

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West Brom Soapbox: where on earth do we go from here?

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Was yesterday the day we all finally lost patience? What is Ellis Short thinking now about the return on his hefty investment? Why in heaven’s name did we even think of letting Darren Bent go without having another striker lined up? How have good or expensive players suddenly become so clueless? Pete Sixsmith picks his way through the rubble of another disaster …

I once worked for a headteacher who, when things went wrong, would call meetings and ask us all to have a good look at ourselves and sort things out. Morale deteriorated, good teachers did things badly because the motivation wasn’t there and it looked like we would fail a forthcoming OFSTED inspection.

Then he left under a cloud and things got better.

A simple story, most of which is true and something which many people may think applies to Sunderland AFC and Steve Bruce this morning.

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Salut!s week: Man City moans, Gooner whines, Argyle anguish, Baggie bravado

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It was the week that started badly, with a thumping at Eastlands, and could therefore hardly get worse. Salut! Sunderland got its hand-wringing out of the way as early and as best it could before moving on to other things …

One day soon, a mug like that could be yours. Well, we’ll still designing it but the idea is to make a modest start to Salut! Sunderland merchandising.

The text sizes obviously need adjustment. You might even suggest a better slogan: “Salut! Sunderland – not as bad as you thought” springs to mind. “Buy a mug? You’re having a laugh”? “M Salut! & Sixer; two prize mugs”? There could even be a Newcastle version with the handle inside the mug.

So what, if you haven’t been paying proper attention has been going on here this week? Click on any sub-heading to see the full item …

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SAFC v West Brom: Quinn’s players’ revolt, Keano revolted by players

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Back in 2006, Sunderland ended a dreadful losing run by beating West Brom (then Championship leaders) 2-0 at home. Just the sort of result that we could all do with tomorrow after, er, another dreadful run. By all accounts, though, we were lucky to get a team out that day …

A quick postscript to the Niall Quinn interview in which he admits that he faced an instant players’ revolt after taking over, briefly, as manager of Sunderland in 2006, when we had just been relegated – with a record low, which Derby County later beat, of 15 points.

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