Soapbox update: the Keane era and its ripple effect

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This posting has been affected by technical problems but has still managed to inspire some lively responses comparing the Roy Keane and Peter Reid eras of the recent history of Sunderland AFC. The comments have also been re-posted (though the little thumbs-up marks already awarded are, sadly, missing!).
It is now four years ago – give or take a couple of weeks – since Keano signed his contract at the Stadium of Light. He took over a squad of misfits and underachievers who had lost their first five games, including a league cup game at Bury, then the lowest of all Football League clubs. No wonder that after being talked through the players’ strengths and weaknesses, he joked that he should have held out for twice as much money -and set about replacing as many as he could. Pete Sixsmith looks back on the appointment as right decision, right time …


When Niall Quinn and the Drumaville consortium took over, we were promised a “magic carpet ride”.
After dispiriting defeats at Southend and Bury, the magic carpet was distinctly threadbare and we looked like a team heading for the third level of English football.

Quinny then decided that managing footballers was not as easy as breeding racehorses and decided to appoint a world class manger”. We now know that O’Neill had been indecisive (I believe SAFC had something like seven meetings with him – ed) and Allardyce had bottled out of leaving his comfort zone at the Reebok.

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The Wigan Athletic ‘Who Are You?’

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It could be subtitled “and how Sunderland missed out on N’Zogbia” – read on for a fascinating account of the aborted deal. We’ve said it before, or something like it. If Bernard Ramsdale* didn’t exist as an outstanding example of the (proper) Lancashire football supporter, he’d need to be invented. A past winner of our annual Who Are You? awards, he returns from a little rest – from Salut! Sunderland duties but not much else – with some more pearls ahead of Wigan v SAFC on Saturday. Bernard, landlord of Ye Olde Tree and Crown fan site, has tremendous humour and a refreshingly down-to-earth outlook. It really is a great read. But don’t expect a non-stop bundle of laughs; Bernard lives with the distressing consequences of an awful family tragedy …

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Doing it for England: a good day for our Lads

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Darren Bent, Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson are basking in international glory tonight after playing crucial parts in England victories …

Darren Bent off the mark for England and would have scored twice had Shaun Wright-Phillips not made a mess of an easy pass in front of goal. Not bad for a substitute, securing the 3-1 win in Switzerland after the home country had halved the lead established by Rooney and Johnson.

But it doesn’t end there.

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Gyan, Elmo and Mignolet seen through Charlton eyes

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Rarely in recent times has a Sunderland debut been as keenly awaited as that of Asamoah Gyan, who should team up with Darren Bent to cause Wigan all sorts of problems on Saturday. That’s the theory anyway. But if you saw a Daily Star headline suggesting that Steve Bruce “admired” Gyan’s World Cup penalty miss, rest assured that he did nothing of the kind …

Alert readers will have seen that the image (below), sometimes used to illustrate Salut! Sunderland items relating to Darren Bent, is credited to a man who calls himself Addick-tedKevin and can therefore be assumed to support Charlton Athletic.

No surprise, then that Kevin should have paid his artistic tribute to Benty, who scored 31 times in 68 games for the Addicks between 2005 and 2007.

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Domenech get his comeuppance

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Raymond Domenech cut a pathetic figure as French team coach in South Africa, humiliated by his players during the Mutiny of Knysna and then bringing his country into further disrepute with an act of gross discourtesy as France tumbled out of the World Cup. The players have been punished; now it’s his turn …

France also had a weekend off for internationals and probably wishes it hadn’t after yet again failing to score (in Friday’s 1-0 defeat by Belarus in Paris). But the big news is the dismissal of by the French Football Federation of Raymond Domenech for his part in  the scandal of Les Bleus in South Africa.

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Soapbox: old heroes at Ryhope, new faces at Chesterfield

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The international break usually means a week off for most SoL regulars. But for obsessives like Pete Sixsmith, it’s an opportunity to visit new grounds, drink in unfamiliar pubs and catch up on news of old players and their offspring.

As regular readers will know, this writer has a peculiar obsession with ticking off football grounds and/or watching copious amounts of non-league football. Like the groups of men gathered on the platform ends at Doncaster station, it’s an enthusiasm that causes most sane people to glaze over after 30 seconds of discussing the merits or otherwise of the Pyramid system.

However, it does throw up unexpected opportunities to bump into famous names. A couple of Fridays ago, I was at Sunderland Ryhope CA’s home game with Tow Law, and I was able to renew my acquaintance with George Herd.

George is 74 years old and looks as fit and sprightly as a man 20 years younger. He has been involved on the coaching side with RCA for a number of years and is a well known figure around the Northern League Second Division grounds.

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The Academy system: Were Palace Robbed?

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Jeremy Robson takes a look at the pros and cons of the Academy system.

 

It’s easy to say that football academies just don’t work. However, the whole issue is far more complex than do they or don’t they.

Do you remember the excitement surrounding the signing of Claudio Marangoni some thirty years ago? An Argentine signing for Sunderland. He might as well have been from outer space. It was virtually unheard of in living memory at the time to sign a foreigner, ie non British player. Everyone can remember Claudio, because of the stir he caused. His performances were in stark contrast to the fanfare of his arrival. Everyone remembers him. Can anyone immediately recall the identity of the second overseas player or indeed the third? Moreover can anyone recall how many overseas players there have been at Sunderland in the intervening years. A countless number, yet Sunderland have probably had far less than the average number of imports.

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A winner from West Brom – plus a Bent/Gyan competition

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Image: Mrs Logic
The boss has taken to the hills. I have abandoned computer screens and the Med for a long weekend in the Alps.

There may or may not be any new postings in my absence. Rather depends on whether Pete Sixsmith or any of the other regular or occasional contributors writes anything – and whether Joan Dawson finds time to make them appear here.

Sixer is embarking on a quick course on how to post articles for himself but threatens to be a slow learner, so don’t hold your breath just yet.

So how about a spot of fun just before anything nasty happens at Wigan to spoil all the excitement of the past few days?

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Soapbox: one league where Chelsea and Arsenal are bottom

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For he is an Englishman – unless he plays for Arsenal and Chelsea, writes Pete Sixsmith, borrowing from Gilbert and Sullivan (though didn’t Sullivan have a spoonful or two of Italian blood?). Ah, but Pete’s not on about light opera. He’s just been studying the Premier League squad lists, where “homegrown” assumes an elastic definition and Englishmen form an ethnic minority …

Lots of interesting things in the papers today:

* Derbyshire’s improbable win at Gloucestershire after being skittled out for 44 in the first innings

* Real Madrid having the audacity to suggest that Harry Redknapp was being economical with the truth over the Van der Vart transfer by denying that Bayern Munich had ever made a bid for him

* William Hague making it clear that there was nothing untoward in his relationship with his special adviser, even though they did share a hotel room during the election campaign.

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Take a bow, Darren Bent

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Image: addick-tedKevin

Belated congratulations to Darren Bent on forcing his way back into Fabio Capello’s thinking, winning a place in the England squad to play the Euro 2012 qualifier (correcting earlier error – see comment) against Bulgaria on Friday. Let us hope he gets a meaningful slice of the action.

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