Soapbox: thanks Lorik – and all the best

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He was our cultured polyglot, a man more interested in Durham Cathedral and Hadrian’s Wall than ringing up Anthony Stokes for a list of North-eastern nightspots. A never-say-die midfield rock who’d not shirk at the toughest tackle, or worry unduly about the ref’s cards. And now he’s gone, after just a season. Pete Sixsmith wishes him bon voyage …


My brother, who now lives in extreme penury in Thessaloniki, speaks well of Albanians. Hard workers, great work ethic, but inclined to bugger off for more money/ better working conditions at the first available opportunity.

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Don’t look now, but there are new replica tops

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We kept looking, and have now found fans from Holland and Spain to preview their countries’ appearance in the South Africa 2010 World Cup final. Always look on the bright side, we say: helps to fill a hole we might otherwise have devoted to plugging the new Sunderland replica kits if the only way of doing so hadn’t been with the sportswear equivalent of a wine “blind tasting” …


Well, Salut! Sunderland has signed up a Dutch fan and a Spanish supporter to answer our questions ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final. So thanks to our own Luke Harvey for putting us in touch with Edgar _ Eddie G – Meyer, a devoted follower of both Feyenoord and the Netherlands, and to the Spanish diplomatic service for nobly ensuring balance is preserved.

The first piece will run tomorrow, the second on Saturday morning.

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Luke’s World Cup: roll on 2014

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Almost done in South Africa but it seems an awful long time since England were still involved. Luke Harvey tries to look forward four years to the next World Cup and wonders where our version of Mesut Ozil might come from …

Salut! Sunderland’s World Cup coverage has betrayed an uncanny resemblance to Christmas day in the Harvey household.

Much as we begin our Christmas Day as a united and happy family, we also began the World Cup with arms linked and faces smiling; we were ready to will England to victory.

And much like Christmas Day, it’s all ended in rather petty squabbling.

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Spain 1 Germany 0: send out a search party

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So the World Cup winners will be either the Netherlands or Spain. Colin Randall considers tonight’s semi-final result a fair one, but needs to make swift contact with a warm, witty or wise supporter of each finalist …

My heart just wasn’t in this match. I sensed it would be tight, with none of the swashbuckling thrust of Germany’s earlier performances and Spanish flair struggling to break down Teutonic resilience.

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Soapbox: TV brings hard day’s nights for Gooners – and us

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One great day out ruined, Arsenal at home turned into a logistical nightmare for away fans, another excuse for avoiding Chelsea – all, says a remarkably understanding Pete Sixsmith, in a day’s work for the TV folk whose job it is to undo the Premier League fixture list …

A colleague, who is also of the Red and White persuasion, performs the valuable task every year of making a copy of the fixtures, laminating them and passing them out to those who are Sunderland fans. Every year, I thank him and I see a pristine fixture list, with games every Saturday – as it used to be and as it should be.

Then along come the TV fixtures……………

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The bubble bursts for iPod-generation footballers

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At last. Something from French football to cheer about, even if it doesn’t amount to that much more than a row of haricots verts …

It won’t matter whether they are used to listening to medleys of self-composed Andy Reid comeback songs, Charles Aznavour’s greatest hits or a spot of gangster rap.

The most refreshing news from French football in months, if not years, is that in future, players from at least two Ligue 1 clubs – the champions Marseille included – have a new rule to obey.

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Cheating, or just playing the game?

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Have we reached the stage where the art of cheating should be taught to children as no more than a basic technique of football? Examine the differing reactions to Suarez (because he gloated), Neuer (because he denied an Englishman) and Jeremy Robson (because his young lad was the one taking liberties). Is there, Jeremy wonders, just a spot of hypocrisy in our approach to bending the rules? …

Following up on the article from last week about goal line technology, a lot of the debate here on Salut! Sunderland has extended from “righting the wrongs”, resulting from poor officiating, through to a more comprehensive analysis of the problems associated with cheating, which from here on in may be referred to as “Suarezing” or “being Suarezed”.

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Crime, punishment and les Bleus: Malouda does community service

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OK, not everyone is as fascinated as Colin Randall by the continuing French football crisis. But with time to spare before the World Cup semis, it seems appropriate to dot the odd i and cross a t or two following the condemnation by Liliam Thuram of Patrice Evra …


So Thierry Henry had his meeting with Sarko, and one of the dinosaurs of the French Football Federation, its 75-year-old president Jean-Pierre Escalettes, has fallen on his sword.

Meanwhile Liliam Thuram adopts the role of stern, onlooking head of (a more glorious) history, and Florent Malouda puts in some post-mutiny community service in Haiti.

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More nasty practices: trying to get opponents booked or dismissed

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The rotten face of football part two. In its relentless campaign to show up football cheats for what they are (whoever they play for), Salut! Sunderland has suffered arrogant, whingeing fans of other clubs who believe it happens only to them, never by. But we’ve been consistent, and as ready to condemn such acts by our players as by opponents. And the World Cup has reminded us of most of the forms cynical cheating takes …

To borrow from and adapt the words commonly attributed to Jack London (he was talking about scabs) ….

After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made, for the game of football, the diver/feigner of injury/shirtpuller/bonebreaker and Suarez.

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