Salut! Sunderland writers posed the questions and Charlie Methven, our chairman Stewart Donald’s right-hand man, answered then.
In the first round, our star writer Pete Sixsmith – teacher, 50+ years a supporter and as knowledgeable about football as they come – dealt with perceptions and realism. His questions can be summarised in this way: it’s all very well having a good, encouraging start for the new regime, with bags of enthusiasm among the fans, but what if things go wrong?
Salut! Sunderland was asking the questions. But Charlie Methven, Stewart Donald’s executive director and minority shareholder in the post-Ellis Short SAFC, had one for us: ‘How are we doing so far?’
Monsieur Salut, who worked with Charlie and has been delighted to renew an amicable acquaintance, gave the truthful response. On balance, a fine and encouraging start …
This is the final instalment of the World Cup diaries of Monsieur Salut’s nephew, Andy Falconer, a good lad for all that he supports Boro (as he would, having spent his entire life there). Now back home, Andy reflects on an intriguing if brief trip to Russia 2018 and describes what he encountered there with some affection.At Salut! Sunderland, we’ve perhaps been more preoccupied with SAFC but FootballPredictions.com may be the place to go if you want to study the form and have a flutter on the remaining stages of the World Cup or, indeed, League One promotion prospects …
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When I first put this poll up
, a mere week ago, I wrote
“this is predominantly a Sunderland site and we aren’t claiming results are totally unbiased… …Nevertheless, I think it’s fair to say that SAFC fans have not been blindly optimistic.”
After only a week I would not able to add a lot to this statement, were it not for two things. The first is that the poll was tagged to promote it to all League One fans for over 24 hours before it was promoted on our facebook page and then on Colin’s subsequent posts on this site. This gave us a small (very small, as it happens) hint of what the whole of the League One fanbase might think. The second was that Colin’s own poll closed, with some findings we can bring to bear on this one.
The 4th signing of the summer revolution has been announced on the official website just as most of us were …
Malcolm Dawson writes….it struck me whilst watching England v Belgium that we have a full team of current and former, …
John McCormick writes: how could Pete Sixsmith have known that my car failed its MOT this morning? (Have you seen these new fail notifications? I got a big bold FAIL repair immediately comment, along with something advisory about my rear brake disks. That said, the Mrs went out in it this afternoon).
I presume that’s what his e-mail was about but it could have been about next season’s fixtures. I expect to be at the Charlton game but am a little less certain about a London trip to take in AFC Wimbledon at the end of the month. If you have a spare ticket let me know.
Or could something else(s) have been happening in the world of football? Let’s catch up with Pete’s catchup:
Update: and eventually, the statement came [see John McCormicks comment below], short enough to fit into a stop press bulletin – Sunderland Association Football Club and Jack Rodwell have agreed by mutual consent that Jack will leave the club at the end of June 2018. The club and Jack wish each other every success for the future.
Better late than never, SAFC.com will get round to confirming what seems common knowledge and also classifies as good news: Jack Rodwell and the club have reportedly reached agreement to cancel his contract.
Rodwell, arguably the worst of many wretched signings in recent times, is said by Sky and others to be hoping for a move to an MLS club in the USA. Good luck to them.
The original promotion poll, now closed, received 818 votes. Of those, 664 predicted – whether through blind faith or genuine belief – that Sunderland would bounce straight back. It was desperately close but just half of them thought we’d do so as champions.
Only 18 per cent (still a sizeable minority, totalling 148 votes) were pessimistic, though mostly about promotion chances, just four per cent (36 votes) fearing another relegation scrap.
The poll allowed other responses and there were six of these, listed below.
Our purpose in such articles as this is no more than to welcome new players. We needed, desperately, a good new keeper. we needed new defenders. And we needed people to do what Eric Gates and Marco Gabbiadini did back in the late 80s, score goals to make the third tier look simple.
And we have three new boys who seem to fit the bill …