Salut! Sunderland‘s “Who are You?” series has a strong record of success in attracting warm or witty or wise – and sometimes all three – interviewees from the ranks of opposing supporters. But there are blips as we saw a couple of times last season when QPR and Bradford City fans went AWOL after promising answers to our questions.
It’s happened again. The missing WAY candidate is David Yelland, a reformed tabloid editor who now runs Kitchen Table Partners, which does not sell Formica worktops but is a public relations firm that, according to The Financial Times, “counsels individuals”. He also supports Citeh and readily agreed to have a go at our customary questionnaire.
Then he fell silent, a state in which he has remained despite gentle reminders by e-mail and Twitter. So we’re left with unanswered questions. Disappointing, even more so not to be told he could not after all participate, but there may well be a sound reason (Yelland freely admits to having edited The Sun but seems from all accounts a likeable character with interesting thoughts on media ethics; incidentally, the man who is about to take the same position, Tony Gallagher, was an excellent West Ham-supporting WAY interviewee a few seasons back).
With so little time before kickoff, there seems little point in reproducing all those questions in the hope of another City supporter stepping in to perform Yelland’s role.
But if anyone were to come up with really good answers to any or all of the following, we’d stump up for a mug (and not even send the bill to Kitchen Table Partners).
* Is there an easy explanation for City’s tendency to shoot self in foot, especially in Champions League games?
** Do you remember when Man City were likeable but unsuccessful and do you ever miss a) those days and b) Maine Road?
*** That League Cup final was a fabulous day/weekend for Sunderland supporters, and a riproaring first half for us. There was even a great chance for us to make it 2-2 before you ran out fairly comfortable winners. But has the relatively minor nature of the trophy made such occasions – and tonight’s game – feel like just another day at the office?
Otherwise, apologies for the lapse in the WAY service.
There’s a just-for-fun edition of Guess the Score at https://safc.blog/2015/09/safc-vs-manchester-city-guess-the-score-its-their-cup-final/ so feel free to have a stab there at how you think the game will go.
At the time of writing, the options already taken are:
1-1 SAFC win on penalties
2-0
1-3
1-5
0-2
How’s that for collective confidence? Even the home win predictions were made tongue in cheek.
