Salut! Sunderland readers have been served another feast of comment, analysis and trivia in the past week.
Stephen Goldsmith, John McCormick, Pete Sixsmith, Robert Simmons, Bob Chapman and M Salut have all been busy trying to find ways of informing or entertaining you and were also joined by our friend Peter Thomas, a Swansea supporter whose words have graced our pages on four occasions since last season. Jake’s graphics continued to brighten our appearance.
As has become standard practice, I will resist the temptation to litter this review of the week with hyperlinks. All you need to do to explore more fully what we have been doing is to visit the home page at https://safc.blog and, having paused to bookmark it, choose from the articles displayed there. At the time of writing, there are 13 and that does not count the dropdown links to archived material, sorted by category or date.
Here is an idea of the stories you have have missed or simply wish to re-read:
* Goldy – Stephen Goldsmith – on the importance of three members of Martin O’Neill’s first-team squad who do not always capture the lion’s share of attention: Lee Cattermole, Craig Gardner and Jack Colback
* John McCormick’s look at the transfer dealings of MON and where this fitted into, or challenged, the theories and conclusions offered by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski in their horribly titled book Soccernomics .
* Detailed match reports from Swansea City 2 SAFC 2 from supporters of either side, Bob Chapman and Peter Thomas, plus an instant appraisal from Robert Simmons on the far side of the Atlantic
* French Fancies: our occasional review of the game in France welcomed a riproaring return to competitive football by Steed Malbranque, widely acclaimed as the star of Lyon’s 3-2 win over Valenciennes who, incidentally, have just signed another former Sunderland player, Anthony Le Tallec.
There was also Goldy’s predictions league, a chance to win tickets for the Liverpool home game and Sixer’s account of an extraordinary game in the Northern League – Shildon 11 South Shields 0 – with Sunderland-supporting players claiming seven of the goals.
One last thing. ESPN has asked me to write SAFC-related articles for the club-by-club blogs section of its Soccernet site.
Several pieces have appeared already, covering the saving of Sess for Sunderland, the mildly encouraging lack of diving so far in the Premier (I am bound to live to regret that one), the club versus country debate as Adam Johnson picks up an injury in training for England and plenty of the transfer window. I will go against my earlier policy and offer you the link now: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/sunderland?cc=5739. It would be great to see some of you adding comments there, whether or not you agree with anything I say.
The intrusion of World Cup qualifiers means I can’t say Ha’way the Lads for a game this weekend but I will say, too late for Adam Johnson, Ha’way Lads, Get Safely Back from International Duty …
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