Ellis Short

Soapbox: gold to Ipswich, welcome to Wickham

by


Does this amount to strikebreaking, a scabby edition of Soapbox? Pete Sixsmith is meant to be on strike. Truth is he couldn’t resist upping tools long enough to tell us he likes what he has seen so far in the close season transfer dealings …

Many years of my working life have been spent working with 18-year-olds. Some went on to be doctors and lawyers. One has produced a bestselling novel. Some went into the caring professions – nursing, social work, comforting Newcastle fans. And some hit the depths and became teachers. But I have never taught one with an £8m price tag around his neck or hers.

Read more

Sunderland report cards: (1) progress achieved, but Newcastle can smile too

by

As Niall Quinn prepares to convene his inquest into the more troubling aspects of a season that ended quite happily, Salut! Sunderland begins its own review of events from August to May. As promised, our contributors are applying their own powers of scrutiny and analysis to the questions of what went right, and what went wrong. M Salut gets the game under way …

First of all, an admission. In the immediate post-match glow of seeing Sunderland rise to a respectable 10th place finish, I overlooked two details: unbeaten in London and ending the season above Newcastle United.

Of course both matter, up to a point. We can be proud of having beaten Chelsea and West Ham away, with draws at Fulham, Arsenal and Spurs. And it is gratifying to remain the top North-eastern club. But I agree with the comment from “Billy the Fish”, which appeared here among responses to Pete Sixsmith’s matchday report from Upton Park, that we should really be concerned with our own performances, our own need for trophies.

Read more

Bruce in, Bruce out? Offering a hand to a drowning man

by

Red & White in Black & WhiteMrs Logic captures the gloom


Later today, another Salut! Sunderland contributor will identify one glaring flaw in the Bruce Way (in fact it’s already up by accident so can stay!). One point in 24 undoubtedly leaves the club in crisis, one made all the more painful by memories of the false early-season promise. This site is open to other Sunderland supporters who wish to offer their considered views, as articles or in the Comments field. First, though, I wanted to get this off my chest …

By the sea in France. two hours or so after the final whistle at the Stadium of Light not so much put us out of our misery as plunged us into more, I played a minor part in pulling to safety a four-year-old girl who had fallen into the harbour.

When I say minor, I mean it. A younger, faster man was first to reach her and was able to lean over and grab her hand; I took the other.

It would take a hard man to draw any serious comparison between a child in danger of drowning and the game of football.

Read more

When Liverpool rained heavily on the Ellis Short parade

by

Oh dear. Safc.com was proud as punch to announce that Ellis Short was about to give one of his rare interviews.

And the day we lost 2-0 in utterly deflating fashion at home to Liverpool was the day he chose to deliver a message some Sunderland supporters would now regard as ridiculously upbeat.

“We will be doing everything we can to win those games,” he said of the four remaining home ties after Liverpool: WBA, Bolton, Wigan and Fulham, stressing the need for big crowds. “We are not looking behind us any more at what can happen at the end of the season. We are looking ahead at how far up the table we can climb.”

He also spoke of the match he was about to watch.

It was to be played in front of a near-full house but broadcast internationally {and legally) so that the world would see a packed stadium with passionate supporters. We know what happened next: a damp squib, our fans reduced to silence and early exit when a bright start evaporated, with a little help from abysmal match officials, into abject surrender.

Read more

Salut!’s week: a worthy point at Arsenal and the West Ham rip-off

by
Mrs Logic

Another review of the week gone by for the busy reader who appreciates a regular digest of what’s been going on here (and ps: see our FA Cup wishlist) …

Among Salut! Sunderland‘s pet hates, a weekend without football ranks high.

There are FA Cup 6th round ties this weekend, and important FA Youth Cup games (the FA’s own site originally had Liverpool and Man Utd having to play their 6th round tie before the winners beetled off down the M6 to London for the first leg of a semi final at Chelsea three hours later: the semi has now been put back to Wednesday).

And Sunderland’s ladies’ team carry our best wishes in their FA Women’s Cup 5th round game against Lincoln City.

Read more

Changing places: Newcastle and other away fans (plus their prison cells)

by

Go to jailShayne Kaye


So you didn’t know the Stadium of Light had a secondary role as part of HM Prison Service? Read on …

From the Sunderland Echo‘s Graeme Anderson comes as welcome a spot of news as we’ve seen since, well, Danny Welbeck returned from injury.

Sunderland, he says, are considering how to move away fans to a different part of the Stadium of Light than the large, usually too large, section of the South stand they are currently allocated.

Read more

Ellis Short: the Mackem passion of a ‘perfect owner’

by

A Love Supreme

If Ellis Short does not quite observe a Trappist vow of silence, he is a man of few words, in public at least. But now he plans a rare interview about his ownership of – and plans for – Sunderland AFC …

You’d almost think the Pope, the Queen or Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali were about to bare their souls to the world live on network TV.

The North-eastern press is solemnly reporting that Ellis Short, esteemed owner of Sunderland AFC, is – to quote the Sunderland Echo – to “make another address to the club’s fans in the near future”.

Read more

Iceman’s floe of information is pure football class

by

readytogoCredit to the popular Sunderland fans’ site Ready To Go and one of its Pure Football forum contributors, Iceman, for providing the discussion of the day for Sunderland fans.

Iceman was present at an illuminating social evening in the Sports Bar at the Stadium of Light and duly reported, with one bite-sized chunk after the other, the warm, witty or wise words uttered by Niall Quinn, Steve Bruce and some of the players in attandance – Craig Gordon, John Mensah, Kenwyne Jones, Michael Turner, Anton Ferdinand, Darren Bent and Lorik Cana.

Read more

SAFC v Bolton: the long and Short of it

by

haway

Long is what we’ve had to wait for a win, if we agree that beating a team 100 or so places below us, in the cup, doesn’t really count. Short is Ellis, due to join tonight’s endurance test – watching Sunderland at home to Bolton – before meeting his manager, Steve Bruce, tomorrow.
The message to fans is simple: get behind the Lads. They need you to urge them on to an important victory. But the message to Sunderland AFC is even clearer: the time for understanding is running out …

Only a fool would deny that Steve Bruce has been unlucky with injuries this season.

We go into tonight’s massively important game against Bolton with Andy Reid, Lee Cattermole, Kieran Richardson and Jordan Henderson unavailable or doubtful.

With what is left – especially with Steed Malbranque only just emerging from the doghouse after being disciplined for a breach of curfew during the recent Arsenal trip AND likely to be offloaded anyway – you wonder from where Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones can expect a semblance of service.

Read more