Italy’s star, SAFC’s underachiever. Where did it go wrong with Giaccherini?

How Jake saw Emanuele Giachherini
How Jake saw Emanuele Giaccherini

Sorry for the patchy appearance of new material here, John McCormick’s splendid efforts excepted. In the tetchy climate, I daren’t say what may, for most of the last week, have distracted some of us. Emanuele Giaccherini couldn’t always get a full game for Sunderland but stars for Italy at Euro 2016. Is it our fault or his? What on earth happens to so many players of quality once they pull on our shirt, Defoe being a class exception? Monsieur Salut tracks the Giaccherini days at Sunderland as viewed on these pages …

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Sixer’s Soapbox on the drubbing of Cardiff: keep calm and carry on

Jake: 'one massive step towards survival ...'
Jake: ‘one massive step towards survival …’

Not often this season has Pete Sixsmith had so much cause to smile, let alone contemplate drinking perfumed tea from a Meissen cup. Cardiff at home was such an occasion, if without the porcelain. No better time could have been chosen for a thumping, morale-boosting, point-winning display. With nearly 46,000 in the ground, Monsieur Salut wonder how many more Sunderland fans near and far were watching it live, or live-minus-a-few-seconds via internet streams or listening to Nick Barnes and Gary Bennett’s Radio Newcastle commentary via the SAFC website (usually a good way of following the match, maddeningly stop-start on my Mac in the first half). But it’s fair to say the warm glow of relief and h*** will have been felt around the world …

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