John McCormick writes: last November I took a look at the Deloitte Money League (https://safc.blog/?p=38977), which ranks clubs according to income from matchdays, broadcasting rights and other commercial activities, including sponsorship …
This, on a day when there seems a lull in the frantic transfer process, is priceless.
To agree with that assessment, you need only to enjoy football history, relish a rare opportunity to see Sunderland beat Everton with ease or hanker for days when commentary came in clipped military tones, boys were passed over the heads of spectators to be nearer the front and what seems like straw was thrown in the air in goal celebration.
The Salut! Sunderland jury has spoken.
And the verdict in our 2012-2013 “Who are You?” awards – the honours presented each season for the best interviews with opposing supporters before their teams play ours – ended up, by pure coincidence, as a final between Wigan Athletic and Manchester City.
With the same outcome …
Gareth Barker imagines what an onlooker from his own parallel universe might have made of the dismal display against Manchester United that was quickly followed by MoN’s exit, looks back on Paolo Di Canio’s mostly winning start and gets reacquainted with enjoying life …
We’ve all seen false dawns but no one can seriously doubt the impact Paolo Di Canio has had or where we would be, for all his feelings of being hard done by, had Martin O’Neill stayed. Pete Sixsmith wonders whether the same commitment from players and fans seen on Saturday can propel SAFC to safety at Villa Park next Monday night. He also detects the essential changes evident from two marvellous wins against NUFC and Everton. MoN, if he were an avid reader of Salut! Sunderland, might say Sixer identified similar improvements when he first took over and he’d be right. But can PDC sustain this progress where the Ulsterman, sadly, could not?
Another mighty, mighty win and Pete Sixsmith‘s mid to late-season wobble may be over with any luck. Twice in six days he has seen a rejuvenated Sunderland take three points from a game. Today Stephane Sessegnon hit the first-half winner in a tense, even match that mattered mostly because of the further step it took Sunderland to safety and secondly because it put an end to a long, long wait to defeat Everton. Is it still a little early to start planning for another Premier League season? …
Hear the latest Salut! Sunderland podcast here: https://soundcloud.com/wise-men-say
If there ever was a game that dreams were made of then few could argue that was it! There’s some sort of superiority/inferiority complex constantly spilling over from the personalities of Newcastle/Sunderland fans when it comes to the other. Whichever way you look at it, only more results of this nature will start to amend that, writes Stephen Goldsmith.
Tim Cahill been shunted off to New York. Howard Webb is demoted to pub league football, or whatever is deemed his punishment for stopping Sunderland being four-up at half time against Newcastle, and no other referee in the world will surely, ever again, fall for the Leon Osman penalty trick.
That still leaves the small matter of how we actually win when playing Everton.
Right, thrashing Toon was the easy part. Now for Everton. We call them a bogey team; they say they’re just better. Last season pretty much ended for SAFC with the FA cup exit in a Stadium of Light replay that was painful to watch after a good draw at Goodison. Earlier, we’d had the infamous Leon Osman fall-over-and-claim-a-pen routine that our friend Howard Webb fell-for-and-gave. That piece of odious cheating aside, Everton deserved their point on the day, were incontestably better in the cup replay and naturally won the Goodison league game with complete ease. Martin Fricker*, from the Daily Mirror, is a lifelong Everton fan. He fondly recalls Peter Reid and “Zinedine Kilbane”, has interesting thoughts on derby rivalries, wishes this game had happened before last Sunday but expects another draw …
Pete Sixsmith has a big night ahead. He’ll be at Roker Park tomorrow for the FA Cup fifth round replay against Manchester City. That, at any rate, is the dream, one that goes back to 1973. Come back to see his report of one of the best games seen at the old ground. For now, he reports on a promising debut by Kader Mangane in a game that was nearly good enough to allow the crowd to forget the glacial conditions …
Three hundred and sixty hardy souls can now lay claim to the fact the we have seen Kader Mangane play. He turned out for the development squad in what turned into an entertaining clash with Everton at Eppleton last night. As usual, we came unstuck against the Toffees, losing a two goal lead to end up with a point.