Stop Press: deal done – see new posting
Reports of Fabio Borini’s proposed return to Sunderland have a stronger look today than they ever did when a whole summer seemed to be wasted trying to bring back a player whose heart lay elsewhere.
When the Sunderland Echo says a player is attending the academy for a medical, the fee agreed with his present club, we are entitled to believe it is probably true. The story has gathered more steam as the day has proceeded.
Read this article from @Knox_Harrington ! He red my mind! Thank you…
— fabio borini (@borinifabio29) September 3, 2014
The world and his dog have a view on the Fabio Borini affair. My own is well known: he is not paid to be a Sunderland supporter but for being a professional footballer, and must be allowed to
make his own choices, but I do bitterly regret all the wasted effort to bring him back when it was clear all along he’d sooner take a break from active football. Even those Sunderland supporters who profess not to care too much that this, indeed, is the outcome express a view merely by saying just that. What of Borini himself? And Liverpool fans? It is likely we still know only part of the story of how he now comes to be kicking his heels at Anfield with, apparently, little real prospect of breaking into the team on Brendan Rodgers’s present thinking.Well, Borini read the article we reproduce today from the excellently written Liverpool fan site The Anfied Wrap and gave it the seal of approval you see above. So step forward the author, Neil Atkinson, from whom we have heard before, with an introduction followed, with his consent, by the piece itself …
We’ve gone three PL games without any forward scoring so it looks like the front line failings we’ve experienced for at least two seasons are destined to continue. Jozy will score one day but Fletch looks like he’s playing the wrong system and Wickham’s playing the wrong position.
Gus Poyet said the deal had been agreed. Brendan Rodgers likewise. People ‘close’ to Fabio Borini insisted he had no wish to rejoin Sunderland, this time permanently, and would hold out for a Serie A move or stick it out at Liverpool. Who knows? Rob Hutchison has the fan’s view ….
Salut! Sunderland welcomes offerings from anyone with something to say that directly relates to our shared passion for SAFC or offers a fresh, illuminating insight into football more generally. Here is a piece submitted by a collaborator (in its nicer sense, not the French one)* on a subject dear to many Sunderland hearts. Can we have our Borini back and where do we stand in trying to make that happen? Let Sean O’Connor take up the story …
The Wembley and Safe series has produced some excellent reads but even good things, maybe especially good things, must come to an end. Pete Sixsmith’s series-closer has arrived so, unless any dawdlers who really, really meant to write something do so pretty smartish, they’ll find themselves left on the harbourside, the boat duly missed. Here are young Keir Bradwell‘s season-long ratings. His thoughts have been a refreshing addition to Salut! Sunderland’s reflections on the mysteries of life and we very much hope he returns with more of the same next season …
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 …
It seems odd, rather too soon and unnecessary to be naming players as best of the season.
With four immensely important games to go, and survival at stake, I’d say we should also avoid Villains of the Season awards.
A week ago, after the Hull debacle, I worked out the team for the Palace game. Vito and the back four were simple enough, as were Bridcutt and Ki, plus Jonno and Borini. Who else in midfield? Jack, I thought, as Catts needed to be grounded to save a possible early bath and Larsson just isn’t doing it for me. That left a space up front. Fletcher, on balance. But what if someone wasn’t fit? I wouldn’t play Giaccherini and Johnson in the same team, which pointed to Gardner as a potential starter. I think Gardner has served the club well and I think he’s a decent bloke. But he’s not what we need right now. He’s not someone to dig us out of trouble. That I have him in the frame for a start is not a good omen for the rest of the season.
Malcolm Dawson writes….. Every cliché in the book was utilised in the run up to this game. A must win, …