We’ve shaken the dust off the old Jake image that accompanied the long-defunct Salut! Sunderland’s Week series – it proved a chore too far – to sum up a busy week at the site in preparation for the start of the 2013-2014 season.
A new season and a new series of Guess the Score competitions.
Sunderland take on Fulham in the knowledge that the home games that follow, right up to early December, are challenging to say the least: Arsenal, Liverpool, Man Utd, Newcastle United, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs.
Here we go again. Subject to finding a witty, warm or wise opposing supporter in each case, every Sunderland match will again be preceded here by the traditional “Who are You?” questionnaire.
As usual, prizes will be awarded at the end of the season for the responses judged by the Salut! Sunderland panel to have been the best.
Hands up those who can hardly wait for the season to open. The excitement is building, not least since few of us can have a firm idea of who will start for PDC after virtually a teamload of new signings in the close season. For a Fulham viewpoint, we asked Russ Goldman*, an American supporter who runs the Cottage Talk internet radio show, to get this season’s series off to a grand start …
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 …
In the fifth and final part of his look at programmes from a lifetime supporting Sunderland, Pete Sixsmith brings us …
This is the final piece of a series I started around Christmas. It wasn’t intended as a series, it just turned out that way. Idle speculation about the importance of goal difference in the relegation dogfight led to the first post, in which I wrote “I’m going to stick my neck out and say that the five (from SAFC, the Mags, Villa, Wigan, Southampton and Fulham) whose goal differences show the greatest improvement in the second half of the season will avoid relegation, irrespective of their points on Boxing Day, and a consistent decline will point to the doomed team”.
So who is going down? For virtually the first time this season neutrals are mentioning Sunderland as serious contenders. Given our awful run, and the tough bunch of games to come, that is hardly surprising. John McCormick has been studying trends again and comes up with potentially good news for Aston Villa, though he still sees QPR and Reading going. At whose expense would Villa survive? Ours? Not according to whatever can be gleaned from the stats John has been reviewing. Read on but expect to be blinded by this branch of science …
Ken Gambles came up with one the ideas of 2011, the mandatory wearing of bright pink mittens by shirt-pullers and goggles by divers. Sadly, no manufacturer could be found to guarantee keeping up with the likely demand and members of the National Union of Football Divers, Shirt-Pullers and Injury-Feigners besieged Parliament in their thousands. Now, Ken turns his attention to the inconsistencies of match officials ….
Some of you have already heard the spoken version – 46 minutes into a BBC Radio Newcastle clip at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0151krv, catching Pete Sixsmith breathless but not legless after a heavy bout of Stadium of Light hospitality. He made some good points, very critically, happy with a draw but wondering about the quality of what he’d been watching. Here’s the written account, essential reading as ever (just buttering him up in case he’s minded to keep that threat to abandon SAFC for Rugby League and park football after all the serial disappointment ….
Martin O’Neill has less reason that he thinks to complain about the penalty that was given to Fulham. If a defender’s leg goes where Gardner’s did, the modern professional footballer will happily fall into it. But he’s right, in his post-match e-mail, to applaud a decent fightback from such an unnecessary two-goal deficit which, with more creativity and guile, would have led to victory over a sweet-moving but beatable Fulham. The spot-on verdict came from Gary Bennett on BBC Radio Newcastle: ‘A workmanlike performance that was lacking quality.’ …