After three defeats in his first four games, Big Sam must be wondering whatever happened to New Manager Bounce.
It has not exactly been a replica of Alan Pardew’s experience at Monday night’s opponents Crystal Palace.
This is your chance – whoever you support – to Guess the Score in SAFC vs Saints, be first to get it right and win a prize …
It was already a massive test. Southampton are seventh for a reason just as there is no mystery as to why Sunderland are second bottom.
Our Saints “Who are You?” interviewee* wonders whether Sunderland actually need to go down “to gut the squad and have a decent crack at rebuilding … a risky game, as many can testify”.
The best response is the one Big Sam has been appointed to deliver. And we know from experience that a rotten result is not necessarily followed by another (though we can usually predict one with some accuracy after a derby win).
The past is another country. A week is a long time in politics/love.football. And all the other cliches you can think of to cover the fact that one win on Sunday October 25 is all well and good, but only if we can keep the green shoots sprouting.
It is time to Guess the Score at Goodison. I have seen us draw there and, of course, lose. Only one win – Boxing Day two seasons ago. In fact, until the last two seasons, very few of us will have seen Sunderland beat Everton on their own ground. The Boxing Day victory was followed by another, on May 9 this year, when as part of Dick Advocaat’s version of the annual Sunderland great escape we snatched a 2-0 victory. It was a crazy game, one in which Everton felt they did everything but score, crazier still when you consider one of our goals came from Danny Graham – his first for us and his first in the Premier since December 2013 when on loan to Hull.
Cometh the hour, cometh the number. That number is six, Newcastle United’s tally in the demolition of Norwich City (after some shaky moments) on Sunday and also – if only Sunderland can bring the Mags crashing back to earth – how many times we would then have beaten them on the trot.
The doom-laden entrants, at Facebook and Twitter in particular, just didn’t get Monsieur Salut’s ruling that unduly pessimistic titles would clash with the spirit of Salut! Sunderland. Of course we’ll criticise and grow despondent if things do not work out; for now, though, Sam Allardyce is our manager and he deserves, as of right, our support.
There is, of no course, no truth in the rumour that the venue of Sunderland’s visit to Man Utd on Saturday, while still at Old Trafford, is being moved half a mile to the much older cricket ground to reflect the likely scoring pattern.
Dick Advocaat’s finest could even shock us. But then anything short of an emphatic defeat would probably shock most of us.
This is a quick posting to invite Salut! Sunderland readers to guess how tomorrow’s League Cup game against Man City …
Sixer’s travel plans are sorted. Weymouth with Pete Horan (where’s that Defoe piece, Pete – Ed?) by Thursday, Bournemouth Saturday, somewhere – doubtless involving football – on Sunday, back Monday. But can he come home with three points?
There was much to give us hope in the Spurs match. As Mick Goulding has pointed out (see comments at https://safc.blog/2015/09/sixers-tottenham-soapboxdefeat-but-new-boys-and-borini-earn-their-spurs/#comments – Ed), Yann M’Vila really is the business in midfield. Borini will get stronger and sharper. O’Shea and Kaboul looked solid and Lens, from the beaten side, was man of the match (for M Salut and for others).
Far too early for a Sunday game but the cupboard is otherwise bare so let’s go with Guess the Score. One good excuse: we have the return of prize mugs for winners to gloat about …
Too late for winners so far – in fact there may have been only one, apart from the Swansea game and its special prize and he’s already got mugs galore – Salut! Sunderland is delighted to announce the resumption of Guess the Score as a prize competition.
Villa fans swimming to these shores must forgive what they would see as the impertinence of the headline – both sets of fans know precisely which is the bigger club*, though the conclusions they reach may well differ – and look forward to the return of Jinksy.
Stuart Jinks, to give him a real name, is an old friend around here, an award-winning Who are You? interviewee and happy to come back with his forthright views whenever asked. We asked and he has delivered. His interview will appear tomorrow (update: see it now at https://safc.blog/2015/08/aston-villa-vs-sunderland-who-are-you-a-tenner-on-finishing-10th/). He has SAFC finishing 17th and feels his anti-MoN views, once a source of controversy, have been vindicated.