Harry Redknapp

SAFC vs QPR Who are You?: ‘we’ve had some lovely players – and Joey Barton’

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Clive Whittingham, aka @LoftForWords at Twitter

Monsieur Salut says: stand by for a sharp, literate analysis of all that is wrong and the bits that are right about Saturday’s opponents, QPR, and what has gone awry for Sunderland. At least half a dozen headline-worthy phrases leap from Clive Whittingham‘s* answers. Clive, a business and sports journalist, is the editor of a QPR fan site, Loft For Words. I loved his one-line assessment of his club: ‘not big, or that good, but we’ve had some lovely players’.

Of players linked to both clubs, he admires the current but injured captain, Nedum Onuaha – remembered fondly for his wonder goal vs Chelsea for us but not, apparently, a favourite of all Hoops fans – but came close to adding Anton Ferdinand to his ‘worst players’ answer. As for us, he likes Simon Grayson but suspects we’ll end up firing him as the season progresses. Perhaps the kindest way of interpreting his remarks is that he thinks we’re a basket case …

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Redknapp: right about us being horrendous at Bournemouth, otherwise a bad joke

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My view of the bookies making Harry Redknapp a 20-1 outsider for the SAFC job was that it might be their idea of a joke. Thank heavens he’s ruled himself out with an unprofessional series of sideswipes at Sunderland. Of course we were ‘horrendous’ at Bournemouth, of course we’ve made some ghastly moves in the transfer market and of course we’re in deep trouble.

But why on earth would any of that put off a self-respecting manager from considering taking over a great football club? Even a manager unaccustomed to a club that attracts crowds of the size of Sunderland’s, despite playing turgid and losing football, would have to see the potential. ‘Arry wondered about the bus timetable between the south coast and Wearside – let him stay there …

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Sunderland v QPR: can O’Neill block the ‘Arry effect? Guess the score

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Buy One, Win One, says Jake


Almost forgot. It is a big game tonight, says Martin O’Neill, at the same time denying those tweeted claims that he had offered his resignation after the West Brom defeat.

Sadly, when you’ve won only twice and it’s almost December, every match is big. In the short time left before the match gets under way, here’s your opportunity to say how will this one end up.

If you cannot wait to win one … click here for the Martin O’Neill ‘Team of all Talents’ mug: £9.50, post-free for UK buyers, from the Salut! Sunderland Shop

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Sunderland v QPR Who are You?: ‘keep the faith. We’d have MoN’

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Jake asks the question

As Pete Sixsmith said, another Saturday, another Sunderland defeat (he actually wrote ‘another Sunday’, as in another Sunday to have to write about losing). So let us put WBA behind us and move on in hope. Is it to be a case of ‘Arry arriving at just at the wrong time for us or will the men who are the cause of our disappointment finally offer a home performance the supporters deserve? Monsieur Salut’s former colleague John Crowley, a Loftus Road loyalist (if you can have loyalists from County Cork), weighs up the new boss’s prospects, tells us where the “dour Welshman down the pub” went wrong and prescribes a course of patience for our own support …

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Tottenham Hotspur ‘Who are You?’: forgetting past glories

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Football fans come in different forms. Jim Duggan* has formidable knowledge of and deep love for his club, Tottenham Hotspur. He runs an impressive website, www.topspurs.com, and looks forward, not back to the Spurs golden era, despite powerful respect for the Spurs “holy trinity” … but wild horses wouldn’t drag him to the Stadium of Light for Saturday’s game, and he doesn’t get to WHL these days either. None of which stops him having some strong views on his team and the game generally …

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