Jeremy Robson - SAFC Blog

The Manchester United ‘Who are You?’: champs despite City slaughter

November 3, 2011 by Colin Randall

Canadian, married to a Liverpudlian whose heart lies at Anfield and working with a diehard Mackem, David Tack* really ought to reconsider his allegiance. But it’s Manchester United for him and he’s as avid from afar as anyone whose journey to Old Trafford can be made on foot. I make no comment about the thought process that inspired his choice of club and his answers to Salut! Sunderland reveal a thinking man’s approach to sport. Sadly, for us, he sees Saturday’s game going to script …

Salut! Sunderland: If I wasn’t sure where to start, I am now: which Old Trafford goal feast do you want to talk about, the one against Arsenal or the six Man City put past you?

Neither and both I suppose. While I did enjoy seeing the Gooners get a spanking, I was certainly gutted by our spanking from City. Overall, I don’t think either result was good for the league. Games among the top teams in the division should be fierce and closely contested affairs. When they become blowouts I feel a bit cheated by having not seen a great competition among the best teams in the best league in the world.

The Robson Report: let Doncaster’s Billy Sharp personify football’s soul

November 2, 2011 by Colin Randall

Jeremy Robson

Did John Terry mouth a racist insult in “conversation” with Anton Ferdinand, or was he merely enquiring as to whether Anton erroneously thought he had done so? A number of players insist that Terry is not a racist; the facts have yet to be determined. Billy Sharp’s gesture, however, needed no interpretation. Jeremy Robson applauds Sharp, the bereaved father who scored a “goal from heaven”* (see clip below); you judge whether he is unduly harsh on JT …

Bill Shankly’s oft cited quotation about football being more important than life and death was mentioned again as recently as last week on Salut! Sunderland, in the title of the Rev Leo Osborn’s “Who are you?” article prior to the SAFC v Aston Villa game.

Leo, a staunch Villa fan but also a prominent churchman, said Shankly was wrong. I for one would not disagree. How can any sport, or game be considered more important than life itself?

Salut!’s Week: Bolton, Aston Villa & corporate football’s ugly face

October 29, 2011 by Colin Randall

Another busy week, another rough guide to Salut! Sunderland for those readers who cannot get here every day … please note that there may be delays this weekend in posting Bruce’s Banter and other post-match coverage. M Salut will be at the game, so will Mr Sixsmith and Ms Dawson and it will be case of who is able to get items posted first (bearing in mind that Sixer wouldn’t know how to) ….

Salut! Sunderland is about to undergo a makeover. It has been a long time coming but soon the home page will more closely resemble a newspaper format. This will bring the benefit of keeping especially good reads prominently displayed for several days rather than slipping ever further down before toppling off the bottom edge and plunging into the archives.

The Robson Report: killing football in ‘one foul swoop’

October 26, 2011 by Colin Randall

Every decent football supporter was outraged by the Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre’s repugnant call for changes to TV rights that would divert more and more money to a handful of “big” clubs. Jeremy Robson is surprised more attention was not given to another corporate threat to the national game, this time from Suits of the imported variety …

Ten of the 20 current Premier League clubs are foreign owned. This would have been unthinkable even a decade ago.

Of the current crop it was Fulham who were the first to be taken over by a foreign investor (Mohammed al Fayed), in 1997, when they were in the third tier. Much has changed in a short period (and that’s no pun or reference to our owner and chairman).

Why is this significant? What difference does it make where the money comes from?

Short shrift for Niall? Someone’s imagination is working overtime

October 4, 2011 by Colin Randall

The mischief makers are at work already. Jeremy Robson naturally found ways of interpreting the Niall Quinn announcement in a quite different way than presented by SAFC …

There has been a widespread discussion following the news that Niall Quinn has stepped down as Sunderland chairman to pursue other duties. Much of this debate is about the truth in the statement. But in reality, can a man in Ellis Short’s position actually afford to tell the whole truth?

‘Win or lose to West Brom, Bruce, your time’s up’

September 28, 2011 by Colin Randall

Salut! Sunderland does not believe in kicking a man when he’s down. Neither Pete Sixsmith nor Colin Randall, who broadly cobble this thing together, has so far joined the crowds gathering in the Tuileries to knit as Madame Guillotine does her work. One more bad result and that could well change. Others are made of hardier stuff; one more bad result would already be too late for our regular contributor and confirmed tricoteur, Jeremy Robson …

Those of us over a certain age have lost count of the relegation battles fought and lost as well as a few that we managed to win to avoid the dreaded drop.

Salut!’s week: trouncing West Ham, overtaking Newcastle .. Man United v Barcelona

May 28, 2011 by Colin Randall

One week ago, we were worried that our depleted team we might be embarrassed at Upton Park, leaving us a place worse off than this time last season at lowly 14th. The 3-0 win made us eat our words, and very tasty they were too, at the start of a frantic week in which we ran three end-of-season reports, previewed the “Who are You?” awards and intruded on the higher ground of the Champions’ League. If you missed anything or want a reminder, read on …

The unmagical figure of £46 at one point raised the possibility that our final game of the season would be played out in the absence of the magical figure of Pete Sixsmith.

He swallowed his pride, overcame his anger with Sullivan and Gold and forgot pre-retirement impoverishment to opt for the day out anyway. And had a jolly good time. Click here to see his account of a good win which may have been against a thoroughly bad, demoralised side but lifted us to 10th place, two above Newcastle United (though the end-of-season reviews – see below – put that in perpective).

What else did we dream up in the hope of entertaining or stimulating supporters of Sunderland AFC – and the many others who stray in here because, well, because they do?

Having a Newcastle pal is one thing – but wear his shirt?

May 27, 2011 by Colin Randall

Actually the boot was on the other foot, or the shirt on the other back. Two mates, one a Mackem and the other a Mag, had a bet on who would finish higher … you’ve probably guessed the forfeit but can read all about it by clicking here. It reminds M Salut of the Celebrity Supporter interview with a young Sunderland actor Sean Landless (pictured), who starred with Billy Connolly in Gabriel and Me. The part called for Sean, as a Toon-supporting Tyneside teenager, to try turning himself into an angel to save his cancer-stricken father. “I had to dress up in a sort of feathery dress,” he said. “But having to wear the Newcastle shirt was worse.”

The first story tickled Jeremy Robson‘s fancy …

Reading this story in the Sunderland Echo about two mates, Andy White and Josh Dyer, the first of whom supports Newcastle Utd and the other the mighty Mackems, made me laugh; or should I say cringe almost uncontrollably and then laugh.

The thought of wearing one of their shirts is completely repugnant. I just couldn’t do it. It strikes me as a strange mentality that these lads possess, in order to enter into such a thing.

Sunderland report cards: (3) how we missed Darren Bent’s goals

May 26, 2011 by Colin Randall

The report cards are coming in thick and fast now. If Bill Taylor brought us down to earth with his pastiche of the post-match Steve Bruce e-mails, stand by for a few more home truths as Jeremy Robson casts a highly critical eye over goings-on at the Stadium of Light. Salut! Sunderland readers who think they know better should make contact and offer their own end-of-season reviews …

Few of us expected the wonderful start made to this last campaign.

Sadly, most of us could have expected from experience to suffer a second half collapse in form that occurred since Christmas and the departure of one Darren Bent.

Irrespective of whether we find the facts comfortable, Bent’s goals even in a lacklustre period for him, accounted for the difference between the first and second halves of the season.

Niall Quinn’s crisis inquest (1): case for the prosecution

April 12, 2011 by Colin Randall

So Niall Quinn will hold an inquest at the end of the season to examine what has gone so badly wrong. We know inquests don’t actually have prosecutions and defence, but he could do worse than pore over the comments that appeared here yesterday as a Salut! Sunderland posting on the crisis topped the Sunderland pages at newsnow.co.uk … probably the most eloquently argued contribution, from Moongod, contained the sort of supportive and sympathetic messages Quinn and certainly Steve Bruce may want to hear, and has now been reproduced whole – click here -as the second part of this mini-series. But first, let us hear from Jeremy Robson, who is feeling far from sympathetic and questions a number of the decisions Bruce has taken …

Whenever Sunderland get involved in a relegation scrap, or after a string of bad results, there are invariably questions raised about the capability of the manager to get us out of the poor run and improve our fortunes on the field.