Salut Sunderland’s 13 years and 13 managers: The little general and big Sam

John McCormick writes: for me, this piece by Pete  Sixsmith brings back many memories. I was at Goodison when we lost, and at Spurs when Kirchhoff came on and a young keeper who would go on to play for England couldn’t hold back the tide.  I saw us come back to snatch that point at Anfield as well. But the game that sticks out, of all the ones below, is one I never got to. The  1-0 win against the Mags. I was intending to go but stayed in Liverpool. My daughter gave birth that day, two weeks late. I have a print of Defoe’s goal ready to give to my granddaughter  when she’s old enough to appreciate what she made me miss…

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Robson Report: England and Sunderland’s Jordans and loyalty, that rare and elusive thing

Jeremy Robson

“The loyalty, well held to fools, does make Our faith mere folly”,  said Shakespeare in Anthony and Cleopatra.

Could those words be applied to us? Has our loyalty made fools of us? And of those few players who have kept faith with the club?

It has been a while since Jeremy Robson appeared on these pages. It’s good to see him back and, as ever, he produces not only a good read but also a thought provoking article.

But does he answer those questions? You’ll have to read on and decide for yourselves…

ps: John McCormick prepared this article for publication and wrote his introduction before two of the players mentioned by Jeremy featured in England’s World Cup win on penalties against Colombia. Jordan Henderson was nearly the shoot-out villain, missing his penalty, but otherwise had a fine, all-action match. Jordan Pickford, of course, was the hero with that stunning save. Our friend Barry Emmerson, who knows JP well as his occasional chauffeur, reacts: ‘My pal Jordan the hero. Drove him down to St George’s before they left for Russia. He is a super confident lad and I am always saying to him, “stand still for penalties, don’t dive first”. Well for the save he did that, I’m taking all the credit. He is going to be a giant of the game, maybe Real Madrid one day.’

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A daughter speaks about Jermain: missed at Sunderland, will star for Bournemouth

JD, a star on and off the pitch

Monsieur Salut’s daughter Nathalie Randall continues her campaign of contrition for having Sunderland as, maybe, her second club (after Liverpool) by offering her own fond farewell to Jermain Defoe, a personal favourite of hers, and urging Simon Grayson to emulate Rafa’s success as he goes about the search for replacement strikers.

Nathalie actually wrote the piece before the wretched news of six-year-old Bradley Lowery’s death. That touched her very deeply, as it did so many others, and her old dad has made some necessary adjustments to the article to take account of the sad development …

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Jordan Pickford, formerly one of our own: Everton buying ‘an absolute gem’


Pete Sixsmith
offers his thoughts on all the Stadium of Light developments: the exit of Jermain Defoe, the strong talk of Derek McInnes being on the verge of appointment as manager – and, first as you’d expect, the likely departure of Jordan Pickford …

At last things appear to be moving at the Stadium of Inertia, both in and out.

The retained list has been announced and it looks as if some of last season’s players may be moving on now that their contracts are up.

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Defoe vs Newcastle: a moment to remember

Jermain Defoe’s superstrike vs the Mags: see Art of Football’s Sunderland range at https://art-of-football.com/collections/sunderland


Monsieur Salut writes:
masquerading, until it’s corrected, as one Pete Smith, our own Pete Sixsmith was invited by our friends at Art of Football (OK I told them to sign him up) to write about the Jermain Defoe goal captured in that splendid print of theirs, the one you see above. Check it out at Art of Football’s own site

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Leicester Who are You? defending Sri, acclaiming Defoe, missing Kante a little

Brian Archie sports his Leicester top in a school photo from 1991

 

Monsieur Salut writes: it goes from bad to worse to boorish. Not content with his share of the blame for leading Sunderland’s downward charge to the Championship, our boss is caught – thinking he is off-air – snapping at a BBC reporter, Vicki Sparks, and threatening to give her ‘a slap even though you’re a woman’. Her crime? Asking an entirely legitimate question after the Burnley goalless draw about any extra pressure Moyes may have felt with the owner Ellis Short present for the game. Reports suggest there was no obvious humour in the remark’s delivery. The manager should add to his apology, already given and accepted, a substantial personal donation to a charity of the reporter’s choosing.

Now on to Leicester. Our ‘Who are You?’ interviewee Brian Archie’s* hope for the game, a 2-1 home win, is unlikely to improve Moyes’s mood. The Watford defeat means we can survive only if we do on Tuesday what Leicester did exactly two years ago and begin a sequence of something like seven wins from nine remaining games …

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