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Who agrees with me that the home kit for 2015-2016 is a significant improvement on last season’s version?
Sunderland’s new kits: ‘I like them – do you?’
Jermain Defoe
Idle speculation to get me through the quiet days
Malcolm Dawson, deputy editor, writes: this hiatus which falls between the end of season and the opening of the transfer window sees me scouring the media for scraps of gossip that may or may not indicate which way the club is going. Most of it will turn out to be idle speculation and bear little resemblance to what actually transpires between the 1st of July and the end of August.
Jermain Defoe: Roy Hodgson’s missed open goal for England may be costly
A little while ago, back in February as it happens, we published the view of an outsider, Mark Smith, a freelance sports writer based in Prague, that Roy Hodgson should take Jermain Defoe to the Euros. The case got stronger, of course, but the deafness afflicting Hodgson got worse, too. It’s heartening when neutrals see things the way we do, too, but in a partisan way. Here, another writer, Darren Moore, a freelancer based closer to home (Scotland) laments Defoe’s utterly predictable exclusion from the squad and suggests England may suffer as a result …
The Sunderland waiting game that is football’s version of the phoney war
Salut! Sunderland’s deputy editor Malcolm Dawson shrugs off the torpor of the early close season, pre-transfer window, pre-fixures list and all, and considers what seems to be going right, and what more he’d like to see, in the world of Sunderland AFC …
Back in 1939/40 at the outbreak of World War 2, the whole of Britain was on tenterhooks waiting for an invasion that never came. It became known as “the phoney war”.
Here in the summer of 2016, the celebrations of Sunderland fans relieved at a 17th place finish, may not have been on a par with those on VE Day but were pretty impassioned nonetheless. For some the fact our survival condemned our local rivals only added intensity to the festivities.
Win a trip to the Euros: Hodgson snubs Defoe, who should go?
Win a trip to the Euros … read on
Roy Hodgson has probably worked out where Sunderland is on the map but not clearly enough to make him select an in-form striker, who grabbed an astonishing tally of 15 Premier League goals despite playing for a team that spent most of the season in the bottom three.
So no room for Jermain Defoe at the Euros 2016 in France. Roy did include in his provisional squad a well-known Championship player, Andros Townsend, and a man who doesn’t quite match Jermain’s standards of clean living, Jack Wilshere.
And SAFC fans who turn out at the Stadium of Light on Friday may well see Jordan Henderson, long lost to us as a player but still a fan, in the England friendly vs Australia. Since Roy’s a linguist, this link helping him find our ground is in French.
Season reviews (6): one bound and free
Malcolm Dawson writes…..in the sixth of our end of season reviews Ken Gambles brings back memories of Saturday mornings at …
Season reviews (4): the love story continues now let’s climb every mountain
Wrinkly Pete aka Peter Lynn has been delving into his record collection again to provide the inspiration for his end …
Sixer’s Everton Soapbox: banishing the blues on Wearside (part 2)
Malcolm Dawson writes………if Saturday was immense then Wednesday night was immenser! The first part of the job was completed at …
Sunderland v Everton Guess the Score. Win to make Watford a party
Monsieur Salut says: win on Wednesday and the Lads should be given the freedom of Sunderland, whether or not that still entitles holders to drive their flocks of sheep across Wearmouth bridge. It wouldn’t make a bad season great but it would give us all proper reason to believe the future can be brighter (yes I know) and enable us to breathe freely on Sunday. Read on to see how you can win the prize …
Let nobody be too quick to count chickens. There’s still scope for snatching misery from the jaws of bliss.
Saturday’s outstanding comeback to beat Chelsea, coupled with defeat for Norwich and a draw at Villa for Newcastle, gave us great hope. And that hope that can be turned into reality on Wednesday night. As every schoolboy should know, Sunderland stay up if they win.
Sixer’s Chelsea Soapbox:banishing the blues on Wearside (part 1)
Malcolm Dawson writes……the sun is shining on Weardale this morning, a song thrush is belting out its tuneful, if somewhat …