The tweet from LMuir89 – Liam Muir, a journalism student at Sunderland Uni – brought a wry grin.
Saturday’s games were in full flow, we were goalless again and Liam wrote this: “Kenwyne Jones and Darren Bent on the scoresheet yet Sunderland can’t buy a goal!”
The transfer market is closed until the New Year window, but Andrew Curry* draws on his knowledge of finance and football to mull over the process that saw Kenwyne Jones and Martyn Waghorn leave Sunderland and Asamoah Gyan arrive …
I like Kenwyne Jones.
I like his languor, his goal celebration, the way he could – on his good days – really worry opposing centre halves.
Want a bit of beating about the bush? Mincing of words? Then this is not the place for you today. Jeremy Robson, having stuck up for Steve Bruce the other day, wants his reward and Sunderland’s: a signing to cheer us all up. Do Steve Bruce’s comments that Niall is hoping to land a big name (Gyan and Carlton Cole have been mentioned) mean his prayers will be answered? …
Only a few days to go and the transfer window then closes.
Sunderland’s lack of fire power is such that the team hasn’t won a game in which Darren Bent has failed to score since the beginning of last season tells its own tale; and it’s a sorry one.
So the speculation – now confirmed by the club – is that Kenwyne Jones is on his way out of the Stadium of Light. Good thing, bad thing? We’ve promoted the story back to the top of the site because of the interest it has generated …
Looking back, we can allow ourselves to say what a shame we didn’t accept silly money from Spurs for Kenwyne Jones. The papers said £20m was offered. That may have been an exaggeration but certainly a great deal of money was at stake.
And odd flashes aside, what has he done for us since then?
At long last, Sunderland are showing signs of being the useful team we thought Steve Bruce had assembled when we were beating Arsenal and Liverpool and getting so close to victory at Old Trafford.Pete Sixsmith awards warm praise where it’s due, but wishes we could have kept those signs evident for 94 minutes, not just 45 …
If you had been a Martian visiting our planet and been told there was a football match taking place between the richest club on Earth and a team struggling at the wrong end of the table, and the person telling you had forgotten to mention which team was which, you would have assumed yesterday that the one in Red and White stripes represented Croesus and the Blues were the strugglers.
With Pete Sixsmith once again missing the action (and the chance to appear on MOTD2), Malcolm Dawson takes the positives from our match against Wigan.
The journey to the Stadium of Light from my base in the Midlands had a familiar air about it. I have lost count of the number of times fellow exiles and myself have made the trip with the feeling that here was another crucial game. Three points essential.
There have been seasons when we have been pushing for promotion and even two when we harboured hopes of European qualification, but more often it has been the threat of relegation that has been the dark cloud tracking our progress north, emphasising the importance of the win.
Yesterday was no exception. Fortunately, I had missed Monday’s game. I hadn’t been impressed when I watched our game at the Britannia and had no desire to find a pub with ESPN. Reading Sixer’s summing up I was happy to have made the right choice.
That, in case anyone needs a clue, is our Premier League record since Oct 24.
So if Steve Bruce needs more than a simple “get lost” to offer Rafa should reports of a Liverpool bid for loan deal for Kenwyne Jones contain even a hint of truth, that might be a good place to start. I am not sure how it’s pronounced but it tells a striking story when written down (I realise it should really be LDLWLLDLLDDL, but X for a draw would sound better).
Transfer windows open out onto a heap of speculation, some of it fuelled by wily agents, some of it appearing to be evidence of – shall we say – the imaginative powers of football reporters. In one window, during Roy Keane’s time, only half a dozen or so of the scores of names in the Sunderland AFC official website’s “rumour mill”, culled from media reports, were remotely in the club’s sights, and several actual targets had not been mentioned at all. What, then, is the truth this time round? …
First, the papers said Steve Bruce was ready to sell Kenwyne Jones.
Then he appeared to heap scorn on the claims. Now, on one interpretation iof his latest remarks, he’s practically launched a public auction.
Hard as nails. That’s Salut! Sunderland’s star writer
Pete Sixsmith . Viewed from afar, the North East looked as if cut off from the rest of the world by snow drifts. That must have been a picture of Tow Law. But it was cold enough as Pete saw Sunderland Reserves take on Wigan. Hadn’t we seen as much of Wigan as we’d want for a while? …
Tuesday night and outside it’s cold and the wind is blowing. Inside, the heating is on, the gas fire warms the room, there’s a welcoming bottle of Macallan open and a good book on the coffee table. So, what do you do but dig out the thermals and woolly socks, put on a warm coat and head for a reserve game at Hetton?
Sam Haseltine, our Hammers previewer and Football United techie wizard, cornered our own Pete Sixsmith last night for a telephone …