Lamine Kone - SAFC Blog

Pete Sixsmith’s alternative “Who’s who”

August 16, 2016August 16, 2016 by Colin Randall

Pete Sixsmith. Delivers more than just the papers

John McCormick writes. Our Web wizard has scheduled some site maintenance and you may find the site is down for a short while some time today, so please bear with us.

And while we’re on the subject of bearing we need to move beyond the Lynden and Graham Gooch situation. Luckily, we have Pete Sixsmith to help us. Pete doesn’t just appear on TV (who else saw him on MOTD?) He doesn’t just deliver erudite summaries to the papers (and nor does he just deliver the papers). He’s also a bit of a historian, as he demonstrates in this wander through the genealogical archives of the North East:

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Salut! Sunderland welcomes Paddy McNair and Donald Love from Manchester United

August 11, 2016August 11, 2016 by Colin Randall

Salut! Sunderland is delighted to extend a warm welcome to Paddy McNair and Donald Love, our latest new recruits, whose much-touted transfers were finally announced by SAFC today.

None of the usual “undisclosed fee” nonsense; the club itself is happy to state the price – £5.5m to Manchester United for the pair, and you can bet your bottom dollar, pound or euro that the cost of the more experienced McNair took up the lion’s share of that total.

Beyond belief: mountains to climb if Koné goes to Everton or Chelsea

August 10, 2016August 10, 2016 by Colin Randall

Lamine Kone: will he get to keep the shirt? — Lamine Koné: would he get to keep the shirt as a souvenir (photo courtesy of SAFC)?

The loss of Lamine Koné would not only be a huge blow to Sunderland just as we were all hoping for a much better start to the season. If the fans’ worst fears are justified, it would also threaten to bring David Moyes’s honeymoon period to an abrupt end …

STOP PRESS UPDATE: Fans spoke to Koné after training today and the player said he had been “promised a new contract”, reinforcing his agent’s comment that none had been offered. When asked if he would like to remain at SAFC, he replied: “Yeah.”

While thanking Sunderland AFC for kindly sending an image of the new, rather impressive away top, I added a postscript: “Seeing who is wearing it makes me want to cry!”

It was only the slightest of exaggerations.

View from the NW Corner: Sunderland playing catch up before kick off

August 9, 2016August 9, 2016 by Dean Cruddace

Malcolm Dawson writes….each year is the same or at least it seems to be. We end one season and I …

Excellent draw against Borussia Dortmund completes exemplary preseason run

August 5, 2016 by Colin Randall

Check out details of this, the new away strip, at the SAFC club site: http://www.safc.com/news/club-news/2016/august/new-away-kit-unveiled

We must rely on the official club site, and texts from Pete Sixsmith watching at home, for our knowledge of Sunderland’s resilient display in the final preseason friendly, against Borussia Dortmund in the woefully named Cashpoint Arena in Altach, Austria.

A powerful header from Lamine Kone, a man David Moyes must keep unless he has Charlie Hurley up his sleeve, kept the unbeaten summer record intact and gave strong reason for hope in spite of the ponderous progress on inward transfers. That – the failure to sign anyone – is surely about to change but for now, let us feed on the positives – and with any luck SAFC.com won’t mind either the properly credited use of an extract from its own report or the photo of the new away strip, which the club has in recent season been only too happy to provide in any case.

As results go, then, a satisfactory approach to our 10th successive season in the Premier League. Let us hope it is a good one, whether or not the current pattern of stats, bets and tips suggests SAFC can hope for the welcome rarity of a stress-free autumn, winter and spring …

Our best defenders: part 2, in praise of John O’Shea

June 24, 2016 by Colin Randall

We started our season at Leicester with a line up that included Seb Coates and Costel Pantsilimon. Substitutes included Adam Matthews, who came on for Billy Jones.

By the time we got to the final game Seb Coates, Costel Pantsilimon and Adam Matthews were no longer at the club. Billy Jones, subbed 12 games previously and subsequently dropped, came on for the final fifteen minutes, replacing DeAndré Yedlin, who hadn’t featured at Leicester.

They weren’t the only changes. Our manager had long gone, as had Danny Graham, Stephen Fletcher, Emanuelle Giaccherini, and Liam Bridcutt, all subs for that first game. Our new manager had made room for players who could bolster a leaky defence and strengthen a porous midfield.

They were Lamine Kone, Whabi Khazri and Jan Kirchoff.

And the rest is history

Our best defenders: Part 1, individual comparisons

June 19, 2016June 18, 2016 by Colin Randall

When I did my analysis of our midfield I said it would probably be one of two posts but there was so much to collect and compare that I decided to split the second part into two.

To begin, I’m using stats from hosted stats.com, Squawka.com and my own sums to look at individual performances.

Who do you think is better – Coates, Kaboul or Koné? How do they compare to John O’Shea?

And would you rather have Billy Jones than DeAndré the Throw-in Slayer?

Read on, and all will be revealed.

Or maybe not.

Excuse the coat. It was freezing

John McCormick writes: I’m not sure if the title line will make sense to you but when I was putting it up a song was going through my head and I thought…

“…why not, Martin Bates deserves a bit of appreciation”.

The only problem is I couldn’t fit Toronto in, so he’ll have to make do with Montreal.

Here’s the final part of Martin’s trilogy. By now he should have have winged his way back across the Atlantic but, after this game, he probably didn’t need a plane. What a send off.

Hope you enjoyed the trip, Martin, and thanks for the reports.