Pete Sixsmith – or *supersub – does it in seven words
This was another crucial game after fine away performances, so you know what happened. It looks to me, John Mac, Â as if 2014 is going to be as bad as 2013. Does Pete Sixsmith agree? Here’s his immediate post-match, seven-word verdict on a day of deepening gloom.
Malcolm Dawson writes:We have become used to our various managers’ post match e-mails focusing on the positives in defeat. After a weekend of turmoil caretaker boss Kevin Ball takes care to emphasise the positives in victory and in stark contrast to his recently departed predecessor, picks out one or two individuals for special praise. Of course when Ellis Short invites the men in charge to clear their desks he insists that M Salut’s personal e-mail address is left in a prominent position so that he doesn’t miss out on the immediate post match reaction. Here’s what Bally had to say after a professional display that may have lacked the drama of the previous round but one which sees us safely in the draw for the next …
Jake’s own three-word verdict: ‘Ooh, Bally, Bally’
Salut! Sunderland is famously cautious about transfer speculation. Sometimes, there is no need for caution and absolutely no need to wait for the club’s traditional dawdle towards making a proper announcement.
With Simon Mignolet, the writing was on the wall from the moment the season finished, if not earlier, and we felt perfectly able to comment on his likely departure. His agent did make some ambiguous comments that seemed at odds with the truth, long after Liverpool had quite obviously begun the process of securing our keeper’s services. But then his agent has form, as indeed do most agents. What Is An Agent For? might make a good title for a Lower Sixth essay.
‘Reflections’ is very much the domain of Stephen Goldsmith but he’s moonlighting, housemoving and heaven knows what else so begs other Salut folk to step into his shoes. It falls to Monsieur Salut to look at two issues that leap from the pages and screens: Manchester United’s supposed interest in Simon Mignolet and the rather fanciful notion that terrace chats should be tasteful …
When Patrick Vieira smashed his elbow into Darren Williams in the opening game of the season in August 2000, it was an act of aggression we had come to expect from the fiery Frenchman. The subsequent red card that followed was to be his fifth in four seasons, yet amazingly, fast forward two days to a match at Anfield and Graham Poll ensured that statistic would rise to six in four seasons. There appeared to be nowhere to go for Vieira from there. Well there was, to pastures new and away from the Premier League. Two sendings off in three days takes some doing.
