Malcolm Dawson writes….aficionados of Vic Reeves Big Night Out in the early 90s will doubtless recall the Living Carpets. Basically this was just Vic and Bob with carpet sample masks talking rubbish. 
A typical conversation might go like this:
Carpet 1: You know if you see a ginger cat with a cabbage sellotaped to its back and you turn round three times while singing Bananarama’s Cool, Cool Summer it will permanently rid you of troublesome warts forever.
Carpet 2: I’ve heard that rumour.
Carpet 1: I know. I started it.
Carpet 2: You lying get!
Where is this leading I hear you cry. Well bear with….
Salut! Sunderland relies on a team of regular contributors for its content. On the whole these are original pieces, supplied by genuine Sunderland fans from places as diverse as the South of France, Canada, the USA and Shildon. Not forgetting Spain, Merseyside and Wearside of course.
Now and again M Salut is happy to grant webspace to outsiders if he feels it relevant, especially if it contributes to the upkeep of the site, but while attracting visitors is obviously something we strive for, there is no real pressure to provide fresh copy every few hours. M Salut earns his living from other journalistic sources and Pete Sixsmith and I wallow in the luxury that years of contributions into the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and the top ups that the odd paper round brings. John Mac and Jake too do not look to this site as a means of funding a life of debauchery.
We write what we want, when we want. Usually that’s when there is something happening at the club and rather than just report on things you have probably read elsewhere, we like to look at them from our own perspective. To me the things I say and the comments that I read are a bit like the conversations I might have with fellow supporters in the local, except our community of fans is based all around the globe. Above all we seek to entertain. But sometimes nothing seems to be happening.
When I worked in primary schools I would occasionally set my pupils little research tasks but would always stress that wherever possible they should check their facts and above all not to rely solely on the Internet. “Just because it’s on the web doesn’t make it true – anyone can write anything and put it up there,” was my mantra. But this close season when transfer business has so far been non existent I have been trawling the inter-web trying to glean any morsels of gossip hinting at who may be coming into the club. And there’s the rub. Anyone can put up anything these days, when it will immediately be picked up by others as gospel and repeated until it must be true.
So I have decided that to liven up this dead period I will set cogs in motion and wait for the Daily Mail, The Northern Echo, Melody Maker and Bunty for Girls to send these snippets around the globe.
David Moyes has tempted Portuguese cry baby Cristiano Ronaldo to move to Wearside by telling him that once the move is finalised he can live in Hylton Castle. “I can’t wait to get behind the drawbridge and raise the portcullis” he said. “I just hope the Moysiah doesn’t adopt similar tactics on the pitch and stifle my attacking flair.”
Finally, a system of mist nets, similar to those used by bird ringers, has been invisibly installed into the crossbars at the Stadium of Light. Undetectable by referees and anyone else with suspect eyesight, the nets will drop into place when the home side are defending, therefore ensuring that no goals will ever be conceded by the Black Cats. It is hoped the system will be effective, though experiments conducted a couple of seasons back failed to produce conclusive results when Jozy Altidore was used as the guinea pig in secret trials.
Ha’way Sunderland – get some players in sharpish, then maybe I can regain my sanity.
