This tweet, from a Twitter contact (we follow each other), caught the attention.
Well Mr Paddy McNair I do not wish you good luck. Sorry and all that but all you’ve done here is be injured and then give no payback. Massively disappointed in you. That’s my opinion and I’m allowed it so if you want to argue, don’t bother.
— Julie (@juliesund) June 18, 2018
Julie is somehow both right and wrong.
With both Pete Sixsmith and his normal stand in Bob Chapman both electing to give this game a miss we …
Pete Sixsmith is beginning to see some Sunderland wins. Sadly, they are not so far in the Championship. Maybe that will change on Saturday when proper football returns after the tedious international break. The Under 23s overcame a strong challenge from Hertha Berlin and a returning Paddy McNair caught Sixer’s eye, as did Duncan Watmore and a young keeper he thinks we may hear a lot more of …
Last night saw a welcome return of the Premier League International Cup as we hosted Hertha Berlin at the Stadium of Light for our opening game.
Another week, another injury, this time Lynden Gooch who will be out for up to three months after damaging an ankle ligament playing for the Under 23s last Monday. Before that, it was Paddy McNair, whose season ended with the injury picked up in the win against Hull City. Rachel Johnson* returns to our pages to report on mental challenge McNair faces as he battles to regain fitness …
Colin Randall writes: Here are David Moyes’s thoughts – as expressed in his post-match e-mail to me and thousands more – on the 2-1 win that earned Sunderland a 4th Round EFL Cup tie at Southampton …
A win’s a win, as Pete Sixsmith might put it. A 2-1 victory away to QPR has a competent ring to it, but Sixer wasn’t there and Monsieur Salut was unable to follow it except on his mobile, being on a gruelling French naval press trip and, as the match was played, eating and drinking on board a frigate with Exocets pointing towards the centre of Toulon. So we can but stick to the facts as conveyed by scoreline and scorers and then rely on others to fill in details of a win that brings us the dubious reward of Southampton away in the next round of the league cup … the asterisk denotes an emergency seven-word verdict not of Sixer’s making…
Malcolm Dawson writes: I watched this in the pub where the pre match talk was all about team selection. Most …
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.
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.