Pep Guardiola

Manchester City v Sunderland Guess the Score: can we ruin Pep’s debut?

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Our designer Jake's on the ball for the big kickoff
Our designer Jake’s on the ball for the big kickoff

Another opening day looms and, by the skin of our teeth, Sunderland kick off a 10th successive season in the Premier League.

The new manager’s post-match e-mails will be given the title of Moyes on the Boys, a clear winner in the recent poll and suggested by a reader signing himself as JEL.

Will it be the Boys minus King Kone? As I write, it is looking grim but inconclusive. I tweeted that SAFC supporters had a right to expect our new manager to be fighting tooth and nail to keep him but if this Northern Echo report is to be believed, that may not be the case.

If we do lose perhaps the best centre back seen in Sunderland colours since Dave Watson, it will be a huge setback and the so far elusive inward business had better be good (though we must hope Moyes has found a gem in Papy Djilobodji).

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Pep Guardiola, Louis van Gaal. These Manchester Men matter, if only a little

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Buy from the Salut! Amazon link at http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00NVFNIS2/salusund-21


Monsieur Salut writes: It is not often that Salut! Sunderland‘s parent (or should that be geriatric?) site Salut draws more hits.

It got close today because of the magic words in the headline (world-renowned managers of football clubs that have become global brands).

There wasn’t much chance of injecting a link to Sunderland in the Pep Guardiola profile I wrote for The National (decent, joined-up writing paper published in Abu Dhabi), though I considered mentioning his conversation with Boro’s Spanish manager Aitor Karaoke about life in England – though what would he know, being in Middlesbrough?.

But here it is, just in case anyone cares. My profile of Louis van Gaal, when he was appointed manager of Manchester United, still attracts loads of visitors to francesalut.com. Today, I expressed the hope that Pep is a little more mature in his dealings with the press because fabulously rewarded men and women in very public roles simply have to learn the law of rough and smooth …

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