Premier League

West Ham and David Moyes: not the warmest of welcomes from Irons supporters

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‘Not my fault’
 There has been a lot of anger and a fair amount of gallows humour among West Ham  fans at the choice of our old friend David Moyes to replace the sacked Slaven Bilic as manager.
As far as Monsieur Salut can tell, Moyes has not yet announced that the Hammers are in a relegation scrap. Nor has he said the players he needs in January won’t be available to him. Why, he hasn’t even told anyone from LBC Radio she deserves a slap or apologised – yet – for being self-defeatingly dour, honest and ever-so-sure of his ability.
And with supreme faith in their new man, the West Ham board has made the appointment for all of six months, ie to the end of the season. That’s the stuff!

Earlier this week, the West Ham United fan site asked for reciprocal links with Salut! Sunderland, now established. I invited my contact there, Ade, to share anything his site did by way of covering Moyes. And here it is, with some mischief-making along the way drawn from other sources …

 

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West Ham Champions of the Premier League (table of season ticket affordability)

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Will’s view at WHL (and that’s Sunderland warming up) cost about £1500 per season

John McCormick writes: I get regular abuse banter from certain people who believe Anfield is a good value, top-class stadium. It isn’t, as I keep telling them, and now there’s proof.

But first I must make mention of Huddersfield, whose fans were told – some nine or ten years ago, apparently – that any who kept their season ticket would be able to renew it for £100 in the event of promotion. That’s not a bad way to reward loyalty and it surely resulted in the best value season ticket in the premiership. In contrast, former “who are you” guest Will Panduro paid about £1500 for his ticket at White Hart Lane last season, admittedly for a pretty good seat.

You might be tempted to say that Londoners earn a lot more, so can afford to pay higher prices but that’s not necessarily so, which poses the question “whose season tickets are the most affordable?” One answer comes from Ticketgum.com, via one of Colin’s colleagues at journalistic.org.

And where do you think Liverpool, Huddersfield and Spurs come in Ticketgum’s quite impressive analysis? Read on, ladies and gentlemen, and all will be revealed.

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Sunderland’s 10 relegations: down with a Wembley twist

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Pete Sixsmith

Pete’s going to be busy for a while, so there’s a good chance we’ll have a new manager – maybe a new owner (not to mention the possibility of a new prime minister) – before he gets back to this series. In the meantime, here’s his take on relegation number 4.

Like the first three, and like his other musings, it’s excellent stuff

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West Ham just pip Manchester(s) as hooligans of the season

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Jake on a whim

John McCormick writes: It has been a strange day. First, an e-mail from Pete Sixsmith asking if I’d voted and including and article. I had, but closer examination revealed the article was his report from the Hull game and the e-mail was dated 7th May.

Then came an e-mail from Oddbins telling me time was running out – what do they know about our search for a manager?

It wasn’t until 5pm that normal service was resumed, with a request from Colin asking if I could post this short article, from one of our occasional guests, Abby Chinery, of journalistic.org.

Happy to oblige, Abby:

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Salut! Sunderland’s Watford star and his HAWAY-winning ‘Who are You?’

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Del Day: ‘hey love, was thinking we could name our daughters Blissett’

This is the prize-winning interview with Del Day, a Watford supporter, in Salut! Sunderland annual HAWAY awards. Del took first place – as you can read here – and has expressed a preference for the £50 voucher from Classic Football Shirts (‘I’ll get that ’89 away shirt for my wife – only kidding, it’s the kit she hates most!’) … bravo Del, and here’s your interview all over again …

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Salut! Sunderland’s HAWAYs: Watford finish top ahead of Chelsea and Bournemouth

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The deed is done. Another series of Who are You? interviews with opposing supporters has produced winners. Read on to see who the judges chose, and why ….

 

The judges have spoken. This year’s winners of the HAWAYs – awards for the Highly Articulate Who are You? interviews conducted through each season with fans of Sunderland’s opposing clubs – are announced today.

And in clear top place is Watford-supporting Del Day, followed by Chelsea’s Ray Knight and Bournemouth’s Tom Latchem.

Salut! Sunderland is, as ever, enormously grateful to the prize sponsors – Classic Football Shirts, When Saturday Comeshttps://shop.wsc.co.uk and Art of Football, and the gallery shows appropriate products each offers – and will simply offer Del his choice of the three. Ray gets second choice, leaving Tom with the remaining prize.

If the mood holds until the end of this article, there will be a special award from Salut! Sunderland funds for another deserving contender. But the truth is, as Jake’s caption makes clear, that the strength of the Who are You? series – see the full season’s entries here – is the quality of the responses we receive from the supporters who agree to participate.

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End of season reviews (6): six charts for a sick season

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John McCormick

I’m glad we can begin to look forward to next season. Although it might seem a grim prospect I’m sure there will be readers thinking it’s a bit less grim than it was, now that Moyes has gone.  As to the thoughts of the Salut team, you’ve had opinions from Lars, Malcolm, Mick Goulding, Wrinkly Pete and myself, and you can look forward to some fine writing to come from, at least, M Salut  and Pete Sixsmith, who will finish off the series.

Here’s something a bit different, though. A series of charts showing  some of the key features of a season to forget:

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Sunderland’s 10 relegations: The Coventry conundrum (part 2)

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Sixer by Jake

John McCormick writes: I was there, at Goodison, that night. For a long time afterwards I felt cheated but I was prepared to accept that Coventry fans would think “tough” – I would have done so in their circumstances. Nevertheless, I always harboured a resentment towards Jimmy Hill and when I heard Coventry fans had clubbed together and paid for a statue, which the man himself was invited to unveil, I couldn’t wish them well.

Pete Sixsmith may offer sympathy. My thoughts are a bit more Karmic: Get rid of the statue, Coventry fans, look what it has brought you.

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End of season reviews: (4) just hold on, Lads (and Lasses)

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Jake: ‘I did think a pile of manure might be the right image’

Peter Lynn is a great asset to Salut! Sunderland, with his eternal optimism and absolute love of the experience of being among fellow-Sunderland fans at matches home and away. And while he declares himself an oldish git, he is no such thing but – as I write – on a demanding walking trip in North Wales.

Bravo Pete. And here is his contribution to the series of end of season reviews …

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