Let’s throw another mug into the ring and hope it doesn’t shatter into many pieces.
A prize Salut! Sunderland mug – design to suit the allegiance of the winner so Palace fans can enter – is on offer for the Palace game. No one was correct on the QPR score (except our QPR interviewee, John Crowley, and he didn’t post his prediction in the Guess the Score slot.)
Monsieur Salut invites entries for a prize edition of Guess the Score – and announces another little award, to a Sunderland-supporting television presenter …
Mug is one of those words that can jump up and bite you on the backside. So let it be said straight away that it is no part of Salut! Sunderland‘s mission to suggest that supporting SAFC, or following us at Twitter, makes you a bit of a mug. But we do have two beautifully designed receptacles of hot or cold drinks to give away.
There are times when contributors to this site hark back to the music of yesterday, and today is no exception. The transfer window’s shut (you can insert any other vowel of your choice if you wish) leaving me feeling underwhelmed, and a song from 1971 or thereabouts is in my mind. Not because I like it (I didn’t then and still don’t now). Not because it got to number 1 (it did, but then so did Benny Hill with a song about a milkman). It’s because of the refrain which starts the song and echoes throughout it.
Only, not quite. The song, “Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep” begins, “Where’s your momma gone?”, but my mind is playing it as “where’s the money gone?”
It has gone, and it’s a lot of money, which explains a great deal.
First, we applaud SAFC LAdies for a crucial 4-1 win at Doncaster Belles. Then stand by for the latest edition of Rob Hutchison‘s irreverent Devil’s Advocate, in which he may take a view directly contrary to your own …
With two tweets as the transfer window slammed shut, the sensible and always engaging BBC Radio Newcastle commentator on Sunderland games, Nick Barnes, summed up the frustrations of all those who support the club.
We can and should applaud the late acquisitions of Didier Ndong (he seems to prefer Ibrahim as his given name and Wikipedia awards him an apostrophe but we will go with the SAFC version for now) and, if regrettably another as on-loan signing, Jason Denayer.
But the £5.5m spent earlier on a pair of Manchester United reserves, who may yet prove worth their weight in gold, seems rash compared with the club’s steadfast refusal to reach a deal with Rubin Kuzan to bring Yann M’Vila back permanently to Wearside.
A very rushed posting but a very warm bienvenue to Sunderland’s latest francophone recruit, the Gabon international Didier Ndong from Lorient, for a fee of 16 millions euros, however many pounds that converts to post-Brexit.
Safc.com tells us he has joined on a five-year deal as David Moyes’s seventh arrival of the summer. That he came from the same club as Lamine Kone does not mean he’ll be demanding a transfer or new contract by Christmas.
This is an article Hayley Penman, then aged all of 10, wrote for Salut! Sunderland back in February of last year. It was warmly received, and rightly so. Recently, another supporter of Sunderland AFC, Jennifer Lowery, though not of Hayley’s generation, asked that a prize mug due to her for coming up with the title of the manager’s post match e-mail “Moyes on the Boys”, should go to a deserving young reader of our choice. We invited suggestions and Hayley’s name popped up in the replies. The mug that is on its way to her is well deserved. It will not change her life but I hope it will encourage her to write over and again for this site and to develop what is clearly a real talent …
Malcolm Dawson writes…..Pete Sixsmith is slipping. His trip to the south coast last week meant he missed yesterday’s Under 23 …
A point at Southampton is always a good return. But for the third time in four seasons – the odd one out leaving us a little humiliated – Sunderland lost out on an important win because they could not defend a lead. SAFC were the better side in the first half, recovered from a second half loss of dominance to take the lead through Jermain Defoe’s penalty but could not keep the Saints out for the remaining minutes … Pete Sixsmith will fill in into more detail about his trip down south in due course but this is his instant verdict ..
Monsieur Salut writes: I loved this tweet, drawn to my attention by Joe Hughes, a Barnsley-based SAFC fan and a new member of our Facebook group
Is this the way to Javi Manquillo
Every night I've been thinking of Djilo
Crying over Yann M'Vila
But Donald Loves been there for me— j (@Adnanuzaj) August 22, 2016
Now we need to extend the customary Salut! Sunderland welcome to Javier Manqillo – and the hope that Google Translate was up to the task …