It’s official – David Moyes takes the reins

Jake gets arty and scary when Moyes was our nemesis. Can he now do to others what he once did to us?
Jake got arty and scary when Moyes was our nemesis. Can he now do to others what he once did to us?

Deputy Editor Malcolm Dawson writes: and the second worst kept secret in English football over the past few weeks at last is confirmed. Ex Everton, Man Utd and Real Sociedad boss David Moyes is quickly installed in the hot seat at the SoL. No doubt we will be doing a more in depth piece at some point but this hastily added offering will at least give you somewhere to post your thoughts as the Lads head to Rotherham.

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Big Sam and England: oh, won’t you stay?

Jake's take on Big Sam: 'another prep-season threatening to go tits up'
Jake’s take on Big Sam: ‘another prep-season threatening to go belly up’

So within a day of an unnamed Sunderland AFC source assuring The Northern Echo and presumably others that Sam Allardyce’s abrupt departure from the Austrian trainingcamp had nothing to do with the England job, he pops up at the Cheshire home of David Gill, FA vice-chairman and one of the three wise men deciding who should follow Roy Hodgson.

Also present, along with what the Daily Mail calls Sam’s “£1,000 Louis Vuitton man-bag” containing his presentation, were the other two members of the selection panel. In other words, it was a job interview

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Allez les Bleus: the Saint Etienne Mackemoiselle rooting for France in Sunderland

Veronique
Véronique: true colours – and two of them work for SAFC too

Monsieur Salut writes: tomorrow night, should France do what logic expects and defeat a Portugal side that has won only once in normal time on the way to the Euro 2016 final, the country will be en fête. But the same will go for a part of Sunderland that is forever French.

Salut! Sunderland found a Sunderland-supporting Portuguese fan, Sam Verissimo, for the first of these special Who are You! interviews. Now it is the turn of FrenchFancy1971, as she calls herself on Twitter, Véronique Laniel as she is known in real life, a product of Saint-Etienne – where the film version of Sunderland, the hit Paris play, was relocated – but settled on Wearside with the Red and Whites firmly lodged with Les Verts in her heart. She warns us ‘to read this with a French Mackem accent in mind’ …

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