Hated from Arsenal to WBA, Salut makes the football Oscars

Salut! Sunderland has been nominated in the “Best EPL Club Blog” section of EPL Talk’s annual awards. If you think someone has a point, give a helping hand to our chances of winning by clicking ON THIS LINK

There are sensitive folk out there in the football blogosphere. We need only mention another team to get an avalanche – ok, a trickle – of putdowns.

But it is all, or mostly, in good fun and the fact is that Salut! Sunderland‘s deliberate policy is to attract supporters of other clubs while remaining 100 per cent partisan. As a result, we receive massive input from people who do not follow Sunderland but have a point of view. And in reality, Gooners and Baggies have made some lively contributions to the issues discussed here,

So it is especially heartening to receive recognition from non-Sunderland sources. Look down the sidebars and you see that FHM lists us as a “website we quite like” and that When Saturday Comes gave us special mention in its virtual awards as a “balanced, articulate” site.

Now comes news from EPL Talk that we have been nominated as Best EPL Club Blog in its own annual awards.

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Salut!’s week: boycotting West Ham, loving non-league, facing Man City


Each week, when we remember that is, Salut! Sunderland gives the busy, occasional visitor a taste of what he or she may have missed. Just because Sunderland weren’t playing last week, it doesn’t mean we weren’t still looking for ways of keeping interest alive. This is a glimpse at what we thought worth talking about …

A £46 price tag for a frankly rotten seat in a doomed stadium to watch, for us, a meaningless – but final – game: fair or rip-off?

Salut! Sunderland is in no doubt as to the answer to that question. Mr Sullivan and Mr Gold may even know what we think, since our discussion on whether SAFC supporters should boycott to game has featured at Hammers fan sites, too.

Read what we – and, in reply, some Hammers as well as Sunderland fans – had to say by clicking here.

And follow the same drill for the other highlights of Salut! Sunderland‘s week by clicking on each sub-heading if you want to see the full posting:

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Sickbed blues, and never having to say sorry

Image: Mrs Logic

We have the sterling assistance of Pete Sixsmith, Luke Harvey, Bill Taylor and our Who Are You? contributors to thank, along with the good fortune of a long break without proper football.

But one way or another, Salut! Sunderland has done its utmost to keep up a decent stream of of interesting, amusing and plain daft articles despite Monsieur Salut’s severely reduced activity in his immediate post-op phase.

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Sunderland/Leeds remembered: it’s those magic numbers 7 and 3 again


Leeds United fans hate us mentioning it, just as Newcastle United supporters mock us for referring to Dec 5 1908. But since Leeds still have a good chance of following the Toon example in gaining promotion from a lower division, we’re sure they won’t mind another gentle reminder of the day every football fan (apart from them) smiled …

Sunderland fans, especially those who go back a bit, never tire of remembering, on May 5 of each year, a certain event that occurred at Wembley stadium on that date in 1973.

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Who are you? We’re Liverpool

gerry

Hard on Man Utd, even harder on Liverpool’s owners, Gerry Ormonde* is a man who knows his own mind. A Dubliner with his footballing heart across the Irish Sea on the Mersey, he was quick to agree to preview Sunderland’s return to Premier action against his beloved Liverpool this Saturday. Gerry runs Kopblog.com – part of the This is Anfield website – and Salut! Sunderland takes off its hat to the feedback his efforts receive from fellow fans of the Reds. And little wonder: his blog won Best Premiership Blog in the New Football Pools awards and this year iBest Sports and Recreational Blog at the Irish Blog Awards.

Disappointing Champions League game for you, dropped points in the Premier. Is the press premature in sounding alarm bells, and what are your priorities this season?

Obviously losing both games (CL , then Chelsea) was a big disappointment but it’s early days yet. I’m still confident we’ll qualify from our Champions League group and as for the league, it’s more competitive then ever this season and it looks like a lot of teams are going to drop points so we’ve just got to hang in there and take it one game at a time.
The alarm bells in the press are always premature. The opinions expressed in the media seem to change on a week to week, game to game basis. For example, Chelsea made a perfect start to the season until they lost against Wigan and then suddenly the media seemed to be going out of their way to raise question marks about their manager. Then they beat us 2-0 and suddenly they are red-hot favourites again, at least for the moment! It’s incredible how these clowns in the media constantly change their tune and even more incredible how some fans allow them to form their opinions. It used to be said that today’s headlines are tomorrows fish and chips wrappers, but these days I’ve far too much respect for my fish and chips to wrap them up in that s****!
Our priorities are the same this season as they are every season, Premiership, Champions League, FA Cup, Carling Cup.

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