* Both images from our old friend addick-tedKevin
Who keeps goal against the stars of Manchester United on Saturday? Craig Gordon’s recovery from injury hands a tough old decision to Steve Bruce …
Steve Bruce
West Ham United: we’re taking them seriously
Image: The world has gone mad. A Hammer comes to Salut! Sunderland and promises to buy drinks for all our readers (later modified, wisely, to “a select few of our favourite commenters”) and a Premier manager talks about the importance of the Carling Cup. Luckily, it was our manager and some drinks, at least, are still on Sam the Hammer …
Hammers fans: go straight here
We must welcome Steve Bruce’s promise to put out a strong side to play West Ham in the Carling Cup tonight/tomorrow night (depending on when and where you’re reading this). And news that Asamoah Gyan will make his first start since arriving for £13m from Rennes, should give all Sunderland fans a great buzz.
SAFC, it is safe to predict, will not win the Premier League title just yet. We have every right to expect a distinct improvement on last season’s 13th place finish, but 12 places higher may still be out of our reach.
Prejudice and all that: coming to Lee Cattermole’s defence
Salut! Sunderland makes no apology for rebuking Lee Cattermole for his failure, for a second time in only three games this season, to stay on the pitch for all of one half. But we like a good argument. As if in quick response to my appeal for help when a forthcoming operation restricts my ability to post, Geoff Bethell pops up from New Zealand with a refreshingly different analysis …
I haven’t lived in Sunderland since 1961. I haven’t been there since 1968. I haven’t lived in the UK since 1970.
But out here in the glorious rugby-playing nation of NZ it’s still the case that to be a whole human being you can no more give up your love of Sunderland AFC than you can your brain.
Since the advent of the internet, keeping in touch has become so much easier. So it was on Sunday morning (we’re 11 hours ahead of UK) that I went on to SportingLife.com as usual for the results.
One-one away to Wigan. I’d hoped for better, feared for worse, but appreciated that 1-1 was acceptable. Was it a point well won or two points thrown away? The match reports and comments were the next things to check up on. It was then I lost it.
“Oh for eff’s sake.”
“What a complete and utter cretin.”
“Why do we persist with this twerp?”
Soapbox: can we send Cattermole back to Wigan?
“It’s becoming ridiculous.” When a manager says that about his captain, and he’s not defending him but describing his immaturity and indiscipline, you know things are serious. Pete Sixsmith chose the headline; it’s unforgiving but reflects the complete exasperation of supporters Lee Cattermole has again let down …
We are sitting tenth in the league, a position that would probably keep us happy if it were May. However, after four games, three of which were against sides we had hoped to beat, a return of five points is a little disappointing.
Of course, had we managed to keep 11 players on the field for 50 per cent of those games, there is every possibility that we would have had nine points and would have been sitting pretty in third place with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United to come.
Wigan v Sunderland: a game to define our season
Image;
We know our away from has to change. Steve Bruce knows it. Tomorrow, on his old Wigan stamping ground, would be an excellent time to start, with or without our new £13m star …
Which Sunderland team will turn out at Wigan tomorrow?
The question has less to do with the names that appear in the starting line-up, and on the bench, than with the way the players approach the game and perform once out on the DW pitch.
The Wigan Athletic ‘Who Are You?’
It could be subtitled “and how Sunderland missed out on N’Zogbia” – read on for a fascinating account of the aborted deal. We’ve said it before, or something like it. If Bernard Ramsdale* didn’t exist as an outstanding example of the (proper) Lancashire football supporter, he’d need to be invented. A past winner of our annual Who Are You? awards, he returns from a little rest – from Salut! Sunderland duties but not much else – with some more pearls ahead of Wigan v SAFC on Saturday. Bernard, landlord of Ye Olde Tree and Crown fan site, has tremendous humour and a refreshingly down-to-earth outlook. It really is a great read. But don’t expect a non-stop bundle of laughs; Bernard lives with the distressing consequences of an awful family tragedy …
Gyan, Elmo and Mignolet seen through Charlton eyes
Rarely in recent times has a Sunderland debut been as keenly awaited as that of Asamoah Gyan, who should team up with Darren Bent to cause Wigan all sorts of problems on Saturday. That’s the theory anyway. But if you saw a Daily Star headline suggesting that Steve Bruce “admired” Gyan’s World Cup penalty miss, rest assured that he did nothing of the kind …
Alert readers will have seen that the image (below), sometimes used to illustrate Salut! Sunderland items relating to Darren Bent, is credited to a man who calls himself Addick-tedKevin and can therefore be assumed to support Charlton Athletic.
No surprise, then that Kevin should have paid his artistic tribute to Benty, who scored 31 times in 68 games for the Addicks between 2005 and 2007.
New striker needed: anyone listening?
Want a bit of beating about the bush? Mincing of words? Then this is not the place for you today. Jeremy Robson, having stuck up for Steve Bruce the other day, wants his reward and Sunderland’s: a signing to cheer us all up. Do Steve Bruce’s comments that Niall is hoping to land a big name (Gyan and Carlton Cole have been mentioned) mean his prayers will be answered? …
Only a few days to go and the transfer window then closes.
Sunderland’s lack of fire power is such that the team hasn’t won a game in which Darren Bent has failed to score since the beginning of last season tells its own tale; and it’s a sorry one.
Bruce in: the case for
Steve Bruce is a a tough old pro who would have expected a start to the season as disappointing as ours to raise concerns. “I think we’ve won five out of the last 26 games,” someone wrote. “How many clubs would put up with a record like that, never mind PL clubs?” We’ve given you the case against sticking with Bruce; here’s the balancing argument. Jeremy Robson hardly offers ringing endorsement, but feels it is far too early to start baying for blood …
The first real murmurings of discontent about Steve Bruce’s management have started to rumble.
Bruce in? The case against
A week ago, we were hard on those spouting doom and gloom on the strength of an iffy pre-season and a disappointing opening game. But then, after a dismal showing at West Brom (and there is no other sensible way of looking at it), a check on the games to come revealed us to be in a potential pickle. Ask today and we would not replace Steve Bruce. But there are those, eyeing a newly available chap with impeccable credentials from Villa Park, who would disagree. Let Mike Allcock*, a Sunderland fan now living in America, address the point made by Andy Nichol, a fellow subscriber to the Blackcats list: “Well if I was Ellis Short, I’d be inviting O’Neill to dinner over the next few weeks. Just in case, of course.” Salut! Sunderland awaits the opposing view …
Dinner with Martin would be a positive step.
Yes it’s early days for this season, but midterms time for Bruce. He’s made some good decisions as well as some poor ones; he’s far and away better than some of the sh*** we got used to in the late 80s/early 90s and compared with other Sunderland managers in recent years he has a pretty good record. I don’t think Steve Bruce is failing as a manager of SAFC.