Back in March, John Penman, an East Stand regular who makes long trips down from his home in Scotland to be at games – was my companion at the Capital One Cup final at Wembley. He won’t have forgotten that day but it may have slipped his mind that almost exactly seven years ago, he wrote his first Salut! Sunderland guest piece charting the history of SAFC tops he has known and loved. He can update the story in Comments; it seemed a good candidate for the Summer Gold series …
This photograph from the Flickr files of the National Media Museum may or may not show Arjen Robben making one last attempt to perfect his technique ahead of tonight’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina.
Our Summer Gold series, recalling timeless highlights from Salut! Sunderland‘s archives, harks back to August 2011 and Ken Gambles‘s entertaining manifesto for cutting out the things that irritate him about football. Nothing’s changed …
We’re doing our best, as promised, with Brazil 2014. But as we await more Sunderland-related news and talking points, let’s look back at some priceless, timeless gems that have appeared on these pages and deserve another airing. Cue a new series. Pete Sixsmith‘s powerfully lyrical description of the Tour de France first appeared when the last World Cup had just finished. As the peleton prepares for the Yorkshire Grand Depart making the simple journey from Leeds to Harrogate a 190km epic through the Dales, here it is again complete with a wonderful image from the first race in 1903 …