For our first Who are You? interview of the season, we turned to a Manchester City fanatic, Makahil ‘Mak’ Nuur, creator of the MCFC 1894 Twitter pages and, coming soon, podcast. His responses to our questions include a welcome prediction that David Moyes will do well for us – and a plea to Niall Quinn to be less mean to City on the telly …
Another opening day looms and, by the skin of our teeth, Sunderland kick off a 10th successive season in the Premier League.
The new manager’s post-match e-mails will be given the title of Moyes on the Boys, a clear winner in the recent poll and suggested by a reader signing himself as JEL.
Will it be the Boys minus King Kone? As I write, it is looking grim but inconclusive. I tweeted that SAFC supporters had a right to expect our new manager to be fighting tooth and nail to keep him but if this Northern Echo report is to be believed, that may not be the case.
If we do lose perhaps the best centre back seen in Sunderland colours since Dave Watson, it will be a huge setback and the so far elusive inward business had better be good (though we must hope Moyes has found a gem in Papy Djilobodji).
Dijon is a fairly attractive town set in the beautiful region of Burgundy. Links between there and Sunderland probably don’t extend beyond the short time one of their former managers, Patrice Carteron, spent at SAFC (the famous highlight of his stay being a goal against Newcastle United). The town does give its name to a mustard Monsier Salut regards as a basic necessity of life so should be thanked heartily for that. Pete Sixsmith could not make it to France for the three friendlies there but offers thoughts on what he saw of the 3-2 win – the game being played nearkly 200 miles away in Evian-les-Bains – via the club site …
Stop press: Sixer was at Rotherham, along with David Moyes, to see an efficient 2-1 win friendly win. His Sixer’s Sevens verdict: “Good workout in front of new boss”
The Observer digs deep one again into its coffers to recruit our own Pete Sixsmith for a few words on Big Sam. How deep? Er, not enough to pay for the ice cream you see him licking; Sixer’s reward may well have to await his arrival on heaven (rather as is the case here at Salut! Sunderland. He was naturally writing before the David Moyes appointment was known) …
When Sam walked into the club, he inherited a group of players who were unfit, disillusioned and whose collective will was on a par with the recent Shadow Cabinet.
As statements from football clubs about departing managers who have done a good job go, this is probably close to as churlish as it gets:
Sunderland AFC confirms the departure of Sam Allardyce, who takes up the position of England manager with immediate effect.
The focus of everyone at Sunderland AFC now is on moving forward quickly and decisively, with the appointment of the club’s new manager to be confirmed at the earliest opportunity.
It threatens to be a sad day. The FA is expected to be appoint Big Sam to the England job and will not be apologising to Sunderland for the disruption its wretched foot-slogging has caused to our pre-season plans. Then the stage is set, or so we have been led to believe for David Moyes’s arrival as our new boss. Let Pete Sixsmith take up the story from what is likely to have been Allardyce’s last match in charge of SAFC, last night’s friendly at Hartlepool …
Fifty one weeks ago, the Sunderland first team were losing at Doncaster Rovers, having turned in a performance which left many in the crowd worried for the coming season.
That night, they looked unfit, lacking cohesion and an absolute shambles from front to back as they lost to a side that ended up being relegated to the bottom tier.
This was Monsieur Salut’s Facebook posting:
Wanted France to win, they deserved it overall but Portugal suddenly burst into life for just enough of the second period of extra time to tear up the script. Both teams responsible for an awful final …
Monsieur Salut introduces the finale of Euro 2016. He can hardly disguise his allegiance, which would have been forced on …
Pete Sixsmith casts some light, and also some wisdom, on talk of Big Sam for the England job, finding relief in reports – albeit from an occasionally dodgy source – that the FA don’t want him anyway …
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’ …