Salut! Sunderland feels as if it is tracking the developing career of our young WBA interviewee Nathan Carr, owner of the popular @BaggiesGalore fan site. In his visits to these shores, he has risen from ‘aspiring sports journalist’ to ‘aspiring sports journalist with a growing media presence’. See the imprssive list of people he writes for below*. Nathan is always welcome here, even when he comes laden with gloomy thoughts about Sunderland, ahead of Saturday’s game at the Hawthorns, albeit expressed before Big Sam’s appointment …
Jake: ‘do it for Sam, do it for yourselves and do it for us, Lads’To cries of “fix”, Joan Dawson walks off with the prize mug in the Name Sam’s Column competition.
The doom-laden entrants, at Facebook and Twitter in particular, just didn’t get Monsieur Salut’s ruling that unduly pessimistic titles would clash with the spirit of Salut! Sunderland. Of course we’ll criticise and grow despondent if things do not work out; for now, though, Sam Allardyce is our manager and he deserves, as of right, our support.
Back when he was a rookie teacher learning how to negotiate safe passage through what was those days called the blackboard jungle, Pete Sixsmith watched our FA Cup Final heroes of 1973 doing battle with Vasas Budapest and Sporting Lisbon in the European Cup Winners’ Cup, winning both home legs and then again in Hungary before going out on aggregate in the second round in Portugal. The Premier International Cup is not the Champions League or even the Europa League, but the Stadium of Light offered a grander stage than the Under 21s’ Hetton stamping ground and Sixer savoured Sunderland’s return to competitive continental football …
Someone had to win and the rest of us had to lose. The competition to find a name for Sam Allardyce’s post-match thoughts, or those sent out by the press office with his signature, has run its course.
Sam Allardyce’s e-mail after each win, defeat and draw will assume the title SA’s Essay – or maybe it should be SA’s Essays – with many thanks to Joan Dawson, whose declared yearning for a Salut! Sunderland mug drove her to offer several options.
The classic ‘dressing room’ mug from Guess the Score sponsors www.personalisedfootballgifts.co.uk
Every so often, Salut! Sunderland digs into its own pockets and forks out for a prize-winning mug. You will receive the your personalised version (ie your name at No 12) of the above, from our Guess the Score sponsors Personalised Football Gifts, but at Monsieur Salut’s expense, if you come up with a great name for the slot we will devote, as with all managers, to that post-match e-mail from the boss (or his ghost writer).
We’ve had Bruce’s Banter, Martin’s Musings, Paolo’s Pow-wow (then Le Parole di Paolo), Pure Poyetry/Poyetry in Motion and the brilliant Advochaat, coined by our illustrator Jake.
What shall we call the thought of Big Sam after each win, defeat or draw? Nothing I have so far seen, of thought up myself, comes close to seeming right. Play It Again Sam might work for defeats, Telegram Sam was another suggestion and there’s always a plan Sam Speaks. Over to you, remembering the only two rules: M Salut’s decision is final and the winner must have a UK delivery address.
Jake: ‘play it again, Sam (that keeping ’em up trick of yours’
Sam Allardyce is our new manager. He therefore starts with Salut! Sunderland‘s complete support. Welcome back, Sam, the runaway favourite among the touted names
when we ran our little poll asking who should be Dick Advocaat’s successor.
For the bookies and the media pundits, Sam Allardyce is now pretty much the only show in town.
In other words, if you have voted in the Salut! Sunderland poll for Michael Laudrup, Nigel Pearson, Frank De Boer or “others”, not listed above but including Brendan Rodgers and David Moyes, you will have to accept that Big Sam is Ellis Short’s clear first choice and the pair are already talking terms or about to start.
My view of the bookies making Harry Redknapp a 20-1 outsider for the SAFC job was that it might be their idea of a joke. Thank heavens he’s ruled himself out with an unprofessional series of sideswipes at Sunderland. Of course we were ‘horrendous’ at Bournemouth, of course we’ve made some ghastly moves in the transfer market and of course we’re in deep trouble.
But why on earth would any of that put off a self-respecting manager from considering taking over a great football club? Even a manager unaccustomed to a club that attracts crowds of the size of Sunderland’s, despite playing turgid and losing football, would have to see the potential. ‘Arry wondered about the bus timetable between the south coast and Wearside – let him stay there …
