We could have done with another striker in, and few obvious suspects out, and can only hope loan deals are in the pipeline for such movement.
For now, Salut! Sunderland welcomes the 12th signing off the summer, Max Power on loan from Wigan until January with a view to sealing a permanent transfer in the new year.
Monsieur Salut writes: our Luton Town interviewee, Richard Armstrong*, is Hatters through and through: ‘I guess it was just in my blood. All my family have supported Luton. There never was any other team for me.’ He readily agreed to answer Salut! Sunderland‘s questions about his club, ours and football in general.
Richard writes for D3D4football.com, at first glance a very deserving site about Leagues One and Two. We’d rather be somewhere else, but we’re among his list of ‘proper’ clubs helping to populate the third tier ….
There was a technical issue with the original posting, which this supersedes …
Monsieur Salut has done a trawl through one Charlton fan forum, Charlton Life, to check on the reactions of Addicks fans, whether in the travelling support, watching on TV or absent altogether, to their side’s opening-day defeat at Sunderland …
?? Lee Bowyer impressed by his Charlton side's performance despite late heartbreak at Sunderland
READ ?? https://t.co/0V1CM1CcO4 #CAFC pic.twitter.com/Nvspc7Ykc6
— Louis Mendez (@LouisMend) August 4, 2018
UPDATE: simply click on this paragraph and you will see the full Sixer article
Oops. This is a mere sample of the piece that will be published in full tomorrow (Sunday). Some hardly untypical incompetence on the part of Monsieur Salut led the posting to be published prematurely.
Peter Lynn is a regular home and away. Even home means a slog from afar. Today he was absent; he delays his football season for cricket to finish. But that doesn’t stop him acclaiming our first opening-day win since 2009. And his way of doing so? Same old music …
After a disappointing first 45 minutes of our League One season – and let it be one season, for the right reason – goals from Josh Maja and, in the dying moments of the game, Lynden Gooch brought three massively encouraging points against Charlton Athletic.
Pete Sixsmith was not alone in representing the Salut! Sunderland editorial team at the Stadium of Light. Malcolm Dawson, deputy editor, and John McCormick, associate editor, too their places, too, among a remarkable 31,079 in the qround, leaving poor old Monsieur Salut – in London too briefly to be able to get up north for the game – to make do with Barnes and Benno after one local pub failed to stop the live coverage channel bouncing to Sky News and the other refused to show it.
When we went one down, to a penalty converted with absolute predictability by Lyle Taylor, who chose to join Charlton and not us in the close season, I feared the worst. But B&B saw lots of positives, Maja grabbed the equaliser as we appeared to improve greatly on a mostly poor first 45 minutes and, from what Benno described as an Oviedo cross of great quality, Gooch headed the winner.
Here, Sixer resumes his traditional seven-word summaries of each match he attends. He emphasises the important role played by the academy and in a second verdict, added ‘Top of the league; SAFC are top’. Rest assured he’ll have more to say later …
Monsieur Salut says: when the new regime took hold, one of its early observations was that the SAFC matchday programme was, frankly, an embarrassment.
That may well have had something to do with the decision, taken as our not-much-missed but highly remunerated then CEO, Martin Bain, penny-pinched his way through the operation, to sideline Rob Mason, whose editorship of the programme had been a rare success story in the recent history of SAFC.
Rob remains club historian and has nothing to do with the perceived decline in the programme’s standards. That needs to be pointed out and I pass no comment on the way his award-winning publication went on to be handled when contracted out.
But now, there is a serious change of approach to report. Many readers will have seen the minor stir on social media about the revamped Red and White, with a strong emphasis on fan input. Salut! Sunderland was involved in the first example of this new approach as anyone buying a programme before the opening game against Charlton Athletic will see, but plaudits are due to the content editor Oscar Chamblerlain …
Monsieur Salut writes: first things first: Richard Wiseman*, our Charlton Athletic volunteer for the first ‘Who are You?’ of the new season wants to say hello to two London-based Sunderland supporters he knows but hasn’t seen in a while. Step forward Mick Coad and Alan Walsh (or anyone reading this who is in touch with them). Ian Todd, founder and membership secretary of the London and SE branch of SAFCSA reports that Mick is back in the North East while Alan, ‘never been seen in anything but shorts’, is still in London and travels fairly regularly to home games.
Richard is chairman of the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust (CAST – I’ve added the apostrophe), which is home to a lot of disgruntled Addicks fans, people who love their club somewhat more than they love their owner, the Belgian millionaire Roland Duchatelet. He bought Charlton in 2014, supposedly as a feeder club for other teams he owned on the Continent. In 2016, he publicly accused some fans of wanting the club to fail. Opposition centres on CARD (Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet) and it’s vitriolic.
Our interview covers the controversy but also the prospects for each of our clubs …
George Honeyman, once thought to be among those wanting to leave Sunderland, as the new club captain.
SAFC.com quotes the manager, Jack Ross, as saying: “George’s attitude towards training on a daily basis is absolutely fantastic What he has is an absolute feel for this club because he’s come through the academy, but he’s also suffered, as a lot of people have through the past couple of years, and it bothers him.”
“He wants to help take the club forward and there’s no better way for him to do that than by being a successful captain. He’s a mature and intelligent young man, and his energy levels and application in games will be a major asset for us, so I’m delighted he’s wanted to take on the responsibility.”
Tongue in cheek, Monsieur Salut offers our outgoing Paris-born Ivorian defender a useful tip should he be anxious to follow Sunderland from loan exile abroad …
With reports suggesting Lamine Kone’s ultimately wretched time at Sunderland coming to an end, albeit in unsatisfactory fashion with a mere loan to last season Ligue 2 champions in France, Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace, Salut! Sunderland has news that will surely gladden his heart and barely disturb the small change in his pocket.