Let us be quite clear: whoever was responsible for the story that Steed Malbranque had retired from football because his young son had cancer – when, in fact, no such son and therefore no such illness-related decision exist – was either spectacularly misinformed, or downright nasty, or both.
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It’s all over until January and, says Pete Sixsmith, thanks heavens for that. But first he takes a measured look at the idiocies, bargains and eyebrow-raising gambles of transfer deadline day …
See also: Velkommen to Sunderland, Nicklas Bendtner – whatever Abbey Clancy thinks of it
So, the Belarus programme seller decided to forego St Mirren and remain at Dinamo Minsk, the Costa Rican being pursued by Alan Pardew opted for Thameside rather than Tyneside and Peter Crouch overtook Jan Koller as the player most-linked-with but never–signed-by Sunderland.
Instead, we got the usual SSN hysteria package, which apparently included genial grey haired Scots anchor (feel free to insert w in front) Jim White arriving at Sky Sports studios to host the last segment of their exhaustive and exhausting coverage.
While idly surfing for a way of extending velkommen to the Danish equivalent of “welcome to the madhouse”, I came across a comment that “Swedish is a language, Danish a throat infection”. it didn’t help much, but at least it made me chuckle.
Nicklas Bendtner, brought in on loan from Arsenal for a year, is a confident young man and if he has, in the eyes of some, an excess of that confidence, we have no need to worry about his mental state (or, so far as can be told, his throat).
Image of Georgios Samaras: Sashymashy
Not forgetting Georgios Samaras from Celtic. Transfer deadline? Dead loss. That’s the verdict from Pete Sixsmith‘s Soapbox and who can blame him? Consider the other names in our own hat: Peter Crouch (£10m bid today, says Sky), Roman Pavlyuchenko, Patrick Helmes,
DavidCraig Bellamy, Nicklas Bendtner, the other Cisse, Toy of th Rovers, Tupper of the Track (er, that’s enough – ed). Salut! Sunderland has remained aloof of the manic speculation; it’s either mostly nonsense cooked up by greedy, manipulative agents, hypocritical clubs, restless players and imaginative football hacks – or evidence of Steve Bruce putting out a search party for anyone who has ever played up front …
Time for the annual frenzy known as “the closing of the transfer window”.
Sky Sports News and its presenters should spontaneously combust somewhere around 8pm as news of St Mirren signing a Belarus programme seller tips them over the edge.
It was all hyper enough yesterday with the earth shattering news (if you work for SSN) that Owen Hargreaves is having a medical at Manchester City. Presumably, they (City) will be offering deals to Paul Scholes, Bobby Charlton and Sir Matt Busby before 11pm tonight.
What a shame that Steed Malbranque has let it be know he is on the point of giving up football.
Only 31, and just 26 minutes into his new career at St Etienne, the former Sunderland midfielder has personal problems and appeared a troubled figure when he spoke to the Ligue 1 club’s manager Christophe Galtier on the eve of yesterday’s game at Sochaux.
If you thought Steve Bruce had problems with what he suggested was the “pathetic” hysteria of hypercritical supporters of his own club, stand back and consider the torrent of abuse now heading in the general direction of Arsène Wenger.
Comments on a match report at the Red London site after Man Utd 8 Arsenal 2 began with Nealmustgo’s kneejerk “bye bye Arsene that’s your lot”.
Darren Dommett exclaimed “what a total sham wenger needs to buy or go” and Danish Gooner offered his own slice of bacon “WENGER OUT NOW !!!!!” before the oh-so-eloquent “Arsenal” summoned all his expressive powers to declare: “Wenger can burn in hell, just dont take arsenal with you, you f****** french frog.”
Pete Sixsmith‘s test messages from South Wales suggested a day that peaked with his pre-match pint in Port Talbot and went downhill on reaching the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. At least he was spared a third defeat in a week. This is the blow-by-blow account of his day …
It was a long, long day and a long, long way to go for a point in a goalless draw.
And it went something like this:
Liverpool 1 SAFC 1; SAFC 0 Newcastle Utd 1; Brighton & HA 1 SAFC 0; Swansea 0 SAFC 0
No one is going to pretend that Sunderland have got off to a flying start. Even Steve Bruce’s sternest critics here would accept that he has not tried to do so.
But it is still necessary to apply some kind of proportion to the opening results.
Having given my qualified support to Steve Bruce, if only because sacking him three games into a season would be spectacularly bad timing, I now look forward to him issuing writs against those responsible for grossly libellous reports that he tried to sign Joey Barton. As for tonight’s e-mail, the D word – disappointing, not despise – gets another outing but it’s really just a routine response to a routine draw …
Dear Colin,
To put it into context, to come away from home in the Barclays Premier League and pick up something is always decent.
The disappointing thing is that we had enough chances to win two football matches.
Image: Wonker
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