If anyone out there thinks we’re overdoing the Ithics Files – reproduction at Salut! Sunderland of gems from It’s The Hope I Can’t Stand – then they should tell SAFC to get a move on with meaningful news.
Sunderland
The Ithics Files: (3) when Everton rained on our parade
Football just isn’t what it was, lad.
Back in days gone by, you could stand with a supporter of the other team, bonded by mutual love of the people’s game, in the sure knowledge you were safe from harm.
If you were old enough to get in, you’d be in their pubs rubbing shoulders, taking turns to buy rounds and swapping jolly stories and jokes.
And if you think you just saw a pig in mid-flight outside the bedroom window, you’d be about right.
The Ithics Files: (2) when the jury was out on SuperKev & Quinn
This, the second extract from our near-complete set of the lamented fanzine It’s The Hope I Can’t Stand is a classic mixture of retrospective wisdom and downright mischief-making. Back we go to the 1997/1998 season and the origins of a fabulous Premier League strike pairing …
It is not the sort of thing anyone wants to be reminded of: even the slightest hint of hesitancy in initial thoughts on one Kevin Phillips, and a distinctly undecided assessment of Niall Quinn.
That, however, is how Ithics saw things back then. There are strong mitigating factors, and we will get to them, but Salut! Sunderland cannot resist the temptation to dip into edition No 2 – when the writer of each article was still anonymous – and repeat these snippets from a piece entitled: “Reid’s Transfer Record – Hit or Miss?”
Welcome Keiren Westwood and Seb Larsson. And that’s official
Salut! Sunderland is delighted to note the statement from Sunderland AFC tonight confirming 1) perhaps the worst-kept secret so far of the transfer market and 2) success in one of the most encouraging of our reported attempts to bring in fresh talent.
Terms have been agreed with Keiren Westwood, the Coventry City and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper, whose transfer has been reported as fact all or much of the day, everywhere from the Midlands press to Sky Sports, and with Birmingham City’s Swedish international midfielder Sebastian Larsson.
Raging transfer gossip, and taking the higher moral ground
A few hours after this posting appeared came official news that Keiren Westwood and Seb Larsson have agreed terms and will sign on July 1 … read the report at this link
As transfer fever rises and Sunderland supporters grow impatient, safc.com leads its news pages, in almost surreal fashion, with a scintillating item headlined “SoL groundstaff pressing ahead”.
But we acknowledge their dilemma. Let it be known to readers that Salut! Sunderland is also fully aware that …
Pick your own worst squad of Sunderland imports: we just did!
Malcolm Dawson poses the question: is this the sorriest squad in the history of Sunderland imports? One possible riposte: it would be far easier to select a truly awful team of homegrown players who have turned out for us over the years, easier still if Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland qualified as homegrown. See whether you agree with Malcolm’s choice or feel he has been harsh on some and overlooked others …
When Sunderland fans debate the strengths and weaknesses of Steve Bruce, one aspect of his management career which never fails to divide opinion is his success in bringing overseas players into his sides.
Many point to the players he signed who have succeeded in English football, others to those so-called cut price players who have ultimately proved expensive flops.
Bruce himself concedes that some of his better buys, such as Charles N’Zogbia and Maynor Figueroa took time to adapt to English conditions. Some settled in immediately, whilst others sunk without trace.
Those currently calling for a reappraisal of his time at Sunderland point to the players he has brought in on permanent and part-time deals and question his success in this area: Angeleri, Da Silva, Riveros hardly ever on the team sheet; Mensa – injury prone; Muntari – unfit and costly; Elmohamady – limited ability.
This got me off on a train of thought, hardly original but one which passed a few idle moments. What did I consider to be the worst team of imports Sunderland AFC has signed since the advent of the Premier League?
I set myself a few criteria. Firstly, they had to be permanent signings, not loan players. Secondly they would not be young players brought in with a view to future development such as Jean-Paul Mvoto but heralded as the finished article. Next, I would consider value for money, initial outlay, wages and money recouped balanced against the contribution to the cause.
Blind nonsense: ‘getting behind the Lads’ no matter what
Birflatt Boy pulls no punches. Monsieur Salut may have urged caution on SAFC’s inability so far to announce a single new acquisition, amid rumours that this or that target could end up elsewhere, but our hard-hitting contributor defends the right to aim robust criticism at the club we love …
What does it mean to be a Sunderland supporter? I’ve always regarded it as a lifelong lesson in humility, and in so many ways. After all, there’s never that much to get really excited about is there?
As the number of blogs and fan sites has propagated it’s become a lot easier to access and understand the widespread and perhaps not so widespread mix of opinion and attitude held by fans of any club, on just about anything. We all love SAFC, but have different ways of expressing that devotion, I suppose.
The Ithics Files: (1) when Magic asked for more ‘or I join Rangers’
Someone had the idea of reproducing a few of the best moments of It’s The Hope I Can’t Stand, the shortlived Sunderland fanzine about which Nic Wiseman wrote here yesterday. I can’t promise how many there’ll be, but it was a good shout so here, at enormous effort (I have no scanner), is the first in an occasional series.
We’re back in November 1999. Issue 16 is out. The end, sadly, is nigh for Ithics. But what better than to go out on a high? The mag actually managed one more edition before closing down. But in the penultimate issue was this extraordinary transcript of hard contract negotiations between our star Scottish winger, Allan Johnston, and John Fickling, then chief executive of SAFC. Sadly, it turned out to be as genuine as the Zinoviev letter, a product of the vivid imagination of Nic’s co-editor, Mark Egan. You can’t have everything …
John Fickling:
Allan, sit down. I hope we can get everything wrapped up today. You asked for £10,000 per week on this new contract. That’d make you one of our best paid players, but we think you’re worth it and we’ll settle for that amount.
Allan Johnston: 20 grand.
Bruce on ‘frustration’ for supporters, waiting for deals
Someone – Birflatt Boy – took us to task the other day for commenting on the Asamoah Gyan tranfer gossip in the Mirror, overlooking the fact that the reason for doing so was to put Alan Nixon, the author of the speculation, on the spot.
Nixon is now firmly on that spot. We shall see how the close season develops and remind him, if we can, of what he so confidently wrote (while also being ready to acknowledge the quality of his sources if he turns out to be right).
Another Gyan scare story, but don’t worry. It’s only Stoke City
Maybe one day, we shall be offering Alan Nixon of the Daily Mirror the same sort of “full, free, and absolute pardon” for Gyangate that his part namesake, Richard Milhous Nixon, received 37 years ago over Watergate.
For now, however, he must remain liable to impeachment.
Hot on the heels of his much-denied exclusive from yesterday, claiming an agent close to Sunderland AFC had circulated Asamoah Gyan’s name to other clubs as a player available for transfer, Alan N tells us Stoke City are – stand by for some hardcore footballspeak – “lining up a £10m raid … to test Sunderland’s resolve to keep Gyan”.