Not the most popular statement a Sunderland supporter can make here, and directly at odds with the first line of the song, but it is the season of goodwill …
Masquerading as a Clio-driving visitor from France, not so far from the truth, Monsieur Salut went undercover after the victory over Bolton.
When you worry about getting to the game, whether it will be on, whether you’ll get back, three points – …
When it comes to awards and honours, Salut! Sunderland has been happy to stick to the back seat.
That is usually becasue no one nominates us, or we hear about invitations for entries too late to give it a bash.
But we get kind words here, as well as the brickbats, and this encourages those of us who fill the site’s pages to believe we occasionally get something right.
Now comes modest confirmation from outsiders, in the shape of the excellent people at When Saturday Comes, well-known for its self-description as a “half decent” football magazine.
Next up among the Bolton fans who answered our “Who are You?” Mayday message: not my old camarade Ian Jones, royal photographer of note (Monsieur Salut, naturellement, has republican tendencies but we always worked together well), but the next best thing, his brother-in-law Peter Stott*. Interesting thoughts, not least on a certain “comedy club” and a surprise relegation candidate ...Salut! Sunderland: What a great start for Bolton. – you must be getting nosebleeds? Is it purely down to Owen Coyle?
Absolutely. Owen Coyle has only made a couple of additions to the squad that he inherited from Gary Megson but he has totally transformed the style of football we play. The mustn’t lose style has gone and has been replaced by attractive passing and attacking football. There have been several games this season where the team on the field had none of Coyle’s signings but played in the Coyle style. Tat in itself demonstrates that its down to Coyle because we never saw anything attractive when Megson was in charge.
What were saying about Bolton fans being like London buses? Wait half an hour, then three come along together. No sooner had we thought of throwing in the towel on finding a Wanderers supporter than replies started flooding in. Well trickling. The policy is straightforward: if people are good enough to respond, the responses will be used even if we end up with an excess of riches. Natasha Whittam*, a fiery character well known to those who haunt Bolton fan sites, wanted to do this a season or two ago but then disappeared from our radar. Now she’s back just when we most needed her, happy with her rejuvenated team but offering some forthright views on Gary Megson, old grounds v new, Newcastle United and Fifa …
Who can they possibly mean? Are there lots of Egyptians in Bolton?So Sunderland, our own El Bale and all, take on the high-flying Wanderers on Saturday. But this is an emergency “Who are You?”. It always seems tough, for some reason, to find Bolton fans to do this feature, and the search hasn’t been helped by illness, at their end and ours. We haven’t quite given up, but this may have to do …
Teams of highly trained Salut! Sunderland sleuths scoured Lancashire, indeed the world, for someone answering the description “warm, witty or wise supporter of Bolton Wanderers.
Mindful of our great tradition of getting an opposing supporter to preview each match (except when every Stoke City fan seemed to be saying “rearrange off and f*** into a well-known phrase or saying”), we kept going until the very end. And then the end came. Sadly, our intrepid search party had drawn a blank.
Imagine: top of the Premier without needing to fret about Manchester United’s game in hand. Even writing the headline could make you feel dizzy. It is such a priceless thought that Salut! Sunderland will leave to others to conduct their own mental arithmetic and conclude whether Bill Taylor, in the first of our mid-term reviews as we approach the end of the year, has his sums right …
Here we are, getting closer to the halfway point of the season and the Cats are, give or take a place, two-thirds of the way up the Premier League table and only 10 points behind Manchester Untied.
Not so dusty, eh?
Well, yes and no.
Salut! Sunderland writers are rallying to a sick man’s cause. Bill Taylor has contributed the first of what is intended to be a series of mid or middish term reviews, and will get the ball rolling tomorrow. First, our mysterious Birflatt Boy emerges once more from the shadows to offer a rant on growing managerial instability …
It’s the festive season for most of us, but the start of the silly season which was heralded by Chris Hughton’s dismissal last week has arguably been trumped by the news that Sam Allardyce has been dismissed from his job at Blackburn Rovers.
Was even X Factor more entertaining that this, without costing £35 to watch? A bore draw with little to relieve the tedium beyond the magnificence of John Mensah. At least Pete Sixsmith enjoyed the pre-match real ale …
Last year at Craven Cottage, we succumbed to a Bobby Zamora goal, saw Anton Ferdinand limp off and began an awful run which left didn’t end until late February.
Twelve months on, we took a point in a dull 0-0 draw, Anton Ferdinand limped off and it is difficult to see a repeat of last year’s trials and tribulations. But is taking a point off Fulham enough?
A draw at Fulham is not a bad result. But it came in a game of few thrills, little quality, hardly any talking points – except the question of whether Mark Hughes told his players to go out and rough up John Mensah in the knowledge of what the loss of the injury-prone centre back would have meant. Let us say no more than it looked that way a couple of times. Pete Sixsmith went into action again for The Observer…
