Sunderland

Spurs ‘Who are you?’: on Gareth Bale and giants past

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All poor Jeff Beck, famously a fan of Tottenham Hotspur, did was to receive an invitation to which he has not yet responded. A missed career break? Don’t worry Becks, we’ll fit you in for the return game. The silver lining is supplied by David Sapsted*. Sappers to his mates, of whom I am one. The top British journo, and one-time Spitting Image gagwriter, drools over some of the current White Hart Lane crop. We forgot to ask who ‘appy ‘arry gets to assume goalkeeper-maiming duties in Defoe’s absence …

Salut! Sunderland:
Why do you reckon Jeff Beck failed to answer our invitation to answer these questions?

Well, he’s everywhere and nowhere, baby. Besides, he’s even older than me and probably forgot.

So is Gareth Bale due a bad match?

I’ve been a massive fan of Bale’s since I first saw him a few years ago when he was playing for Southampton at QPR. He was about eight at the time. But while everyone raves – quite rightly – about his stunning performances against Inter, he had a quiet game at Manchester United and was effectively neutralised for most of the 90 minutes by Phil Neville during the Everton game at the Lane a fortnight or so back. So he has bad days, good days and some really great days. You Sunderland lot better hope that if he doesn’t have a bad day, then the worst you have to endure is merely one of his good days.

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Soapbox: sorry, Stoke – for once we carried the luck

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Pete Sixsmith emerges from a rotten post-derby week to watch our uneasy passage back to winning ways. Before treating the upcoming two games – which would have involved unappealing trips to London – as reason enough for a half-term holiday from his Soapbox, Pete looks back on the good, the bad and the ugly of Saturday’s display – and wonders whether letting Steed take a penalty was someone’s idea of a practical joke …

That has been a bloody awful week and I won’t ever go through another one like it. The repercussions of that humiliation are not over and won’t be until the subject of season ticket renewal comes up in April. A lot needs to be done to convince the likes of me that a regular seat is worth it.

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SAFC 2 Stoke City 0: winning points outrageously

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Image: addick.tedKevin

On top but wobbly. That was the essence of the text messages from the Stadium of Light. Great to secure three points, but television replays show just how wobbly it was …

Salut! Sunderland rattles on week after week about cheating and is among the first to whinge when appalling decisions cost Sunderland points.

Arsenal fans, some of them, came here in self-righteous indignation when, week after week, we asked opposing fans in our Who Are You? feature the Eduardo Question – essentially are you ashamed when one of yours cheats? Our questionnaire before each game still includes a question on the same subject.

But we cannot have it both ways, and we don’t.

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Danny Welbeck: good player, unsuitable role

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A Stoke City fan’s view here yesterday that Danny Welbeck would be a welcome recruit at the Britannia brought wry grins to the faces of one or two Mackems who responded along the lines of “take him, please”. Is that unfair? Has Welbeck actually been used in a way that would allow him to express his best footballing qualities, the sort seen in the clip? Perhaps not …

Danny Welbeck arrived from Manchester United carrying a lot of goodwill from United fans who see him as potential Premier star, whether at Old Trafford or elsewhere.

For us, it was an exciting acquisition and it is fair to say we harboured great expectations about what he might do for us.

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Stoke City’s man of letters: ‘Kenwyne was always one of ours’

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Time, as we said, to move on. There’s another important game looming: SAFC v Stoke City on Saturday. Stephen Foster*, the author of two classics among “my club” football books (buy them at the best prices by clicking here), is another great capture for the Who Are You? series. Stoke through and through, he writes with the passion and wit that appeals to fans of other teams: look at the acclaim he won for She Stood There Laughing and the follow-up, on City’s first year back in the top flight, … And She Laughed No More. Welcome to Salut! Sunderland, Stephen (or Steve as he was for the first of those books thanks to a publisher’s error) …

Salut! Sunderland: you wrote our first question for us, Stephen: “What’s it like having half a side made out of Sunderland cast-offs representing Stoke City?” Apart from – or even including – Tommy and Kenwyne, is that how you see them?

No, not really, once you’ve got players they become yours, don’t they (unless you actively loathe them). But sometimes getting on for half our starting eleven have migrated from one set of red and white stripes to another which is a bit much: Tommy, Collins/Higginbotham, Deano, Rory, Kenwyne. The greatest contribution has come from Delap, no question, he was the key unit of the Pulis Method in the first Premier League season, at the outset of which, to be fair, everyone was predicting we’d ‘do a Derby’. The full backs are fine, the ‘keeper is solid, Whitehead is one of those players I just can’t see the point of. I think of Kenwyne a bit more as “one of ours” anyway since we had him on loan (from Southampton) for a couple of months in the Championship. He was the archetypal Bambi on Ice then; living up on Wearside certainly put some beef on him. He’s started off brilliantly, scoring in four consecutive games with his head, though he did have a muted and subdued match against Man United. We’ve been warned about that tendency from both your fans and your manager and I have to say he didn’t look up for it when he was confronted by the best centre back pairing he’s encountered so far in Ferdinand and Vidic. Vidic knocked him about which he didn’t seem to like. I wonder if he’ll do the curse of the ex against you…

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The Newcastle mauling: change or go, Brucey

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Colin Randall writes: on balance I would have preferred the post-St James’ Park inquest series to end on the relatively upbeat note – OK, non-suicidal note – struck by Malcolm Dawson yesterday (click here to see). But Steve Bruce is enough of a pro to have known calls for his head would inevitably follow such a disgrace as was witnessed on Sunday. Fans are split. Salut! Sunderland writers, as well as its readers, are probably split. Does he, as I believe, deserve to be judged on a longer period than 90 torrid minutes in Newcastle? Or is he a Kenwyne Jones blinder away from the sack? Lee Nichols*, writing here for the first time, was a doubter from the start …

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The Newcastle mauling: lapping up the news, good or bad

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Our inquest on the Tyne-Wear tragedy is nearly over. Will the verdict be death by misadventure, suicide or unlawful killing? That’s for you, collectively, to judge. We have one more piece to run in our series of articles, by different writers, on the derby fallout. That will appear tomorrow. Meanwhile, what has it all meant for Salut! Sunderland? …


Is there something about a really bad event or setback that makes us all gloom junkies?

Newspapers – as I should know – have always been more to do with bad news than good. Entrepreneurs who tried to launch good-news-only alternatives ended up broke. TV news bulletins are predominantly filled with what is evil, contentious or sad in the world.

And Salut! Sunderland, after one terrible performance by SAFC and a catastrophic result that ends a moderately encouraging start to the season, has never been busier. I was going to say “more popular” but that doesn’t somehow seem the right phrase.

Mrs Logic gets the gates back to normal

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The Newcastle mauling: it’ll be all right in the morning

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After the nightmare, we wake up. Malcolm Dawson, entering the witness box of the Salut! Sunderland inquest, urges caution and a sense of proportion …

OK so the performance at Sid James’ Park was abysmal. We were trounced deservedly by a side that performed much better on the day, that were better prepared, both tactically and mentally and who showed more energy and commitment. In short a team that were up for it.

But this is not the time for overreaction and knee jerk responses in our camp.

Five one defeats are not good. Obviously! Five one defeats should give cause for concern and give rise to time for reflection. Obviously!

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