Sunderland

Sunderland’s headlong fall and the unconditional love that makes us keep faith

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In the commentary box up with Barnes and Benno high up in the West stand

Monsieur Salut, aka Colin Randall, writes: in my brief time in Abu Dhabi, I saw more of Sunderland live than at any time since Pete Sixsmith and I would make our way every other Saturday to home games at Roker Park, and rather less often to away matches. That’s because every Premier League match is shown on TV there. I suspect it would have been hard if not impossible in the season just ending, and will simply be unthinkable once our return to League One gets under way.

But my links with The National newspaper, the launch of which drew me to the UAE in 2007, remain strong and the sports editor, Graham Caygill, a Watford supporter, was happy to indulge my willingness to write about our decline. He has a soft spot for SAFC even though his dad was a Boro man.

See the article at the newspaper’s site – just click on this link – and see it here, with Graham and the editor-in-chief’s consent …

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Sunderland statement: right words, nowhere near good enough

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Change afoot?
Photo courtesy of safc.com

It bears the hallmarks of a statement dictated by Martin Bain (CEO) and tidied up in the press office. It tells us what we know and offers the right buzz words and phrases: demoralising season, devastated, humbling support, deep-rooted passion, rise again and so on.

It even includes a “sorry”. Nay, “truly sorry”. But did Ellis Short have the least input? Was the sorry his? Remember, this is a man who may have tried to do his best for our club but ended up finger-pointing at the media, a classic cause-and-effect scenario since he freely admits he won’t even talk to reporters.

In the words of Oliver Cromwell, Ellis, “depart I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”

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Down and down again. A sorry day to be a Sunderland supporter

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A proud heritage trashed by gruesome mismanagement (listening, Ellis?)

Monsieur Salut writes: this is obviously the grimmest evening, in footballing terms, since Salut! Sunderland was created back at the beginning of 2007 (a promotion season under Keano). We’ll all have more to say and we’ll all, by and large, go on supporting our club. Here are some immediate thoughts …

It took me several looks at the bottom of the table, and at the remaining fixtures, before I finally accepted that there was no longer any permutation that could, however remote the thought, keep Sunderland up.

The stark reality is that there can have been few more deserved relegations in the history of English football. Most of the other contenders for that description involved us, too.

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The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team: Burton Albion

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Sixer: soon to be reunited with cricket grounds and tasty cornets

Salut! Sunderland didn’t get round to entering this year’s football blogging awards. This was not a case of sour grapes after our also-ran status in previous years; the deadline simply came and went. Perhaps we should just have sent the organisers links to Pete Sixsmith‘s matchday reports and the twin series, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Team/The First Time Ever I Saw Your Ground. In a fair world, we’d then have walked it. Voting still seems to be open so you can keep it in the family and give Roker Report a helping hand.

Here, Sixer admits to being a little lost for words when describing a team Sunderland have played only once (he was there) having written this cracking piece before his visit. What more is there to say, beyond reflecting on a rare SAFC win that should have changed the course of our horrendous season but didn’t? …


Tricky one this: the Brewers have only ever played us once and that was five months ago when George Honeyman and James Vaughan scored in our 2-0 win at the Pirelli Stadium. This was the game that many of us thought would see us turn the corner, move up the league and maybe get on the fringe of the playoffs.
Shows how much we know.

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SAFC vs Burton Albion Who are You?: ‘let’s jump together into oblivion’

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Dave Child: ‘sorry – we met professionally’

Monsieur Salut writes: the pain of relegation is not eased that much because everyone expected you to go down anyway. But Dave Child*, who combines being a fully-fledged Brewer with a spot of radio commentary (that’s how he met PDC), didn’t think the season would be as bad for Burton — or us for that matter – after their escape a year ago. I took the easy option for this edition of ‘Who are You?’, not because there are so few Burton fans to choose from but because Dave did a good job first time round and is a home-and-away regular who’ll be at our last-but-one home game this Saturday.

Dave is also a food critic, reviewing pies at the grounds he visits. Let’s see what he makes of the SoL fare …

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SAFC vs Burton Albion prize Guess the Score: a mere battle for second bottom?

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There is a prize. You judge whether it’s a great one

First of all, let Salut! Sunderland add its tribute to the supporters who have put up with this season’s woeful absence of quality, commitment and results and attended games week after week.

Almost as a further act of torture, the mathematical possibility of survival cannot vanish altogether if SAFC beat Burton Albion in what otherwise looks little more than a case of who avoids bottom place.

And if two out of three – Bolton (home to Wolves), Barnsley (away to Leeds) and Birmingham (home to Sheff Utd) – were to lose this weekend, a win for us would keep a weak flame flickering. It’s more complicated than that, with three possible relegation sides battling for points and Barnsley also having their game in hand at Forest on Tuesday, but that about sums it up.

It’s also the stuff of flying pigs. Bolton and Birmingham only need to draw and SAFC to lose for us to be down whatever happens to Barnsley.

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Salut! Sunderland’s 2018 end of season reviews: (1) Nick Barnes urges unity

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Cheers

Monsieur Salut writes: unfashionable as it is to praise the press or media more generally, I believe local and national writers and broadcasters covering Sunderland by and large do a good job. I think in particular of the Sunderland Echo‘s Phil Smith, the Chronicle‘s James Hunter and The Guardian‘s Louise Taylor but could mention a number of others. And for supporters who cannot get to many games, there is the excellent double act provided by BBC Radio Newcastle, Gary Bennett’s passionate and astute reading of a game complementing Nick Barnes‘s impeccable commentary.

Nick is a West Country man and could even find himself having to report on SAFC against his own Exeter City – currently fifth in League Two but with a game in hand on two clubs above them – next season. But 15 years of covering Sunderland have left their mark (how could they not?) and there’s obvious affection for the club and especially its fans. At Facebook, he generated a lively debate with this heartfelt appeal for a sense of togetherness, an end to understandable but unproductive vitriol.

Not every one of his Facebook ‘friends’ agreed – 89 comments have been posted as I write and range from ‘wake up and smell the bulls*** from the club; it stinks’ to ‘wonderful summation’.

Either way – or some way in between – Nick’s brief thoughts, reproduced with his consent, serve as a useful starting point for the 2017-2018 edition of Salut! Sunderland‘s the end-of-season reviews* …

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Reading vs SAFC Who are You?: dark magic

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This is not our Who are You? interviewee

Salut! Sunderland is not too keen on anonymous Who are You?s. It seems bizarre to insist on being a nameless supporter but we must respect all choices, especially when we’re the ones asking for favours. Rarely, we grant @TalkReading* that anonymity (but then the alternative was not to have a Reading (a) Who are You?). His/her explanation? ‘@TalkRaeding is completely anonymous on Twitter (keeps the magic going!) hope that is okay with you – would still love to help. The replies are good all the same …

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Reading vs SAFC Guess the Score: the clock ticking down

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Guess the Reading-SAFC score and you could win a mug – whoever you support

Monsieur Salut writes: by the time you read this, I’ll be on holiday and trying very hard not to think about football …

We have an oddly anonymous Reading Who are You? still to come – maybe they’re all recluses in the Thames Valley – and the result, as I write before the Leeds game, is unlikely to matter a huge amount to us.

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