The question behind my question was posed by the Shields Gazette. Who will finish higher?
The responses of partisan fans are probably meaningless. Which Mackem will say: “Toon, without a doubt”?
Sunderland
Soapboax on tour: hello from Hoffenheim
Or, more truthfully, from Heidelberg. A first dispatch from
Pete Sixsmith , who is on the pre-season trail with Sunderland – except when getting hopelessly lost – and gagging for the game against Hoffenheim …
Well we arrived. It took longer than we thought, but we made it to Heidelberg after a long, long journey that tested the Mazda 6 and its passengers, but by 8pm on Thursday the four of us were sampling our first German beers in a small corner bar midway between the hotel and the town centre.
The trip was going well until we decided to drop into the riverside town of Boppard for a rest, a meal and a shufty at the River Rhine. All three were accomplished and we followed the scenic route down the river gorge to Bingen – and then missed a sign.
Chamakh, Defoe, Van Persie … an A-Z guide on who to boo
So who in football makes your hackles rise? Do the cheats, the poseurs or bonebreakers enrage you most – or is it a certain ref, manager, TV pundit or Fleet Street hack? I’ll start my own list here, but everyone is welcome to add to it, filling in the missing entries or second-guessing my choices. If the responses flow, I’ll keep bringing the item back to the top of the site (and insert your updates) …
Sorry, but comments from people who haven’t posted before are subject to a short delay for anti-spam moderation
A list of who to cheer would be shorter. I’d put Howard Webb on mine, for dealing as well as he did – give or take a couple of errors – with the uncharacteristically thuggish Dutch in the World Cup final. But then I know he’d just reward me with one of those point(s)-denying decisions of his against Sunderland. Aaron Ramsey will definitely get a Salut! Sunderland cheer, but first he must recover from that horrendous injury.
So let’s make it, for now, an A to Z of the players, management, officials or others to whom we should consider giving a torrid reception in the 2010-2011 Premier League season. I will set the ball rolling; your job is to fill in the gaps or improve on my selections.
Now Steve Bruce passes the Mensah test
Fingers crossed that it’s true: we naturally hope at least one other signing will be made before the transfer deadline at the end of the month (that goalie crisis rings a bell), but this could prove to be the deal of our close season ….
SEE UPDATE, WITH OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION(-ish) IN THIRD COMMENT BELOW
The one person who should know whether or not a player has signed for Sunderland is the player himself.
On that basis we ought to be shouting from the rooftops in praise of Steve Bruce and Niall Quinn for clinching the return of John Mensah to the Stadium of Light.
NB: Apologies if you found Salut! Sunderland inaccessible while our friends at Footballunited.com carried out site maintenance in the early hours of Fri Aug 6. They promised it was all in a good cause.
Soapbox: following Sunderland on the road to Hoffenheim
School’s out for summer, and Pete Sixsmith is off to Germany, following Sunderland on the last part of our build-up to the 2010-2011 Premier League season. He also looks back on pre-season jaunts of the past…
Tonight we set off on a mission to the German city of Heidelberg. Sounds like the opening line from a 50s war movie, so I should reassure the good burghers of that famed university city that we come in peace, searching for nothing more than beer, bratwurst and Big John Mensah.
This is the sixth time that Mr Horan has abandoned his fair wife and I have abandoned Samson the Cat to take off to foreign climes in support of SAFC. Torquay (ok, not really foreign), Seville, Dublin, Cork, Galway, Athlone and Amsterdam have all featured on the itinerary.
Friends have been made, ale has been supped and we have been able to get a good idea of what was in store for the coming season.
Whimsical tales of Sunderland’s world toppers
Image: Until David Cameron gets round to banning foreign travel as part of his austerity programme, we will be accustomed to coming across fellow Sunderland fans wherever we go. It may be the tops they wear, though caps, badges or rear window car stickers also give the game away.
If there is a grimmer town in the world than Portadown, I don’t wish to go there. I didn’t especially want to be in Portadown the day I went looking for a man widely assumed – and sometimes, in semi-private, claiming – to be a bloodthirsty sectarian killer. The newspaper I worked for wanted his reaction to being ordered, by other sectarian killers (nominally on the same side), to get out of Ulster.
Soapbox: forget Leicester – Annan’s the place for me
How can we put this, in a way that doesn’t offend Leicester and fans of Leicester City? Er, we can’t. This was one pre-season friendly to be avoided, at least by Pete Sixsmith. Pete saw it as an occasion to head in the opposite direction. But then, he’s never relied on a strong aversion to one place to encourage him to visit another, especially when there’s some Annan Athletic and Partick Thistle to savour …
See also: another dig at Leicester (FC, not the fans)
Didn’t bother with Leicester . It’s not a place I like. Joe Orton couldn’t get out of it quickly enough and I don’t blame him. Never liked Filbert Street, don’t like the Walkers Bowl or whatever it’s called, don’t like the fans and don’t like that bloody stupid Post Horn Gallop they play before each home game.
I once spent a thoroughly miserable week in Leicester c.1970 on a college field trip. The year before, the trip had gone to Scotland and there had been a number of “incidents” involving McEwans 80/- and a party of females from another educational institution.
Arsenal 3 Celtic 2: can Daryl Murphy win over Bhoys fans?
First, any excuse to re-post this clip of Dance to Tipperary performing Fields of Athenry at Celtic Park, a version I love.
Second, an excuse to ask what Celtic fans made of Daryl Murphy, who scored against Arsenal today. Especially after the lively debate here when he moved from Sunderland …
Leicester 1 Sunderland 2: (2) memories of Monty, echoes of Rob Green
Image:
A warm welcome from Salut! Sunderland to another writer.Harry Burrell , who this morning finds himself part of a squad that’s growing almost as big as Steve Bruce’s, encountered a classic slice of corporate football discourtesy (from Leicester City) as he prepared for his day out. As for Sunderland, he saw plenty to please him, but also signs of lingering weaknesses …
We had moved to the West Midlands in the early 50s and then across to the Leicester area in the early70s. I can’t exactly remember which match I first watched at Filbert Street, but it must have been during the early to mid 60s.
I don’t recall much detail of these early games, except for one of Jim Montgomery’s fabulous saves. One of the Leicester forwards powered in a header, from just inside the six yard box, which was heading for the bottom left-hand corner of the net.
The arms of the Leicester spectators were rising above their shoulders; from their throats came the cry “goa…” At that instant Jim hurled himself at the ball, deflecting it onto the post and away to safety. The arms dropped and the cry was stifled.
Leicester 1 Sunderland 2: (1) the jigsaw pieces connecting
The season gets ever closer, so the warm-up games begin to matter, whatever managers tell you about them being all about fitness, not results. So far? Narrow wins, mostly, against modest teams and a defeat to classier opponents (Benfica). Today, we were back to the narrow wins and, for the first of two likely reports, Rob Hutchison offers this thorough assessment …
If any Leicester fan wishes to offer a report, contact Colin Randall at the e-mail address to your left and up a bit …
Just back from Leicester; a few thoughts while they are still freshish.
We appeared to start with near to our strongest team with Campbell alongside Bent, and midfield of Ahmed al Muhammadi, Henderson, Catts, and Steed, with Bramble and Turner centre backs and Ferdinand and Richardson full backs. Brucey looks to fancy this line-up although imminent arrivals hopefully of Mensah and Welbeck may change things. (Mignolet was between the sticks).