In 13th place this morning, Sunderland cannot finish lower. That’s a relief, but hardly an outstanding end to the season.
Sunderland
Racing for glory: Wolves, Hull and Birmingham’s dark horses
A late contender has surfaced in our Who Are you? awards. He supports Birmingham City but was not on the original shortlist. So he could be either Kevin Ball
– their Kevin Ball (left), not ours, and living in Devon – or he could be Leigh Bosworth
from the Yorkshire Bluenoses. Or, in the spirit of the age, someone could get most of the votes but still not win anything …
Nathalie makes amends for supporting Liverpool
Nathalie, as I have said before, has failed me as a daughter.
Knowing full well, Fulwell even, how important Sunderland are in my life, she only went and chose to support Liverpool. Something to do with fancying John Barnes, I always reckoned.
Jody Craddock on caps, cheats and Wolves chants
Try even harder to forget politics, delve deeper into Jody Craddock’s world of painting and you meet some interesting people (Ricky Hatton, the boxer, is shown here with Jody’s portrait of him). Take a look at his gallery*. In the first part of the last – and rather special – Who Are You? of the season, we heard about Jody’s time at Sunderland. Click here if you missed it. Now let’s see what he thinks about diving, his own preferences in art and the likely outcome of Sunday’s game. And what about the World Cup and the absence of England caps in Jody’s cv? …
Salut! Sunderland: Do you look out for our results?
Jody:
I look out for everyone’s results, even more so those that have a direct effect on Wolves also.
Who are you? We’re Wolves – Jody Craddock speaks (1)
Colin Randall writes: election day and we probably all deserve a break. Let us turn away from Brown, Cameron and Clegg, think about Sunday’s last game of the Premier League season …. and welcome Jody Craddock*.
** **
Jody served Sunderland well, earning the lasting affection of our supporters before moving on. At Wolverhampton Wanderers he has been a pivotal figure in getting the club up and keeping them up and won effusive praise recently for a man-of-the-match display against Stoke. He has also continued to develop his gift for painting. Salut! Sunderland was honoured that he was willing to answer questions – set by Pete Sixsmith, me and subscribers to the Blackcats e-mail list – ahead of that final game: Wolves v SAFC. Here’s part one …
PART ONE
Salut! Sunderland: What is your view of the reasons for things going wrong after Sunderland’s two seventh place finishes under Peter Reid?
When safc finished 7th twice I feel it was all about balance with the majority of the team being British and a scattering of quality foreign players. The following seasons before we got relegated I feel the balance wasn’t quite right. Vague I know, but we were all to blame as we didn’t play well enough.
Soapbox: miserable May memories of Thatcher, Palace and Stoke
Salut! Sunderland naturally observes strict political neutrality in everything it says, does and feels. If, for example, we wanted to say we’d seen the play Enron last night and thought how nice it was to watch this warm portrayal of Mr Cameron’s natural allies, we’d keep such impudent notions to ourselves. Nor would we dream of adopting Oysterband’s brilliant phrase from an earlier election (“We voted Labour but didn’t inhale”). But
Pete Sixsmith has a soapbox and what’s a soapbox for but spouting a spot of rhetoric? His column, therefore, is not for the faint-hearted – and that’s just the bit about the football despair May can bring …
Very soon now, we will be on our way to electing a new government of whatever persuasion. Will it be red, will it be blue, will it be yellow, will it be yellow and blue, will it be yellow and red, will it be red and blue? What if we are colour blind? All will be decided on Thursday night.
Footballers are not supposed to be interested in politics. Some show their allegiance openly – Lampard has declared himself a dyed in the wool Tory (so there’s another reason to dislike him), while James Beattie supports the Eton Boys because they don’t believe in taxing those earning astronomical amounts of money – they will raise money by reducing tax credits instead.
Fair or foul – the trashing of a Manchester United old boy?
A clumsy fall harshly punished, or an attempt to cheat his old mates? What do Salut! Sunderland readers think about the moment Phil Bardsley went down in the penalty box? …
Over at the Republik of Mancunia site, with which we had good relations in the build-up to Sunday’s game, a lot of people have been having a go at Phil Bardsley.
Sunderland 0 Manchester United 1: a hung parliament
A disappointing result. But was it a disappointing performance? The parliament of Sunderland fans is divided …
The mood on platform two of Sunderland’s charmless station, a strong contender for any worst mainline terminus award, was not quite the same as it had been in row 30 of the East Stand.
Tomorrow, and sounding off to Manchester
The Republik of Mancunia came calling, and these were the questions and my responses. We covered Keano, ticket allocation, Jonny Evans and much more besides. Pete Sixsmith’s answers would have different in several places, and I was almost certainly too kind …
Scott the Red: Sunderland are currently six places higher than where they finished last season. Which player has been your best in helping you achieve that?
Simply no contest. Without Darren Bent’s goals we’d be in trouble. No opponents, however grand, can rely on him not to score and to say, as some do, that he has no game beyond scoring goals is to overlook the function of the striker.