Sunderland

Putting the 5-0 hammering by Celtic ‘in context’. We have a winner, plus Derby buildup

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After the final pre-season friendly ended, appropriately in cricket season, with Celtic declaring on five for none, a sports journalism graduate called Paul Nicholson caused amusement at Twitter with his plea for the result to be put into context.

Celtic were ahead of us in preparations, he argued with extraordinary generosity towards players who collected lots of twos, threes and fours in the ratings awarded by North-eastern sportswriters. Why, they had even “played competitive games”.

So what I took to be Paul’s charity provided the inspiration for a little competition. And you, the readers, provided the inspiring responses. Paul himself has now responded, too, saying that contrary to my assumption, he is not a Sunderland fan and that his comments would appear more charitable still if we were aware of his actual allegiance (clue? based in N***ast*e).

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Robbin Ruiter signs: best news of Sunderland’s transfer window so far?

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Source: Wikipedia

Those attending, and others reading about, the pre-season friendlies in which Robbin Ruiter played for us in goal can voice only satisfaction and relief that he is now a Sunderland player.

No one should damn Jason Steele on the basis of one rotten performance (vs Celtic). There were others in the team that day, notably Lamine Kone, who struggled to reach more than 2/10 in post-match ratings.

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The Sunderland vs Derby County ‘Who are You?’: a man in the know

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Nick Britten: not really as handsome as he seems. And his wife, charming as she is, likes the colour of the shirt stripes

Monsieur Salut writes:
Nick Britten* has written a column for the Derby County matchday programme for 16 years. I think we both wrote for our respective club programmes about the time he rescued me from the A38 (update: oops – Nick corrects me and says it was the A50, and he should know) after the Sunderland SAFCSA London branch’s dozy coach driver got us all stuck in the not-very-hard shoulder mud on the way back from the Old Trafford FA Cup semi-final vs Millwall.

Oh, and he married a Mag. Read on for a knowledgeable Derby fan’s view of how his team and ours stand at the start of the new season, his thoughts on Grayson and his predicted scoreline for the opening game at the SoL on Friday night (maybe skip that bit) … but all in all, a great start to the 2017-2018 Who are You? series

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Sunderland’s Championship prospects – and a controversial view of Grabban

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Source: SAFC at Facaebook

Salut! Reflections has developed into a corner of Salut! Sunderland for outsiders, not usually supporters of SAFC. The contributions range from blandly stating the obvious to offering interesting or pertinent points about the progress or lack of it of our club. Even after heavy editing, those in the former category struggle to shine.

This is at the higher end, more imaginatively written, up to date and opinionated. Since we are assured the author, William Sundin, is a media production graduate from Sunderland University, there may be a good reason for that. What we certainly hope to be true is that his failure to see the qualities of Lewis Grabban reflects his shortcomings, not the player’s …

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After Celtic drubbing, should we bet on promotion or avoidance of relegation?

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Jake: ‘how much are we all putting on a home win to start the season?’

Monsieur Salut writes: what were our honest expectations for the coming season on, say, Friday night? And 24 hours later, after SAFC 0-5 Celtic? Did they dip still lower after hearing Darron Gibson’s unwisely expressed assessment of the true level of commitment among the players at Simon Grayson’s disposal? Too many questions. Let’s see how an outsider views our prospects …


After a disastrous 2016-2017 season, Sunderland face a difficult test in the Championship.

Having ended last season with only six wins and six draws in 38 Premier League matches, producing a measly of 24 points, the club has been focused on strengthening the squad in the summer transfer window.

The original idea may have been to find a side capable of gaining promotion once again to the Premier League. Unless the humiliation of Saturday’s final pre-season friendly proves a blip, the sights may now need to be lowered.

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Lens absent as Sunderland manage only a draw at Scunthorpe

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Jake: ‘will I recognise anyone when we play Derby?’

Pete Sixsmith was at Glanford Park for Scunthorpe United 0-0 Sunderland. “As inspiring as an Ed Sheeran album” was his slightly harsh (but on whom?) seven-word verdict.

What matters was not so much one pre-season performance as the arrival of more new players and the absence of another.

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Thanks for the memories, Tommy Sorensen. Stoke, Aston Villa fans may agree

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From Tommy’s Facebook page during a long post-SAFC charity bike marathon in the USA

Pete Sixsmith bids a fond farewell to Thomas Sorensen, a great Sunderland goalkeeper of recent times, as he puts away his gloves and enters retirement (from playing at any rate) …

Thomas Sorensen announced his retirement today, ending a distinguished career that has taken him from Denmark via Wearside, Birmingham, the Potteries and Australia’s second city, Melbourne, where he finally hung up his gloves.

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Vito Mannone’s proud, emotional farewell to Sunderland (fans) as he joins Reading

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Vito: the sweetest of parting messages …

The news that Vito Mannone was leaving came as Sunderland prepared for the friendly win at Hartlepool. In itself, it was not surprising; nor, given our club’s wretched history in the transfer market in recent years, has been the realisation that we did not appear to have had anyone lined up. With the start of the season so close, that might have seemed a given  but then this is SAFC.

Mannone himself leaves after four years with heaps of goodwill. That penalty shoot-out save at Old Trafford that took us to a Wembley final stands out. So do his heroics in a number of vital survival games.

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