Where would Sunderland fit into a spoof list of films that have won or been nominated for Oscars?
Some fun has been had on this very subject by the people at enhancedbets.com: Leicester’s Gone With the Wins (sadly for us, a sequence than came to a halt earlier this week) and poor Bob Bradley remembered as An American in Swansea.
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David Moyes’s Lads might qualify for their own version of this year’s best-film winner – La La Land, sorry Moonlighting – since they must have been up to something away from work to explain their wretched under-achievement in the day jobs. And then we see that Suicide Squad won best make-up and hair styling (you honestly couldn’t make up some of our play, or Ndong’s hair for that matter).
Which leads us to Craig McGinty*, a Sunderland-educated Manchester City fan without whose expertise on websites Salut! Sunderland would never have been created. Back in 2008, Craig was the fist City supporter to grace our Who are You? series. It seemed about time to ask him back …
Jake: ‘no mind-expanding drugs were taken in the making of this design’
Monsieur Salut writes: on quiet days, two thoughts cross the mind: one of relief that Sunderland are not playing, therefore cannot lose, and a second on what to put on the site to stop interest flagging. The slack times would be unimportant if our readers generally had the habit of dipping into a substantial archive of material accumulated since Salut! Sunderland breathed its first in early 2007. They do not.
Perhaps we need to give more thought on how to make historical items attractive and easy enough to look up. We were better at this in the past, but much of the ‘furniture’, the links that appear in the sidebar column to the right as you look at this page, vanished either when the site crashed under cyber-attack a while ago or when our much-missed web guru Sam later sorted out lingering problems.
Let me introduce Ten Years After, not the ancient rock band but a new category to accommodate articles from 10 years ago that may still have merit, whether because they have historical interest or because they may stir memories or simply entertain. Our associate editor John McCormick, has other ideas for doing more to alert today’s readers to what Salut! Sunderland has got up to and these will be implemented where possible.
Ten Years After starts with a piece that first appeared about but not exactly 10 years ago, ie on Feb 22 2007, and looked at some rotten refereeing decisions of what was, already in 2007, the past. I will make minor tweaks to take account of the passage of time. You may have better examples from before or since …
Jake: catch Sixer’s instant seven-word verdicts throughout the season
Monsieur Salut writes: At half time, Sunderland having defended reasonably well without offering a threat to the Everton goal, went behind when Fabio Borini failed to track back and a swift move down the right ended up with the ball in the back of the net. Pete Sixsmith, suffering at Goodison, felt there was ‘no way back’. There were signs of better in the second. SAFC won a corner after Defoe hit the bar and – you guessed – the ball went straight down the field and Lukaku made it two from a one-to-one on Jordan Pickford. Prepare for a push for promotion …
Everton away: will Jake’s snap verdict be a happy one?
Monsieur Salut interrupts the usual business of trying to get heating, hot water, internet and the rest working again in France to announce the return of Guess the Score after the recent, perhaps merciful break from premier League action. No Anichebe, sadly, but if Oviedo, Gibson, Pienaar and Rodwell are available, David Moyes’s faith in former Everton players may be about to be put to a stiff test …
The recent double-prize edition of Guess the Score attracted no correct entries, which is not surprising since few of us seriously hoped for a 4-0 win at Crystal Palace and even fewer feared we’d then surrender by the same margin at home to Southampton.
So as we launch the competition for the game at Everton, we can be excused for wondering which Sunderland to expect to turn up this time.
The Observer asked fans of the bottom seven clubs to say who would go down and who would survive. Perhaps to no great surprise, all seven – our own Pete Sixsmith included – said Sunderland would drop. Pete did allow for another possible great escape but without much confidence. Everyone apart from the Palace supporter thought they were doomed, too, with the votes for the third team divided between Hull, Boro and Leicester .
Only last June, Salut! Sunderland recorded the sad loss of Bill Richardson, a long-time Wearside exile who remained a passionate supporter of the club he left behind in a country he never revisited. He retired only in 2015 but died last summer apparently after suffering a stroke … the little piece that appeared at the time of his death is reproduced below, for its own sake and also in the hope of jogging someone’s memory.
We have just received the following message from Lilian Martin, Bill’s friend and colleague and – as you will see by scrolling down – a woman with her own historical connection to Sunderland:
“Here’s hoping you can possibly help with the following which I received via Facebook from a chap who used to work with Bill Richardson. Sadly, Tina (Bill’s wife) has also passed away. Bill’s daughter is the sole beneficiary in his will now and no one knows where she is. It is possible that she may be living in Sunderland again.”
This is the message:
We are urgently looking for Victoria Maria Richardson (maiden name?), daughter of William Graham Richardson, originally from the Sunderland area of the UK.
Could anyone who knows her or knows of her whereabouts please ask her to contact me via email at this address or by phone at +27823364357
Monsieur Salut wrote: the old ones are not always the best, but our current plight – described with melancholy beauty in Pete Sixsmith’s report of Sunderland 0-4 Southampton – and the poor health suffered by a friend prompted me to dig out this piece, first published in November 2008.
The original article began with some references to racist behaviour, happily rare and irrelevant to today’s situation, so I will skip them here. The rest seems all too applicable now, though I have slightly edited it.
Fill in the gaps from your own experiences (mass walk-outs, instant social media responses etc have become features of some supporters’ lives since this posting first appeared) of following SAFC through thick, thin and thinner. And please get better Graham Noble, friend, former colleague and the subject of the final anecdote …
After the great win at Crystal Palace was followed by a crushing home defeat to Southampton, Sunderland fans typically divided into two familiar camps: loyal belief in another great escape and, inevitably, grim resignation. Alex McMahon tries to see positives despite an underwhelming transfer window and the failure to build on the Palace result …
John McCormick: We’re bottom but the gap’s closing
When I last reported in with the Salut Sunderland relegation watch we had had some recent wins but were still in the relegation zone, along with Swansea and Hull. (Swansea weren’t one of the clubs chosen in our start-of season poll but I included them in December on the grounds that some people did vote for “another club” and they had begun to fit that bill after a decline).
That was just before Christmas, not long before the transfer window opened, and just around the time struggling clubs might decide a new manager might help them take advantage of it. Now, with all that business done (free agents notwithstanding) it’s time to take stock before we head to the end of season crunch games, six pointers and desperation sackings that define the struggle for 39 points.
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