Who is still to come and who may yet go? What will Sunderland’s squad look like come 6pm? Time will …
Pete Sixsmith was inconsolable when Salut! Sunderland, in common with Hello! magazine, lost out to OK in the bidding war for exclusive coverage of Fabio Borini’s Tuscany wedding to Miss Erin O’Neill. Now he makes up for that disappointment, forming the official ‘welcome to the North East’ party as the happy couple plan their new life on or near Wearside. And guess what? Sixer’s recipe for happiness had Erin in stitches (see her retweet below) …
From the splendidly named Oscar Chamberlain at SAFC.com comes official confirmation of the not too well-kept secret. Fabio Borini is a Sunderland player again, and this time he’s ours rather than someone else’s on loan.
Read what we – and you – had to say about it earlier at https://safc.blog/2015/08/liverpools-fabio-borini-we-may-finally-get-our-man-a-good-idea/.
Stop Press: deal done – see new posting
Reports of Fabio Borini’s proposed return to Sunderland have a stronger look today than they ever did when a whole summer seemed to be wasted trying to bring back a player whose heart lay elsewhere.
When the Sunderland Echo says a player is attending the academy for a medical, the fee agreed with his present club, we are entitled to believe it is probably true. The story has gathered more steam as the day has proceeded.
Bob Chapman seems to have had the sort of awayday Monsieur Salut most enjoys (except when there’s the cherry on the cake of a win to make it even better): pre-match pints with John Marshall and the Woods brothers, Mick and Gerard, followed by Sunderland goals to cheer and at least the avoidance of defeat along with the feeling, still weak but growing, that things may indeed be going to get better.
Bob steps up to the Soapbox because Pete Sixsmith took himself off to Wembley for the utterly one-side Leeds Rhinos’ victory over Hull KR (50-0). He draws attention to the highlight of his afternoon, Lizzie Jones’s tearjerking rendition of Abide With Me stirring memories of her husband Danny, the Keighley Cougars and Wales player who died from a heart attack after feeling unwell during a game in May. That was worth reproducing here and I challenge you not to be moved.
Now let Bob describe his day ..
With Pete Sixmsith at Wembley for Rugby League, it was a day for one of those seven-word verdict preceded by …
At this stage of the window it is always a bit suspect treating reports on transfers as gospel. We are getting to that stage where both buying and selling clubs are plying the art of brinkmanship. Selling clubs are hoping that potential purchasers may pay over the odds, whilst those in the market for certain players are hoping that their current clubs are desperate enough to accept cut price terms for those deemed surplus to requirements. There are some players who will only become available if the selling club manages to complete some signings of their own first. Then there are the players and their agents touting around for the best deal possible and playing one club against another. If you are to believe some reports Jonathan de Guzman doesn’t rate Dick Advocaat and so won’t be coming to Sunderland. Until a transfer is officially confirmed I take it all with a pinch of salt. But today Sunderland did complete their fifth signing of the summer (sixth if we include Coates). Pete Sixsmith runs the rule over our new attacker/midfielder signed on loan from Rennes which is also the club we bought a certain other striker from … …
A warm welcome to Ola Toivonen who signed for us today on loan from Ligue 1 outfit Stade Rennes. In our time honoured tradition, we take a look at our new Swedish star.
Just before we get onto transfer talk, the photo gallery is from Martin Bates, one of the Out West supporters who kept Salut! Sunderland in the loop during the pre-season tour.
Welcome back, Stuart Jinks*. Jinksy, as some will remember, is a past winner – first prize no less – of what we now call the HAWAYs – Highly Articulate Who Are You? awards. That was back in 2012 and we thought it would be a good idea to invite him to have another bash. Sharp memories will also recall that despite the chummy picture you see below of Jinksy with Martin O’Neill, he had serious misgiving about MON’s managerial abilities. Oh, and the headline gives his Villa prediction; we’ll be a lot lower but stay up, says Jinksy. Now let the man behind the Villa Boy YouTube channel speak for himself …
Villa fans swimming to these shores must forgive what they would see as the impertinence of the headline – both sets of fans know precisely which is the bigger club*, though the conclusions they reach may well differ – and look forward to the return of Jinksy.
Stuart Jinks, to give him a real name, is an old friend around here, an award-winning Who are You? interviewee and happy to come back with his forthright views whenever asked. We asked and he has delivered. His interview will appear tomorrow (update: see it now at https://safc.blog/2015/08/aston-villa-vs-sunderland-who-are-you-a-tenner-on-finishing-10th/). He has SAFC finishing 17th and feels his anti-MoN views, once a source of controversy, have been vindicated.