Andy Falconer: wondering whether we should all give up and follow South Shields
Who are You? may be slowly turning into a family affair. After Wrinkly Pete roped in his Bristol City-supporting nephew, Monsieur Salut does the same with the Boro-supporting part of the Randall clan (my sister has lived in Middlesbrough almost all her adult life). Andy Falconer* grew up close to Ayresome Park. He is bang up to date with comments on Simon Grayson’s saacking – risky for Sunderland, he believes – and expresses a liking for McGeady, Watmore and Catts while naturally thinking no Sunderland player could truly enhance the Boro squad. He sees a bitter scrap at the bottom for us, promotion via the playoffs for his lot …
Phil Clarke, on the far right (not in the Marine Le Pen sense) with, from L-R, the son, James, of his uncle – our own Wrinkly Pete – Pete himself and Phil’s son Red
Pete Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete, writes: Phil Clarke*, is my nephew and, sad to tell, a lifelong Bristol City fan even though his origins, like mine, are in Sunderland. I did my best to persuade Phil to abandon the Robins for the Black Cats last season when he and his youngest son Red made their first ever trip to the Stadium Of Light. Before the match, the family visited the shop where my parents – Phil’s grandparents – met, without which meeting none of them would exist! Best not to dwell on the game itself, as the Lads were Gabbiadinied by Southampton … what follows is a good read made all the better by a wonderful Martin Scott anecdote …
Billy’s favourite awayday: Boro. That’s him, Monsieur Salut-style baldpate, with a scarf that could be ours
Monsieur Salut writes: Billy Grant* talks about his beloved Brentford the way we all wish we could talk about our beloved Sunderland. They’re a joy to watch, he says, and he really does believe they’re on the point of walloping someone (to be fair, he didn’t actually say it would necessarily be us, but given the sorry state of our confidence … ).
I have a soft spot for the Bees since I live only a mile away from Griffin Park when not in France and my younger daughter’s first senior game was for their ladies’ team. I see huge posters for the club on the back of local buses. At least one neighbour gets to most home games.
Read on for another fine, authoritative interview from another fine supporter of proper football. Saw our decline a mile off, considers Terry Butcher maybe the worst manager he’s seen, says Sunderland away is Brentford’s ‘big game’. Brentford away, meanwhile, offers a great awayday/away-weekend and if you are among those likely to be there (I get home from France two days too late) you can follow the links below to see where friendly pubs, plenty of them, are located …
Monsieur Salut says: stand by for a sharp, literate analysis of all that is wrong and the bits that are right about Saturday’s opponents, QPR, and what has gone awry for Sunderland. At least half a dozen headline-worthy phrases leap from Clive Whittingham‘s* answers. Clive, a business and sports journalist, is the editor of a QPR fan site, Loft For Words. I loved his one-line assessment of his club: ‘not big, or that good, but we’ve had some lovely players’.
Of players linked to both clubs, he admires the current but injured captain, Nedum Onuaha – remembered fondly for his wonder goal vs Chelsea for us but not, apparently, a favourite of all Hoops fans – but came close to adding Anton Ferdinand to his ‘worst players’ answer. As for us, he likes Simon Grayson but suspects we’ll end up firing him as the season progresses. Perhaps the kindest way of interpreting his remarks is that he thinks we’re a basket case …
Mark Collard: ‘a friend took this from Sky coverage of the Colchester game I mention in my answers. I am the baldy man with glasses and the moment captured is when Colchester were about to take a penalty but it sums up the day’
And now, Simon Grayson and Sunderland’s search for a point or three, as opposed to a search for a point even lower than reached so far, goes on Saturday to Deepdale, the famous old ground of the equally famous Preston North End with its Bill Shankly, Sir Tom Finney and Alan Kelly stands.
Mark Collard*, our PNE ‘Who are You?’ volunteer, was found at Twitter via Monsieur Salut’s electronic acquaintanceship with the singer and writer Maggie Holland. Mark, whose Twitter profile reads ‘archaeologist. director at Rubicon Heritage Services. PNEFC fan’, welcomes the newly positive Preston style under Alex Neill ‘after the tedium of a lot of the games under Grayson’. He sees our misery continuing with another defeat for the former PNE boss …
Mike Morris: sympathy for the genuine fans, disdain for the walkout brigade
Colin Randall writes: The last time Mike Morris* shared his thoughts with Salut! Sunderland, it was mid-season (2013-14) and he was expecting a 14th top finish for City, bottom place and relegation for us. We drew at their place and then hammered them at home during the marvellous escape act orchestrated by Gus Poyet. They went down.
Mike, editor of the CardiffCity.com fan site, returns now with his team riding with along with Leeds and Wolves at the top of the Championship. He’s made his peace, emotionally, with the owner previously known as Public Enemy Number One, has a sharp dig at Sunderland fans who desert the stadium when things go wrong (music to Wrinkly Pete‘s ears, though his main gripe is with people leaving before the end of any home game) and offers an unwelcome view of the Wear-Tyne pecking order …
Salut! Sunderland: I honestly didn’t expect this to a top-bottom clash but it’s close. Despite the setback at Preston, you must be relishing change to join the Stadium of Light scalp-hunters
Mike Morris: As an eternal pessimist my gut feeling is that we will be come the first side not to get a result at the SoL this year. But my head says that we should be good enough not to lose the game.
Happy man: Gary Clark at the playoff final at Wembley, April 2014
For the second part of Gary Clark‘s* epic replies to Salut! Sunderland‘s questions – in fact not always replies but speeches, so don’t be surprised if the response does not always seem to correspond to the question – we take a long look at the wretched relations between ownership and club. We whinge about Ellis Short; for Hull City supporters, the problems may be deeper. But Gary also has time – lots of it – to exorcise a grudge against Arsenal and Mike Riley …
Colin Randall writes: I’d quite forgotten that when the estimable Hull City-supporting author Gary Clark* does Who are You? interviews, his clear intention is to out-Tolstoy Tolstoy for length. It’s great craic and much appreciated. But the sheer torrent of words forces me, not for the first time (Gary has been this way before), to split the resulting article into a more manageable two parts. In the first, Gary gives his lowdown on relegation, the season’s prospects, Seb and Elmo and the city of Hull’s once-hidden charms …
