Who Are You?

Man City, Arsenal, Villa, Wolves vie for ‘Who are You?’ awards

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Published by Octopus, co-sponsors of our Who are You? awards

Another update on this year’s “Who are You?” awards from Salut! Sunderland, with news of an extra prize to add to the goodies already promised by our friends, who happily include a Sunderland supporter, at When Saturday Comes …

WSC: co-sponsors of the Who are You? awards

This is the contest that will not change the winners’ lives. Or not much.

Each year Salut! Sunderland judges choose the best contributions from opposing supporters to our “Who are You?” series, the questionnaire that precedes each SAFC game home or away, league or cup, provided we can find someone which, with one sad exception involving Stoke City, is generally the case.

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Winners from other sides, and those dreaded end-of-term reports

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When Saturday Comes: ‘Who are You?’ award sponsors

Don’t know about you, but I do not recall with pleasure those occasions when school report cards were due to be issued and taken home. We’ll have to wait and see how the Salut! Sunderland panel dispenses the Well Dones, Not Good Enoughs and Could do Betters. But there’s a prize day coming, too …

Salut! Sunderland will, of course, keep going throughout the close season. The output will not match what you have come to expect when the team is playing, but we will continue to look for ways of informing or entertaining the large army of readers who come here because they support SAFC or because, no matter who they follow, they appreciate at least some of what we try to do.

And there is unfinished business that has become traditional.

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West Ham v Sunderland: ‘what did Bruce do to our worldbeating McCartney?’

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A meaningless end-of-season match, a pointless edition of “Who are You?”? … Only in the sense that they’re down and we’re safe. Beyond that, Sunderland have masses of pride to play for – we cannot finish lower than 14th but 14th would represent failure – and Steve Bruce’s team should want to preserve their one notable achievement: unbeaten in London. For their part West Ham players have to show their fans they care about restoring the club to the Premier. And we close this season’s series on a high, with the Hammers-supporting writer and broadcaster Iain Dale*, who also runs the West Ham Til I Die blog. He is optimistic about a quick return, sees us as a similar club that will always collapse into dire runs and eulogises the surely departing Scott Parker …

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Sunderland v Wolves: Mackem and Gold, Mickey Gray and Will

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This makes a fascinating change for the “Who are You?” series: the answers come from an opponent’s hosuehold- but a Mackem’s voice. Jo Nicholls* is married to Andy, who is a moderator at the excellent Wolverhampton Wanderers fan site Molineux Mix . Andy is a past prizewinner, both in our annual honours and in one of those Who are You-of-the-month awards. Jo will be there with the family on Saturday and, whatever it means for her beloved’s beloveds, she needs no encouragement to pray for a Sunderland win. And she has a great Mickey Gray story …


You’re a Mackem married to a Wolfie: how did that happen and do you always have to end up in the Wolves end at games?

Bad luck I suppose! Not really – he’s alright for a bloke with a funny accent! We met in Edinburgh when working about 20 years ago. I didn’t realise what I was letting myself in for – I wasn’t the greatest follower of sport but that soon changed (love does strange things). We eventually married, moved around the country a bit before settling in sunny Wolverhampton – the furthest you can get from the sea in the UK – different to days spent down Seaburn! As for where I sit – well I don’t really have much choice really as we treat the football as a family day out and the other 3 are gold and black – I just humour them and go along with it!

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Bolton ‘Who are You?’: Trotters, rollercoasters and sympathy for refs

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Howard Page, in his band The Menu

Bolton Wanderers have had the sort of season we might have expected, in terms of position and – the Wembley humiliation notwithstanding – progress in the FA Cup. Now they have pride to play for while we are scrapping for a point or two to be absolutely safe. Howard Page* offered some months ago to be our candidate for some questions ahead of this game as we were only too pleased to remind him; Howard would accept bookings for his band to return the favour …

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SAFC v Fulham: ‘let’s hear it for Johnny Haynes’

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Especially for those outraged by our lapse from republican values, to the extent of running a spoof wedding vows item, it’s straight back to normal business. Late, almost too late, came this gem: a second Fulham “Who are You?”, this time from David Lloyd, editor of the fan site There’s Only One F In Fulham …

Salut! Sunderland: You drew against one relegation struggler at the weekend, we finally won against another. A good time or bad time for us to have you up at the Stadium of Light?

We played well at Wolves but were suckered by them scoring with their first attack of note (after 20 minutes) and needed a late leveller having had several chances. Against Bolton in midweek we should have scored five or six (we won 3-0) and were brilliant going forward. If we play to that tempo you could be in trouble!

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Wigan ‘Who are You?’: eating pies, fighting relegation, hailing Three Amigos

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We’re going early with this week’s “Who are You?”. It would be easy to say this was because it is such an important match that it was high time to stop carping about what has made it so. The more humdrum reason: I’m away in Italy today and will have my work cut out on Thursday. My thanks to Kieran Heapy, otherwise known as HeapyLatic on Wigan Athletic sites – including his own, Pie Eaters Footie* and the one through which we found him, This Northern Soul – for saving poor old Salut! Sunderland award-winning Bernard Ramsdale from having to do it again for the umpteenth time …

Salut! Sunderland: I hoped the tone of this question would have needed changing after last weekend, but not so. Can there be any Premier team you’d rather have to play than us just now?

It would be Blackpool, even though we have just played them, they are the team that are currently on the slide. They look very much like Burnley did last season, started well but second half of the season they have been found out and teams can stop them playing. Saying that you still have to be on top of the game, there really haven’t been any easy games this season, and any win has to be very well fought for.

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Birmingham City v SAFC: Bruce out, Villa down, says our Bluenose

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Since Steve Bruce writes to us so often, he must be a regular reader and have seen the odd bit of praise and support as well as the brickbats. This one, though, is not for him: John Baker*, who runs a USA-based photographic tours company, is a Birmingham City fan with his own unflattering analysis of our manager, once theirs. He also reckons SuperKev will score against us on Saturday, but allows for the possibility of Sunderland getting three in reply …


A few weeks ago, this fixture would have had a different look, you warding off relegation worries, us looking towards Europe. What now: a home banker?

I’d like to think so, but it depends on which McLeish and Bruce team shows up on the day. Brum appear to have pulled away from their post League Cup doldrums, while Sunderland, although free-falling right now, have managed some results without the valuable services of one Darren Bent, I wish you’d have kept him as the Villa would have been all but relegated without him by now!

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SAFC v West Brom: a tale of two Kevs

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We will all have found ways of trying to blot the memory of Sunday from our minds, but I was still thinking about the gruesome nature of our Eastlands capitulation when I went to Marseille last night, not for a Ligue 1 game but – as old folklies do – to see Joan Baez. What would really work for many of us would be the sort of pulsating performance, against West Brown on Saturday, that we haven’t really seen since Chelsea away. WBA arrive with bags of confidence after a robust display against Liverpool. We are what we are, and it’ll probably be a nervy affair whichever way it goes.
Salut! Sunderland is grateful to Chris Lepkowski*, the Birmingham Mail‘s West Brom writer, for agreeing to answer the customary “Who are You” questions. But reading his thoughts on SuperKev made me yearn for a vanished era of prolific goalscoring at the SoL …

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Man City v SAFC: Trautmann to Tevez – a true fan speaks

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From the Man City museum

A “grand read”, said Pete Sixsmith of our Manchester City “Who are You?” interviewee’s replies to the Salut! Sunderland questions. “Shows the way that the vast majority of football supporters share the same emotion,” said Phil Johnson. “It was a delight to hear Peter Kelly’s views here. They were those of a proper football fan, the likes of who seem to be in declining number these days,” added Jeremy Robson. So who is Peter Kelly?

Well, he is the second City fan I have got to know because of holidays taken in the Far East. Last year in China I met Dan Wild who agreed to sit in the hot seat for a match that turned out to be Mark Hughes’s final one in charge. For today’s equivalent fixture, I turned to Peter*, a regular at the Malaysian hotel where I spent a great week in January. I heard about him while there; the kind Brit who had dug into his own pockets to kit out the hotel staff’s own team, suitably named Kelly’s Heroes. He’s back there just now but, before flying off to Penang, obliged with these deservedly praised answers which merit a second run …

Salut! Sunderland: We beat you with that late penalty earlier this season but what was Carlos Tévez thinking of when he missed that fabulous early chance?

… that he had already scored is my guess. He does miss quite a few, but gets back into position time and again and doesn’t fret. All great goalscorers do that.

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