Who Are You?

Manchester City v SAFC: ‘what a difference all that dosh makes’

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Kelly's Heroes

… the main difference being that you can now “see a man in blue passing to another man in blue”. Last season, I met a Manchester City fan on holiday in China and he kindly agreed to sit in the hot seat for a Who are You? questionnaire, which appeared just before what turned out to be Mark Hughes’s final match in charge. I returned to the Far East to find a candidate for this Sunday’s equivalent fixture. Peter Kelly* is a regular at the Malaysian hotel where I spent a great week in January, and he even forked out to kit out the hotel staff’s own team, suitably named Kelly’s Heroes. He’s back there now but, before flying off to Penang, did the honours with some smashing answers …

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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Who are You? Mick Quinn’s divided Liverpool and Newcastle loyalties

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Salut! Sunderland casts its net far and wide in search of interesting candidates for the Who are You? series. For today’s return to Premier action – Sunderland v Liverpool – we found Mick Quinn, who grew up on the Kop but had to play his football at downtrodden stadiums in places like Newcastle and Portsmouth. Mick has fully recovered from such adversity and now works for TalkSport, covering football and horseracing. And he was a cracking interviewee. The full Q&A can be seen here but , for those in a hurry who missed it first time round, one or two extracts follow …

Salut! Sunderland In the end, was it right – for Liverpool too – that Torres went?

Yes, I think so. Don’t get me wrong: he is a top quality striker who on the top of his game is the best in the world for me. Just look at some of the goals he has scored. And I have never changed my opinion on that. But for one reason or another, and there were those three ops in 18 months, he was sulking like a big kid because he felt he’d been promised quite a bit by Hodgson on the players he’d bring in but then didn’t. But we’ve brought in two quality strikers so that is a good bit of business in the end.

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SAFC v Liverpool: boy from Kop who proudly wore Newcastle No 9

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‘I’m the real Mighty Quinn’

The star in our Who Are You? hot seat ahead of the sell-out Sunderland v Liverpool clash on Sunday is Mick Quinn, interviewed by phone and text messages. Growing up in Liverpool, this Quinny supported the Reds from the Kop, but had to travel far afield to make a career as a burly, aggressive centre forward. Now a radio presenter with TalkSport, he says his passion is deeper than ever, though three years on Tyneside also left him with lasting affection for Newcastle United …

Salut! Sunderland: Roy Hodgson has gone, Torres too. But is it fair to assume Sunderland will be facing a totally different challenge from Liverpool than when we nearly beat them at Anfield?

Completey different. Everything looks more positive with Kenny putting a smile back on everyone’s faces. Before they were pretty downcast for one reason or another, with players looking as if they were not enjoying it. But they look a completely changed side now.

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Arsenal v SAFC: nothing to match Bergkamp – or the Roker Roar

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Without wishing to start a civil war, we can safely state that when it comes to using the word Gooner, our second Arsenal “Who are You?” previewer, Tony Briggs*, does not quite see eye to eye with our first, Tom Watt. Tony describes himself as a “third generation Gooner” and proves, with his responses, to be a football fan – sorry again, Tom (he dislikes fan, too) – of the old school. Bring back standing, get people to stay to the end of games, end the ubiquitous matchday razzmatazz. Oh, and 3-0 to the Arsenal! …


How shocked were you by the Carling Cup final defeat to Birmingham and what did you make of the Orient replay?

It’s what we come to expect of The Arsenal now, not taking our chances when they mattered; Birmingham did. Orient was a game where there was many empty seats because alot of the fair weather fans made excuses and didn’t show up. Good all round performance and Bendtner and Chamakh getting the goals they needed to boost confidence.

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Dodgy award goes Stoke City’s way

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Each month, if we remember, we make a modest award to the supporter of another club who has impressed most with his or her answers to the “Who are You?” questionnaire …

Salut! Sunderland likes to cause the odd surprise.

Looking back over the “Who are You?” contributions from opposing supporters in February, we were – as often – spoilt for choice.

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Everton v SAFC: musician digs the Blues

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Since M Salut is on the road in France, there isn’t time for much posting of new material before this week’s Who are You? feature which will run tomorrow as we approach the resumption, for Sunderland, of the football season.

But here is a sneak preview of that feature.

Our Evertonian is a pal, Frank Gallagher, known through his forays as a musician into the folkie territory of M Salut’s acquaintance.

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Tottenham Hotspur ‘Who are You?’: forgetting past glories

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Football fans come in different forms. Jim Duggan* has formidable knowledge of and deep love for his club, Tottenham Hotspur. He runs an impressive website, www.topspurs.com, and looks forward, not back to the Spurs golden era, despite powerful respect for the Spurs “holy trinity” … but wild horses wouldn’t drag him to the Stadium of Light for Saturday’s game, and he doesn’t get to WHL these days either. None of which stops him having some strong views on his team and the game generally …

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Stoke Who are You?: ‘dirty, negative jibes are just dull’

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The disappointment of Chelsea must be put firmly behind us. Saturday’s game at Stoke assumes real importance if we are serious about being a top six sort of club. We didn’t get Fuller and they’re still jam-packed with former Sunderland players (and beginning to whinge about the off-on form of one Kenwyne Jones).

Mark Eltringham* – recommended to us as a “wry, bitter, and cynical” City fan whose thoughts sometimes grace the pages of the Stoke Sentinel – provided answers to surely every question you’d expect a Sunderland supporter to throw at Stoke fan and, having predicted a draw (see below), added after this week’s defeat at Liverpool: “I think after tonight, you’re a must win game for us. Not good and the natives are restless.” …

Salut! Sunderland:
Annoying, dirty, negative are among the adjectives I have seen recently to describe Stoke City. Water off a duck’s back or really quite wounding?

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Jimmy Armfield bags prize ahead of Blackpool v Sunderland

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It required a hasty rewriting of Salut! Sunderland‘s rulebook, and comes a little late.

But the latest of our equivalent of the manager-of-the month awards – the Who are You? volunteer for December – goes to Jimmy Armfield, Blackpool legend and one of football’s most revered figures.

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Sorry Notts County – Alex Rae’s back in Sunderland colours

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What a good lad Alex Rae* was and is. A “crowd-pleasing, combative midfielder”, says Wikipedia. I’d prepared the interview with Les Bradd with a sad reference to Alex not responding to a similar request to preview Sunderland’s FA Cup tie at home to Notts Co (he is the assistant manager), but still felt sure he’d get back to me. Which he did. Must have been the Salut! Sunderland Christmas card that did the trick. Here, then, are Alex’s thoughts on SAFC, Rangers, Notts Co, the game and life …

See Les Bradd interview – “the Roker Roar gave me headaches” – by clicking here

Salut! Sunderland: What memories of Sunderland were stirred when you first saw Notts County coming out of the hat to play us in the 3rd round?

I never quite got a chance to say bye to the fans when I left so this will be my first opportunity to see the supporters.

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