Nic Wiseman has worked like a Trojan to help get this series under way, choosing and scanning and sending cracking extracts from It’s The Hope I Can’t Stand, the SAFC fanzine he co-edited in the last 1990s.
Here’s one Nic wrote himself, an entertaining tour of the matchday experience of different areas of the Stadium of Light. So that makes it timeless, too; many, especially those of us swimming in the East Stand Bovril, will relate to his guide years later.
It remains quiet on most fronts, barring the usual transfer speculation about which relegated or Championship player we may be on the point of buying. That was written tongue-in-cheek; Salut! Sunderland is broadly pleased with the activity so far and will be happier still once we can tie up a couple of morale-boosting big signings. And that is the tricky bit because, as Pete Sixsmith put it to me today, they really have to be players who will fit in.
In the meantime, if your interests extend beyond football, there is always plenty to read, like or dislike at the other Salut! sites:
* Salut! – the parent site, mainly to do with France (which Newcastle United are currently doing their best to make enemy territory for SAFC supporters)
* Salut! Live – for lovers of hardcore folk and folk-rock, ie not too many of you I suspect. I’ve just started a Song of the Day series of clips, with the Unthanks, Steeleye Span and the Dubliners leading the way. Sharon Shannon, Kate Rusby, Bob Fox & Stu Luckley and – because I am so open-minded – early Eric Clapton coming soon. If any of that is your kind of music, come to the site and tell me what else to raid YouTube for.
* Salut! North – wallow in nostalgia about growing up in the North East. Lots of it but be warned: nothing has been added for more than two years. Shame on M Salut.
