Niall Quinn is a passionate man, as events over the past week have shown.
Salut! Sunderland remains surprised by his use of the D word – despise – to describe how he felt about fans who stay away from the Stadium of Light to watch illegal live broadcasts in the pub. But it is no surprise at all that he has presented his case in emotional terms – see our original item here – to the extent of saying his own future commitment to the club may be at stake.
The debate attracted some superb responses here last week, and enabled us to find a good use for a couple of complimentary tickets that had come our way (for a spot of do-goodery, though that is all we can say about it).
For those who missed the posting on Saturday, the tickets went to Alan Hedley, Seaburn-born, much-travelled and lifelong supporter. His comment was judged – by M Salut, who had no time to consult anyone else – the best received since the tickets went up for grabs.
It was reproduced at this link but, to save you having to look back, read:
“Niall is a believer, he has shown commitment and durability in lifting our club from the depths of ignominy to a respectable position, thus far, in a season where, once again, we have been beset by injury. He has, through his contacts, engineered the initial bail out and then a more stable and committed angel to support the club’s resurgence. In addition he has finally attracted a manager who is making a half decent fist of the job, for the first time, since that endearing reprobate Peter Reid who gave us back a taste for greater things and then lost his way without adequate backing from the then board.
All the soundly based arguments, both for and against, are of little relevance, for one reason alone and that is that Niall is Irish. A wild and joy filled race who love to party, drink, fight, argue or if your prefer it debate but most of all chatter with a relish often saying whatever comes into their mind at a given moment in time.
For many in the Isle of Green tact is not a long suit and of all the people who sit in a seat of power few can have been relied upon more than Quinny to speak out, when discretion would require that he maintain, in public, a discreet silence. Time and again he has discussed the spending power available to the club, when any negotiator would know that the last thing you want to do is let the vendor know how much you can spend.
The faux pas de Quinn is a fundamental part of his nature and is as much a part of his character as breathing. The saying love me, love my dog, is the only way any serious Sunderland supporter can view our hero because, like it or not, he will not change, indeed if he did he would not be the person so many of us respect, warts and all. No matter what any of us say, or think, we will not change Niall Quinn, he is his own man and by now there should be little doubt that whatever his areas of weakness may or may not be, his heart is in the right place.”
I suspect Niall would rather like that, too. He’d certainly like the fact that although Alan’s tickets, for self and wife Sue (first picture; the others are just random images from the day), were free, the Hedleys had to drive all the way from Warwickshire – not Oxfordshire as previously stated (his phone number has a Banbury, Oxon code) – to be at the stadium to use them.
Just a shame the Lads couldn’t muster a win to make Alan’s day.
Monsieur Salut
6000 for Wigan v Bolton last night in the FA Cup sort of puts into perspective, I think
He has also got to realize that people are fighting to keep in a job and with inflation rising with no pay rise how are people meant to get to games. Had a season ticket last year could not renew as wife made redundant but of course he just sees the figures of the crowd, so rather than not supporting at all I will watch online until the money becomes available to me to go and cheer the lads on again.
With the size of attendances at the SoL that we are getting regularly. he really ought to consider himself lucky when he sees the size of attendance elsewhere.
Aye, must be a tad frustrating for both Brucie and Quinny, seems that every time we answer the rally call and get more people to go we play a shade below par, took my old dad at the weekend and the second half was pretty poor, some good stuff in the first half though.