Warm Swansea welcome turns fiery. It’s The Hope Pete Cannot Stand

Jake: Gus says keep the faith
Jake: Gus says keep the faith

Come along before the match and join us for drinks and titbits at the Globe, 10 minutes from the ground on foot, said Jim White, a force behind the splendid Swansea fans’ part-ownership of their club and the Swansea supporters’ site SCFC2.


Pete Sixsmith couldn’t make it,
Shildon vs Durham City being a long way from the Globe. Monsieur Salut overcame even greater geographical obstacles and made it all the way from Saint-Tropez or thereabouts. He wished he’d been at Shildon’s game until Sixer informed him belatedly it ended in defeat (his previous texted scoreline, 2-2, having been misread as a result). But he did enjoy the craic at the Globe …

This is what each of the old codgers had to say:

Sixer at The Observer:

In the 50 years before I started watching Sunderland, they had four managers. In the 50 years since, they have had 24. Sometimes the past looks a lot better than the present.

Of those 25, only Alan Brown, Bob Stokoe and Peter Reid have given us the merest sniff of long-term success and stability. the likes of Lawrie McMenenmy, Terry Butcher and Howard Wilkinson were unmitigated disasters. And to that latter list, add Paolo Di Canio, who certainly lived up to his ‘management by hand grenade’ image. Fans were confused by him – he had good ideas and passion, but his tactics and team selections were baffling.

And now we move into the Poyet era. he certainly has a clearer picture now of the squad he has inherited from Bruce, O’Neill and Di Canio. We were neat and tidy for 45 minutes without ever threatening, then totally collapsed as soon as Swansea scored. We’re now in serious danger of being cast adrift – and there’s the small matter of the Wear-Tyne derby next week.

As always, we live in hope. But it gets harder and harder to keep believing.


Join the Salut! Sunderland Facebook group – click anywhere along this line



And follow us on Twitter: @salutsunderland … click along this line

Click anywhere on this sentence for a glance at the home page – and highlights of all the most recent articles …

Jake flags the new feature allowing you to have your say on topic or off
Jake flags the new feature allowing you to have your say on topic or off

Fancy leaving a comment? Not sure what you have to say fits this post? Go to the new feature – https://safc.blog/2013/07/salut-sunderland-the-way-it-is/ – and say it there.

And M Salut, making his Sunderland debut on returning from France, had this to say at ESPNFC.com:. See the full article – From Saint-Tropez to Swansea to share Poyet’s nightmare – at http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/2235?cc=5739

Sad to relate, Bardsley’s unconverted sitter was quickly followed by examples of Swansea cutting open the Sunderland defence even before the first goal went in. By the end of the game, after yet another example of Craig Gardner’s now obligatory penalty box rashness conceded the penalty that put the outcome beyond lingering doubt, Sunderland had been humiliated; at times, in the closing minutes, they even appeared to be playing for time.

And for all that, it might have been so different. The first half was even, with a half chance at both ends and Poyet’s team, with Lee Cattermole a useful midfield toiler, thoroughly deserved to end it on level terms.

The new boss will have gleaned a lot from the manner of the later embarrassing collapse. Indeed, Poyet has already said he saw plenty to give him food for thought. “As a manager you learn a lot from watching your players on the pitch,” he said in post-match comments. “You can see which ones turn it up a gear and which ones put their heads down after conceding a goal.

Look out for the Chapman Report on the match and day out, Salut! Sunderland‘s supersub for Sixer’s Soapbox.

7 thoughts on “Warm Swansea welcome turns fiery. It’s The Hope Pete Cannot Stand”

  1. Hopeless midfield unit no where near enough quality or commitment, hopeless defence no where near enough quality and a very average attack that gets very little support form either defence or midfield.

    You could have stated this three seasons ago and changing manager every nine months is not the solution. When I saw Poyet’s team selection for Saturday I feared for the worst, but was pleasantly surprised by the first 45. Neat tidy football, but not really a threat and when we did get into good positions invariably the wrong choice was made.

    Second half disaster, but what really do we expect we have seen this season after season and if we insist in keeping the same core of players who have been under performing for seasons now the result will inevitably the be same.

    This of course was not the plan and the summer influx of players was supposed to change the team mix. However this it would appear has largely been a disaster of biblical proportions, with the new signings struggling to establish themselves and SAFC retaining way too many of the ‘old guard’.

    As highlighted by others our Italian scouts appear to have messed up big time. Can’t honestly see anything but relegation and rebuilding (yet bloody again) in the Championship, whole sale summer clear out required. I would love to see Poyet turn it around but you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

    We have quite clearly over the last several seasons signed far too many players who are not good enough/been in too many relegation scraps/ or are simply journeymen. These players do not have the mental strength or ability to claw their way out of the mire that we are in.

    We quite plainly do not have the required quality, commitment or aptitude to survive in the PL, simple as that. The collapse after the first goal was quite frankly gut wrenching. Better put the young the lads on and get them used to each other for the promotion push next season and get our overpaid, under worked old guard out to grass on off the payroll.

  2. Neil. 18 points accumulated over the course of 2013. It’s a shame that it isn’t at least March. The agony would soon be over. We are staring humiliation in the face and 6 months of sheer misery. There is nothing that can be done by any living soul with the complete and utter shite that we have been encumbered with over the summer. The two so called scouts should be chained to some stocks outside The Wheatsheaf at 1-30pm before our next home game.

  3. Hoped for a point. Didn’t expect a kicking. Bardsley better than Celutska? Really? How many pens has Gardner conceded? Must be a record? Need two wins from next two games or mathematics will suggest we’re in trouble. Winning 13 from 28 is highly unlikely. Qi was missed. Don’t have many alternatives to partner Catts. Felt sorry for Westwood…..and more so for travelling fans…heroes one and all. Ho hum!

  4. He may have learned a great deal about his players after yesterday. Unfortunately this lame set of largely gutless, and frankly useless individuals (with only a few exceptions) are what he is stuck with due to the incompetence of the two Italian scouts who seem to have got off lightly for their failings so far.

    Out of 14 arrivals only Giacherrini could be described as “good,” with most of them not even making the bench. Our 6M striker has a record of 35 PL games with a tally of a solitary goal. It’s abysmal quite frankly.

    • Our last three managers spent between them roughly £20 million on Wickham (Bruce),Graham(O’Neill) and Altidore (Di Canio/De Fanti). It just sums us up, non of them can or will score enough goals to keep us in this division and that’s before we get to the defence. Defence? Plead insanity ! In my thinking we could have probably got two Defoe like strikers for that £20 million who would have scored a fair few .Saying that if we did we would have sold them at the first opportunity and there lies our problem an endless circle of stupid transfers in and out.

      • For one reason or another, Jones, Cisse, Bent, Gyan, and even Bendtner have left . All better than Altidore, Borini and injury prone Fletcher.

Comments are closed.

Next Post