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Welcome to Salut! Sunderland.

Or rather, welcome to where Salut! Sunderland used to be. The site has been redesigned and can now be found at http://www.salutsunderland.com.

No further postings will appear here. I will be disabling the Comments field so that anything you wish to say about SAFC, football generally or the site should be said at Salut! Sunderland‘s new address.

There are bound to be teething problems. But if you have landed here and wish to see what is going on at the site, please reset browsers, replace old bookmarks, wave magic wands and hope to be transported to Salut! Sunderland.

***** SALUT! SUNDERLAND *****

Salut! Sunderland has news of its own to announce …

It seems somehow fitting that as the appointment of Martin O’Neill ushers in what we hope will be a successful new era for Sunderland AFC, Salut! Sunderland should also present its new face to the world. It should, with a little luck, make its blushing debut tomorrow (Tuesday Dec 6).

As a reader of newspapers since childhood, and as someone who has written for them for far too long (without ever once thinking of hacking anyone’s phone or bribing a cop), I have lost count of the times I have frowned or worse at redesigns.

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The Sixer's Soapbox

The world saw Pete Sixsmith shaking his head in disbelief, or rather all too familiar belief, at Molineux. If you thought that made for dodgy television, wait until you read what Pete makes of having been present at the chilling reality of one more Sunderland collapse …

Martin O’Neill started to follow Sunderland at about the same time as M Salut and I.

We all worshipped Charlie Hurley, Jimmy McNab, George Mulhall and others of that generation. That side was a good one that failed to establish itself in the top flight because of a dithering board of directors. Our current custodian of the club has acted quickly and has appointed a manager renowned for being successful. What on earth did he make of Sunday?

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image: Addic_tedKevin

M Salut offers some advice to Martin O’Neill on the fines he may wish to consider imposing after yesterday’s defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory at Molineux …

The competition – click here – to come up with a new name for Martin O’Neill column at Salut! Sunderland is still open.

OK, the new manager does not yet know he’s to have one. But whether he chooses to sent out post-match e-mails or rely on simple statements and comments, his thoughts will be distilled on these pages just as Steve Bruce’s were.

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Call it stating the bleeding obvious if you will. Eric Black sends his first and last post-match SAFC e-mail …

Dear Colin,

I thought we deserved to take the lead, but the penalty changed things.

I don’t want to take anything away from Seb [Larsson], though, as he has been fantastic for us.

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This is where Pete Sixsmith captures the glory and shame, hope and despair, excitement and ennui of the Sunderland matchday experience. When, rarely, Pete is absent or delayed, a supersub does it for him and the seven-word verdict is preceded by an asterisk. Pete’s full analysis of the game will usually appear within a day or two.

Today, our new manager Martin O’Neill sat in the directors’ box and watched as Eric Black led the team on the eve of his certain departure from SAFC. Eric knows the score and will probably find work whenever Steve Bruce does, too. Martin knows the score: he has his work cut out to turn a promising if incomplete bunch of players into a team that can build on or defend a lead. OK, the penalty was fortunate but Larsson should have converted it; instead of 2-0, it was 1-1 less than a minute later, and 1-2 soon afterwards as Fletcher returned from an offside position to blast home when set up by O’Hara (who had blatantly handled). Phil Dowd’s way of evening things out; our way, however, of defending appallingly.

The full Sixer’s Sevens archive – see link below – sums up what all Sunderland supporters feel, from darkest gloom to sublime elation, in the words one who is usually there …

Dec 4 2011 Wolverhampton Wanderers (0) 2 SAFC (0) 1 More points sacrificed through weak, sloppy defending

Nov 26 2011 SAFC (1) 1 Wigan Athletic (1) 2 *Bruce’s reign surely over after this debacle. That was M Salut’s verdict, followed by these from Mr Sixsmith: “Shambolic defending spells end for Bruce now”, “He must go after another clueless performance”, “Got what we deserved after brainless display”, “Pressed the self destruct button yet again”, “Second half shocker means Bruce’s time’s up” and finally “Print them all”.

Nov 19 2011 SAFC (0) 0 Fulham (0) 0 Truly appalling game lacking pace, creativity, threat

Nov 5 2011 Manchester United (1) 1 SAFC (0) 0 Decent performance but slipshod defending cost us

Oct 29 2011 SAFC 2 (1) Aston Villa 2 (1) … Determination and effort produced a fair result

Oct 22 2011 Bolton Wanderers (0) 0 SAFC (0) 2 … Team selection vindicated in impressive second half

To see Sixer’s Sevens in full, click here. If an asterisk precedes the comment, the words that follow are the work of someone else because Pete is for once absent from the game or his verdict has been delayed …

Welcome Martin O’Neill. The new manager of Sunderland AFC takes charge with an enormous fund of goodwill from, at a guess, the overwhelming majority of supporters. As results continued to disappoint, Steve Bruce’s post-match e-mails became one of the rods with which he was beaten. Bruce’s Banter has been seen here for the last time. We must wait to see whether O’Neill On Us* – look on it as O’Neill’s Onus if you prefer – is as regular a feature …

So, the new managerial reign begins with the briefest of statements from the incoming boss.

“It’s a very nice feeling to be back in football and to be the manager of Sunderland. It’s a big moment for me. I’d heard about what a good club it was but coming here, seeing the stadium and training ground, I’ve been bowled over. It’s absolutely fantastic.

I hope I can help Sunderland to very successful period. That’s what I’ve come for and that’s my driving ambition.”

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Image: Mrs Logic

Monsieur Salut looks back on a momentous week for all who care about Sunderland AFC …

As I began to write this review of the week, we were a day into the post-Bruce era of Sunderland AFC, three days from an important game at Molineux.

By the time I finished the first draft (these are after thoughts), we were just waiting for official word that Martin ONeill had Been appointed in Steve Bruce’s place. And MoN knows perfectly well what the Sunderland faithful will be hoping he can pull off.

And what a week it has been.

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Image: Psiaki

Years ago, but some months after the changeover from typewriters to computers, a dopey newsdesk man where I then worked surprised colleagues by asking: “Tell me again. How is it that you log on?”

The poor soul was ridiculed. But I quite like dinosaurs.

Perhaps I was alone in warming to Steve Bruce on reading that he barely knew how to send an e-mail until quite recently, and looked completely blank when asked whether the fitness of his Egyptian signing Elmohamady would be affected by fasting during Ramadan. The reporter persisted: “Or is Elmohamady a Coptic Christian rather than a Muslim then?” And Bruce – who might more pertinently have been asked on what footballing grounds Elmo had been bought – looked blanker skill.

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It is not quite official. But all the signs are that Martin O’Neill, famously a boyhood supporter of Sunderland, will soon be confirmed – and not for the first time of asking – as our manager. Pete Sixsmith climbs on to his soapbox to offer a hearty, if premature welcome; Salut! Sunderland readers will probably beat M Salut to the news when it formally comes ..

So it looks as if the heart has won and we are going to appoint Martin O’Neill as the 28th Sunderland manager (including “caretakers”) in my 50 years as a supporter. He joins an auspicious group alongside the likes of Bob Stokoe, Peter Reid and Alan Brown – and also those who had less auspicious times in the Roker/SoL hot seat in Mick Buxton, Ian McColl and Howard Wilkinson.

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