So what is Djibril feeling this morning? Anguish at Olympique de Marseille’s spectacular failure last night – losing 3-1 at home to Lyon (see it below) and now looking unlikely French champions – or a told-you-so thought or two about OM’s stupidity in not having kept him to be sure of success?

Amid the debris of OM’s weekend, I came across the name of Anthony Le Tallec, who scored twice for Le Mans in their game against OM’s rivals for the title, Bordeaux. Le Mans still lost 3-2 and remain a bit like us, nervously looking over their shoulders at the bottom three places.

But Le Tallec – pictured at the French football blog Pleine Lucarne – obviously has something we saw little of at Sunderland since he also got a goal for Le Mans a few weeks ago against Lyon. I stand to be corrected* but remember only one for us (against Fulham in our solitary home win when we last went down); three in a month or so against top three sides, albeit in France, suggests a man who knows where the goal is.

* And have just been corrected. At the Blackcats forum, Terry McLoughlin tells me he scored three League goals, one FA Cup goal and one League Cup goal for us. Mick Gouldings adds: “Actually, I believe he was top scorer, or joint top scorer for us for the season, with something like 4, 5 or 6 goals – most of which were in the League Cup.”

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No one in the above image from the cover of Peter Allen‘s* book plays for Portsmouth. Peter himself does not wander around Paris chanting Play up Pompey. But’s he a committed fan all the same. He tells Salut! Sunderland about his “cult” football book, explains why he rates Roy Keane but not – as a manager – Tony Adams and reveals the hard-of-thinking Pompey players’ approach to quiz nights …

When I last wrote about Pompey on Salut! Sunderland I doffed a blue and white bobble hat to all the great writers and military heroes with connections to the club. The enticing prospect of getting a literary or battlefield giant to pen a follow-up piece for football’s best written football blog was not lost on the editor, Colin Randall, but sadly Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle and Bernard Montgomery were all unavailable for selection this season. Accordingly, I’m back answering the questions.

Just before doing so