Once upon a time, Fatima al Shamsi*, pictured (left) with her sister Alyazyah outside the Emirates Stadium, accepted an internship at an English-language newspaper in Abu Dhabi, capital of her native UAE, and found herself under the professional guidance of a Sunderland supporter. It would be a gross misrepresentation of events to suggest she returned to college in New York knowing more about SAFC than journalism. The experience left her with some affection for Sunderland, but nowhere near enough to supplant her passion for the Gunners. A day earlier than planned, thanks to some technical hitch, here’s what she has to say…

Salut! Sunderland: Barca, Brazil, Inter Milan and Arsenal. Sounds like the ultimate wish list of the Queen of Gloryseekers. How come you collect great football teams?

AC Milan not Inter! I started watching football when I moved to Brazil at the age of three. although I barely remember any of it. I just remember playing it at school and watching incomprehensibly with my dad and simply loving it. This is why the Brazilian national team has always held a special place in my heart. It been great to see them play beautifully again (especially during the confederation cup over the summer) after recent years of frustrating subpar football which was an absolute horror to watch. With that said I also enjoy watching the Spanish national team and at times Argentina, but when it comes down to it, its definitely club vs. country and I’d take an Arsenal game any day.

I am definitely not a glory seeker! When I was younger me and my dad bonded a lot during the weekends by watching matches together. his main indulgence during the weekends were football games so we had time to watch the Spanish, Italian and English leagues. I had a lot more time to follow those different leagues so I had a favourite team in each one. Although you may call me a glory seeker for these teams, I picked them as a child based on favourite players and rivalries within my household between me my parents and my siblings so they just happened to be good teams and not a conscious ‘glory seeking’ decision. These days I don’t really keep up with the Italian league much but I do follow Barça games as much as I keep track of Arsenal (although if it has to come down to it, like it did champions league finals 2006, it’s always Arsenal first).

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Niall Quinn famously wrote: “I learned my trade at Arsenal, became a footballer at Manchester City, but Sunderland got under my skin. I love Sunderland.” From Colin Randall‘s mini-profile, we see that the Sunderland chairman’s powers appear to know no bounds. For as long as it may last, he’s even got us thinking well of Chelsea ….

One ofthe best things you can say about Niall Quinn has nothing strictly to do with the outstanding football he played for Sunderland, the way he has conducted himself as chairman or even the magnanimous donation of the entire £1m proceeds of his SAFC testimonial to hospitals in Sunderland and Dublin and an orphanage run by a pal in Calcutta.

It is that you know instantly he’s the sort of bloke you’d enjoy having as a friend, or even as an occasional acquaintance with whom to share a drink or two.
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What were we doing in Huddersfield? Or, for that matter, Fitzwilliam, Leeds and Durham? Not to mention Istanbul. Easy. Put on a weekend of internationals and you can bet on certain things: Salut! Sunderland readers deserting in droves in the knowledge of how little we care, the editor enjoying a rare stress-free Saturday/Sunday and a foray into obscure corners of football and culture by Pete Sixsmith …

You may well have noticed that the Salut! Sunderland pages have been very quiet over the weekend. No new articles, no debate about whether Bent dived or articles going back over old grievances like McAllister’s triple jump and salko or whether Tadger Norris slipped or was pushed in Durham Challenge Cup match in 1881.

Reasons? International break, so b***** all to write about from the SAFC point of view. The editor slipped off on a scouting trip to Istanbul with his wife, while the work experience boy (yours truly) had a treble up. So, in the absence of anything else to write about, let me tell you about it.
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As it is internationals weekend, a large chunk of Salut! Sunderland is off to Istanbul to celebrate his wedding anniversary. Whether much new appears here over the weekend is up to another large chunk, and the IT and editing skills of a smaller chunk, left behind. But before I tuck into the kebabs, let me give a quick kicking to Giovanni Trapattoni for his continued exclusion of Andy Reid from the Irish squad …

Q: “What do you call a banjo at the bottom of the sea?”

A: “A start?”

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Forget Ngog (pictured courtesy of Christoper_tng) who tells me he’s a Liverpool fan), forget the beach ball that saved us from having to score one of the four sitters that followed. When it comes to Liverpool and luck – good or bad, depending on your allegiance – we’ve seen crazier things …

Poor Peter Walton seems to have paid a swift, harsh price for his calamitous award of a penalty for Liverpool when David Ngog launched into the sort of takeoff that has one football site asking this morning which Olympic sport France might consider entering him for.

According to the Daily Mirror, he will be relegated to the Football League or at best fourth official duties (if, indeed, that is seen as a punishment) when real football resumes after the international break.

It’s the sort of rough justice that comes after the most serious of refereeing blunders these days. But Peter should take heart (and feel aggrieved): Salut! Sunderland can assure him that it’s happened before (and that the culprit on that occasion escaped any sort of sanction that we know of).
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The issue of cheating in football won’t go away. Is it a price worth paying for the cut and thrust of post-match debate? Colin Randall gets stuck in traffic long enough to hear a range of views …

If we are honest, most of us love the controversy that football provokes.
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In which the Spurs keeper is invited to thank his lucky stars and pipe down …

There’s an awful lot of piffle from Brazil, and Heurelho Gomes is now beginning to get a bit irritating.

Comeonspurs.com quotes him as “blasting” Darren Bent with these words: “I didn’t think I would get sent off because I didn’t think it was a penalty. When I saw the ball was going out I pulled my arm back.

“It’s a difficult situation but it is his (Bent’s) job. The referee needs to know these things, that when a striker comes to the 18-yard box they try to dive for a penalty. They have to know.”

They also have to know, Mr Gomes, that goalkeepers are not always above a bit of foul play themselves.

If you haven’t seen it already, read what we’ve had to say about it today at this link.

Many Sunderland fans accept that we were very lucky to be awarded a penalty for the second-half incident (as well as being unlucky enough to have Darren in rare wasteful mood as he took the kick).

Perhaps Mr Gomes should accept that he was extremely fortunate to get away with the first half challenge on the same player.

My guess remains that Craig Gordon would have been dismissed in identical circumstances in either instance (wrongly, in my view, since the first warranted a yellow and the second as I have conceded, shouldn’t have been given). But as one Spurs-supporting pal has already put it: “Ah, you’re sounding like me when we lose.”

Colin Randall

* Image courtesy of A Love Supreme, where you can buy the T-shirt.

Salut! Sunderland, while not caring enormously about international football, congratulates Darren Bent on his England call-up. Good for him, brings a little reflected glory to the club and may yet prove more meaningful than SuperKev’s inclusion in unSuperKev’s Euro 2000 squad. But there is unfinished Bent-related business. What was that about eating our words? Colin Randall prepares the dish, chooses the wine and sets the table …

Salut! is now officially split on the issue. In his excellent review of Saturday’s events at White Hart Lane, Pete Sixsmith said the penalty was right and so was the yellow, since red would have been harsh.

I finally saw the footage late last night. I still believe Gomes made a rash dive at Bent’s feet and that it was therefore a penalty waiting to happen. Except that Darren didn’t wait, and it – the foul – didn’t happen.
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Fair’s fair. With the hindsight not available to most fans – or any referees – when controversial incidents actually occur, Salut! Sunderland accepts that Kevin Friend got the penalty about right. A slightly reckless challenge, but not one that merited a red card. Some SAFC fans go further and echo Spurs supporters (not all) by calling it a dive, even if they also feel it was a penalty “about to happen”. Friends again, Kevin? More on all this later but first Pete Sixsmith delivers his own considered post-match verdict …

A six hour coach journey after a scarcely deserved defeat does an awful lot to concentrate the mind. Somewhere in the middle of the old Great North Road, probably between Newark and Retford, I suffered a terrible attack of fairness, not something usually associated with disappointed Sunderland fans.
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It is unlikely that the excellent Carole King had a refereeing performance decades into the future in mind when she wrote the song. But Colin Randall wonders whether Heurelho Gomes enjoyed a huge slice of luck today, courtesy of the man in black, Kevin Friend, as Sunderland slumped to a barely deserved defeat …

IN the objective, sportsmanlike opinion of those in the south stand corner of White Hart Lane, it was clear that the turning point of today’s game came immediately after Heurelho Gomes charged out of goal to challenge Darren Bent, who was clean through.

He’d got away with it in the first half but Kevin Friend had no choice this time but to award a penalty. And a red card surely? No, Mr Friend deemed a yellow to be sufficient and a man who arguably should not even have been in a position to watch the kick being taken made a good save. Followed by two or three other crucial saves as Sunderland pressed for an equaliser to the first half goal.
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