… could have kept us all on tenterhooks until a quarter of an hour before deadline. But it’s done: Sunderland AFC finally confirmed the signing of Asamoah Gyan from Rennes. Talk about cutting things fine …

Yes, we could have done with a much earlier announcement to put us all at ease.

But supporting Sunderland has always been something of a nerve-jangling experience and there must have seemed no reason to mess with that tradition. And, doubtless, every reason for the delay.
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In which we praise the efforts of Sunderland AFC, through its official website, edited by Stu Vose, to engage with fans in a non-official way …

It is a sad fact of life that professional football clubs treat fans, or rather those fans with little platforms (eg, in Sunderland’s case, from ALS to Salut! Sunderland) with a mixture of suspicion and disdain.

SAFC are no worse than the rest, perhaps in some ways better.

In our own experience, Celtic (and Martin O’Neill, then manager) simply didn’t have the courtesy to reply to written requests for a quick interview for 5573 (now Wear Down South), the magazine of the London and SE branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association. When SuperKev was at Birmingham City, the club pompously made it clear that under no circumstances would players be permitted to speak to a jumped-up fanzine, even to the extent of answering a short list of questions.
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Transfer deadline day and the excitement mounts. Unless things go horribly wrong – medical, gazumping etc – Asamoah Gyan should be a Sunderland player by tonight. The French daily Ouest-France, having got it wrong yesterday (saying Gyan was staying) now quotes the Rennes manager Frédéric Antonetti as confirming, after today’s training session, his departure in our direction. Let’s hope the goalscoring celebration dance in this clip will be repeated many times in our colours. Are other deals, in or out of the Stadium of Light, in the offing too?…

Of course we could just wait until 6pm, by which time there has to be a decision and therefore, presumably, an announcement.

But it wouldn’t be as much fun.
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Despite the undoubted luck we enjoyed when Carlos Tevez decided to make tappy-in seem like brain surgery, we played well enough in the second half to merit our win. For once the “if onlys” are on the lips of others, leaving Pete Sixsmith to salute a notable team performance …

Buzz, buzz, buzz. I usually write these pieces a day after the game, so I can take a more detached, less emotional view of the game. But not this time.

This was the reason why I, and 30,000 others, cough up for a season ticket and sit through the occasional stinker. I am still buzzing and I almost wish I was back at work tomorrow in order to share the buzz with all and sundry – that’s how satisfying this was.
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Update: from the Sunderland Echo: photographs of Asamoah Gyan arriving at Newcastle Airport have been posted on Facebook.

For Salut! Sunderland’s Nice corner – our regular look at French football – I scoured today’s L’Equipe in vain hope of finding authoritative news that Asamoah Gyan is already booking his passage from Rennes to Roker.

One or two other French reports were still talking of our interest in bolstering an attack “trop dépendant de Darren Bent” as one put it. But the emphasis was more along the lines of “Sunderland not abandoning hope of signing…” than “Sunderland set to clinch deal ..”.
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On Salut! Sunderland‘s birthday – the codger whose name appears at the end of this report, not the site – a riproaring second-half performance crowned by a Darren Bent penalty deep in stoppage time brought a sensational victory.

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“Keeping Jones was not the answer,” Jeremy Robson wrote at the Blackcats list, amplifying points he has made here. “But it would have been a whole lot better than the mess we are in right now. Quinn needs to stop being everybody’s friend and playing the genial gent and get his finger out.” Well put, and it produced this superb analysis from Chris Russell, a new voice here but very welcome …

I actually believe this is little to do with Quinn right now, but more to do with Ellis Short.

From a business perspective you look at our squad and even being conservative – McCartney, Bardsley, Ferdinand, Kilgallon, Healy must equate to somewhere near £120k/week. If Ellis has taken a look at the squad, its quite logical for him to look at Quinn and ask some pointed questions on the sanctioning of those signings/level of contracts.

Yes, they kept us up and so on, but we’re talking pure business, rather than fan and the associated level of sentimentality that comes with that.
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Want a bit of beating about the bush? Mincing of words? Then this is not the place for you today. Jeremy Robson, having stuck up for Steve Bruce the other day, wants his reward and Sunderland’s: a signing to cheer us all up. Do Steve Bruce’s comments that Niall is hoping to land a big name (Gyan and Carlton Cole have been mentioned) mean his prayers will be answered? …

Only a few days to go and the transfer window then closes.

Sunderland’s lack of fire power is such that the team hasn’t won a game in which Darren Bent has failed to score since the beginning of last season tells its own tale; and it’s a sorry one.

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“My fault, my failure,” Jack Kerouac wrote, “is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.” Pete Sixsmith’s lack of control over his passion for non-league football took him (mercifully?) far from SAFC v Colchester the other night, memories of some stonking exam performances by the lads and lasses at Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College (does that mean school?) fresh in his mind …

Fair weather supporter, that’s me. One defeat at West Brom, the toys are slung out of the pram and I miss our most important game of the season until the next one comes along. Disgraceful, I know.
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Well no, the picture was taken at a birthday party at the Stadium of Light to mark (or try to forget) a more advanced age. The 21 applies to Salut! Sunderland‘s place in the order of things …

Thanks to all visitors to Salut! Sunderland, whether they support SAFC or the other clubs we write about, for the extraordinary support that has taken us today to our highest position in the Soccerlinks (think they mean football links) hit list: 21st.

Results from hit counting devices vary notoriously and while the Soccerlinks tally puts us on 860 for so far today – t’s 12.40pm-ish in France as I write – and a daily average of 830, Statcounter puts the average at 1,160 (including 960 unique visits).

So if you are here, you are in good or plentiful company. And if you offer to write for us, which brings ample reward in heaven but nowt else, you seem assured of an audience. Just leave a comment, if you’d quite like to see your words appear her, but use your proper e-mail address (which will not be publicly visible) or e-mail me at the address you see to the left and maybe up a bit.

The same goes for anyone who fancies their chances as part-time advertising agents. Sell space on Salut! Sunderland and I’ll pay decent commission. Just get in touch.

We are still a piddling little site compared with the big boys. Two Arsenal sites, Just Arsenal and The Gunning Hawk, with whom we have enjoyed amicable relationships (and from whom we’ve received Who are You? entries) are top and second with whacking daily averages of 13,800 and 11,800.

And it doesn’t take more than a couple of quiet days to send us hurtling down the ratings again. We’re also only 21st among those sites that choose to be listed.

But considering we were once something like 252nd, things are looking up. We’re also right at the top, most weeks, of the Footballunited.com chart for the most popular blogs under its umbrella, though one or two others, notably the West Ham Process and From Europe to Yeovil are handily placed to topple us.

All the same, it is good to know enough people drop in here to make the increasing band of people who contribute articles feel they were not wasting their time.

I look forward to seeing and publishing the offerings of existing contributors, and new ones, as the season develops.

Colin Randall