Well done Niall Quinn.

Just as comments here recommended, he has seen the Gyan-for-sale reports as one rumour too far, issuing this statement:

“I’m sorry that our fans have to read the endless speculation that appears in the press at this time of year. Normally we don’t comment on any of it as there’s so much – for instance we’ve been linked to over 40 players in the last month or so alone.

However, the suggestion that we have spoken to an agent to sell this player on our behalf is embarrassing to all concerned. I hope our fans would be smart enough to realise that this is probably some other club or outside agents’ way of attempting to destabilise our relationship with one of our players.”

Maybe as his next step, he should order a halt to the practice of safc.com of having it both ways by pubishing the rumour mill he so despises – oops – throughout the close season. I’m told they also tweet away at each rumour involving our club, which seems unbelievably at odds with the official outlook.

And Niall’s declaration closely followed one made to me by at Twitter by Ian Abrahams – Moose at TalkSport – who responded to my question to him on the veracity or otherwise of the report. “Absolute rubbish” was his reply and Niall gets as close as he can to echoing the thought.

Niall Quinn’s denial is welcomed and reported at this link. Rather puts Mr Alan Nixon of the Daily Mirror on the spot. Read on …

Last week Salut! Sunderland offered an unfashionable defence of football journalists after all the speculation surrounding Jordan Henderson, at least to the extent of pointing out that despite kneejerk condemnation of the press, the reports had turned out to be true in almost every respect.

The sting in the tail was the warning to take all such speculation with a pinch of salt, unless it seems convincingly sourced or has some sort of common sense basis.

But what on earth are we to make of this morning’s devastating headline above a report at Ghanasoccernet.com: Shock as Sunderland put up Asamoah Gyan for sale … ?

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Some of us are old enough to remember the red card protest. Others steadfastly refuse to look back in a revisionist way and say what a grand chap he was after all. And the luminary of British film who worshipped him? Read on …

Five years ago today, as safc.com has helpfully pointed out, Bob Murray – now Sir Bob – stood down as chairman of Sunderland AFC, handing power to Niall Quinn and the Drumaville consortium.

People’s memories, one way or the other, remain strong.

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We had some lively banter here last week with Villa fans on the essentially unimportant matter of who supports the bigger club. See it here. At least Villans don’t live in a part of the West Midlands with such an alarmingly shrinking population as poor old Newcastle seems to have. But what on earth do they make of their club’s latest attempt to lure a world-class new manager? …

Having failed to secure the services of a manager who very nearly took his team down, Aston Villa are reported to be taking the process one logical step further.

The new Villa target is evidently Alex McLeish who got quite a lot right at Birmingham City – that great run in the 2009-2010 season, and winning the Carling Cup last season – but managed to get one rather important thing very wrong indeed.

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An invitation to supporters of the three teams promoted to the Premier League …

First of all, welcome to the Premier.

Don’t be intimidated by our 10th top finishing place. It was a decent achievement in itself but we went through a phase, as we tend to do most seasons in the top flight, when it was by no means certain we’d be playing you next season.

Now that we are all in it together, welcome also to Salut! Sunderland. Before each Sunderland game, we include in the build-up here an interview with a supporter of the opposing side.

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Close season seems a good time to be dipping gratefully into the archive. Here is a gem you may have missed, or rather the story surrounding it and the additional reminiscences it inspired. There are one or two links to follow but it is worth the effort …

It is not often that comments keep trickling in long after a posting has all but been forgotten, buried in the archives and popping up again only when someone does a specific Google search.

But there will be no surprise that it has happened with an article that appeared here last year, since the article was about Len Shackleton and was published not before the 10th anniversary of his death. The reason for returning to the Shack theme is simple: among the comments that were posted were three or four that added superbly to the fund of knowledge we have about one of the most gifted and also most eccentric players to grace the English game, better still in Sunderland colours.

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Here is a digest of the week just gone by, as it was seen by Salut! Sunderland …

The week has been dominated by one issue: the sale of Jordan Henderson to Liverpool for £13m, £16m, £19.25m, £20m, money plus Ngog … you take your pick. Can’t the clubs simply be open about fees EVERY time there is a transfer, not just when it suits them? Why are some fees trumpeted, others “undisclosed” (though usually leaked in any case)? Answers on a postcard to Mr N Quinn.

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There’s a large body of Villa supporters who are just up M Salut’s street: proper fans of a proper football club. In questioning what the interest in Roberto Martinez tells us about AVFC, our shady Birflatt Boy does not have them in mind, but the humourless, Houllier-than-thou self-delusionists who can express their allegiance only in terms of braying about what a big club they follow (and how much bigger they are than us) …

I wonder how Darren Bent is feeling now.

He left Sunderland for Aston Villa because according to him he was going to get the chance to play for a “top manager” with chances a plenty being created by their talented wide players Ashley Young and Stuart Downing. The Villa Park of mid June is looking a completely different place to the one that so bedazzled Bent in the cold January transfer window.

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Football clubs are notoriously sluggish when it comes to saying anything reliable about transfer news. Sometimes there is good reason for the reticence; often enough it’s just an extension of the culture of secrecy they love to develop.

Sunderland are no worse than others in this regard, and probably better than most.

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Niall Quinn describes the deal as right for the club, says what no one denies, that Jordan Henderson “is a credit to himself, his family and Sunderland’s Academy”, and promises that work is in hand to strengthen areas that need it. Pete Sixsmith takes it philosophically, recalls another momentous transfer and adds his own tribute …

See also: Liverpool lullabies: Jordan Henderson, David Ngog and the wicked media

I remember where I was when news came through that Colin Todd had been sold. I was having a lunchtime pint in the Continental in Athaneum Street when someone came in and quoted from the Echo billboard outside: “Roker star leaves.”

This was long before the internet, mobile phones, Sky Sports News etc. In those days, that kind of headline usually meant someone like Colin Symm had gone to Lincoln City or Ralph Brand had signed for Invercockieleekie Wanderers. But we knew what this one was.

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