Family activity, a friend’s wedding and football have all featured during a brief visit back to Britain.

No, I didn’t get to Wembley, or at any rate I didn’t get there until after the Champions’ League final, the playoffs and the international.

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… in which we praise the Sunderland men who graced the Wembley turf last night and introduce you to a new team strip to end arguments over our own …

Before anything else, Salut! Sunderland salutes all the SAFC players who represented their countries in the England v Ghana friendly last night. In particular, bravo Asamoah Gyan for an equaliser to cap what was, by all accounts, an excellent game and Danny Welbeck for making his first England appearance.

At this distance – M Salut is in France – you have to rely on the reports of others.

One Sunderland supporter with Wembley tickets wondered what the England fans in the family enclosure made of his celebration of Gyan’s goal. Another sent a celebratory e-mail: “Gerrin … more of that on Saturday please.”

A third, thinking also of a certain Mr Carroll, added: “Can’t say I’ve enjoyed an England goal less and cheered the opposition scoring more than tonight. Can we have that every week please Gyan!”

While all this was going on, our own Pete Sixsmith sent a text telling me Fraizer Campbell had also scored – on his return from injury in a 1-1 draw for the Reserves v WBA. There’ll be more on that, I imagine, from Pete himself a little later, but Campbell’s recovery and confidence-boosting goal can only be good for the club.

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A Sunderland supporter has commented elsewhere today on his unease at having three first-team players in action for Ghana tonight, with an important Premier game coming up, against a seriously below strength England.

“Is it just me, or should we be worried that we have three of our lads playing against a bunch of England B players hoping to make a name for
themselves and actually trying?” was his question, and I knew exactly what he meant.

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The question is posed by Pete Sixsmith. who detects a subtle difference between your John Terrys and your Kevin Balls …

The big talking point on Sport on 5 last night was the England captaincy.

Mark Pougatch, David Pleat and Mike Ingham had a sustained and intense discussion about who should wear the captains armband against Wales and Ghana next week, what with Rio being injured, Stevie G being out and would JT get it back. Interesting? Not really

One startling revelation that came out was that Terry was “upset” when the armband was passed around during the multi-substitutions against Denmark and it never reached him, poor diddums.

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Olivier

Big match at Twickers tomorrow night.

My Salut! Sunderland colleague Pete Sixsmith will readily testify that rugby is not my game.

At school in Bishop Auckland, my brother opted into rugby union and became a useful player. I was useful at nowt at Bishop grammar, and they eventually got wise enough to boot me out.

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Mark Freeman

Andy Humble, out in Oz, was among the first to raise it, deploring at Salut! Sunderland the reported comment of Fabio Capello to the effect that Darren Bent had improved his chances of playing for England by moving from Sunderland to Aston Villa.

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Elliott Brown

Andy Humble, SAFC-supporting Aussie exile and stalwart of the Blackcats list,, took the words clean out of our mouths after reading Darren Bent’s staggering comment that Fabio Capello had told him his chances of playing for England had improved because of his move from top-seven Sunderland to struggling Villa …

Having heard about this the other day, and just read more about it, I was surprised to see no further comments.

I was at least expecting Jeremy Robson to have passed comment. As no one has mentioned it, I thought I needed to vent my spleen …
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As attentive readers will know, Monsieur Salut is in Zurich, reporting on the outcome of the Fifa vote – not for the British media but for a newspaper that is delighted with one of the decisions taken. The National, Abu Dhabi is enjoying a spot of reflected pride at Qatar’s choice for the 2022 World Cup. Meanwhile at home …

When Niall Quinn has a go, the world listens. Sunderland fans have no monopoly on admiration for their club’s chairman; he commands respect and attention throughout the game.

And Niall is deeply unhappy about Fifa’s humiliating rejection of a bid its president called outstanding and remarkable but then joined almost every other member of the committee in ignoring. Two votes, one of them the English one anyway, and summary elimination after Round One: sounds reminiscent of Sunderland’s performances in the last two relegation seasons.
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We cannot really be sure what to think about those five out of 10s in this morning’s England match reports, or the barbed “not quite ready” remarks on one debutant’s individual performance in a poor team performance. Maybe we should just be quietly content; we know how good Jordan Henderson is and it’ll do Sunderland no harm if the rest of the world, and notably the predatory “big clubs”, reach a kneejerk conclusion that he’s not – yet – such a star after all. Luke’s World oozes the common sense thoughts of Luke Harvey …

The child in me is still delirious after the weekend’s triumph but seeing our very own Jordan Henderson struggle against a disciplined French side was a slightly bitter pill to swallow.
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Image: A Love Supreme

Well done Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck for their roles in securing the England Under 21s’ safe onward passage. Bravo Bardsley for your part in the plucky Scots’ defeat at the hands of the World Cup winners.

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