Salut! Sunderland 2

Roy Keane interview in the Irish Times

In Salut! Sunderland's humble opinion, The Irish Times is one of the finest daily newspapers in the UK and Ireland. Fittingly, they got the big interview with Keano. Here it is:

ROY KEANE INTERVIEW: He’ll be back. Football is in his blood.

 TOM HUMPHRIES hears the true story of what what was going on behind the scenes on Wearside and what the future may hold

HE FLICKED the button on the car phone speaker and killed the call. When the road offered him a decent chance to do so he spun the car around and pointed it the other way. He made another call and kept on driving. Home was empty when he got there. No Theresa. No kids. He had a cup of tea and waited. He doesn’t remember how long it took, but he remembers looking out the window and seeing the journalists gathering at the gate.

It had been done.

He learned three days later that he could have had them moved on. They stood on the neighbours’ walls and blocked the road. They wanted one thing. They wanted a few quotes, certainly, but mainly they wanted a picture of Roy Keane walking the dog.

He looked out the front door one day and the flashbulbs popped. Makes you look like a criminal looking out your own front door.

Salut?, SuperKev and Birmingham City: the correspondence

Here is the e-mail exchange that passed between Salut! Sunderland and Birmingham City's press office concerning our request for the briefest of e-mail interviews with Kevin Phillips:

Sept 13 2008. Salut! Sunderland to club

Hello (sorry, but I do not have the press/media officer's name),

I am a British journalist working in Abu Dhabi, where I have been helping to launch the new English language daily, The National, but also run - as a labour of love - my own small Sunderland AFC-related website at http://salutsunderland.com
I am a huge admirer of Kevin Phillips and will always look on him as one of the Sunderland players to have given me most pleasure in what is now approaching half a century as a supporter.
My request is simple, and I'd greatly appreciate if you could at least run it by him: would he be willing to do a very quick Q&A interview by e-mail (phone is fine by me but e-mail may be more appropriate given the distance/time difference) which I could publish a few days before either the Aston Villa v Sunderland game (Sept 27) or the Sunderland v Arsenal tie a week later.
I would supply the 10 questions and he could answer in whatever fashion and at whatever length he chose. There would naturally be nothing inflammatory about the nature of any of the questions.
The choice of games relates 1) to another of his clubs (Villa) and 2) to the team he supported as a boy (Arsenal).
I hope you and he will feel that this is something he could do. I would be happy to make a nominal donation to a charity of his choice (the site does not make money, but its costs are offset slightly by advertising, which I have just started to attract, and I could reserve say one month's income from that, 50 euros, for such a purpose).
Thanks for your attention and good luck for the season ahead.
Regards
Colin Randall

Oct 1/2: Phone call to Birmingham City press office confirms receipt of the e-mail. Someone says that although it is now too late for the games mentioned, the request will be considered for appropriate fixtures later in the season. She does not offer great encouragement that the answer will be Yes.

Oct 3 2008. Club to Salut! Sunderland

Hi Colin,

Great to hear from you, and I hope all is going well for you out there.Unfortunately we will not be able to grant you a Kevin Phillips interview as we have a policy of retaining the players’ services for official club mediums first and foremost and then other media requests. Sadly we are not able to accommodate requests from fans’ sites.I do hope you understand and am sorry we’re unable to help on this occasion.

Kind regards,

Chris</em>

Oct 3. Salut! Sunderland to club:

Club policy is club policy and no hard feelings. But it never fails to astonish me how clubs are perfectly happy to take a great deal from fans without always giving an awful lot back; my own club blithely took and used a full page, professionally written - and free! -  feature for a matchday programme and only then said it would deny me even a tiny footnote linking to my site, something a fans' site/fanzine would never dream of doing.I suppose one way of looking at it is to see the gap between club and supporters (all supporters) getting wider. The very minor tragedy - ok, that's too strong, disappointing aspect is better - of the Kevin Phillips one is that he knows how much he is still revered by the vast majority of fans for what he achieved at Sunderland, and would probably have been quite willing to take what, 15 minutes to answer 10 questions.

But I say all that without any personal rancour and appreciate your courteous reply.

best

colin

Club versus country: an easy home win

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Welcome to an overspill site for Salut! Sunderland, a place to put longer files that some but not all people may wish to see. In addition, where the Who Are They? feature includes more than one article, the "overmatter" will - in time - have a link to here from the sub-category list in the main site's sidebar. The following is a very long - chapter length - expansion of my oft-argued reasons for placing passion for my football club some miles ahead of anything I feel for the national side. It was written for the Sunderand fanzine A Love Supreme's book More 24 Hour SAFC People, published in late 2007 and my share of the proceeds has been donated to charity

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Looking back, it was as golden an opportunity as Daniel Dichio's sitter in the Wembley playoff final against Charlton, or indeed the chance of his at Upton Park that would, if converted, have put us top of the Premiership. And I missed mine just as glaringly as Danny had missed his.

 

In one of the love letters that passed between us long ago, Joelle, then my wife-to-be, wrote that she could think of only one fault in me that she would change. I smoked too much. She might have added others: permanently broke, holes in my socks and underpants, coming from Shildon, being lousy at her native language, French. She has certainly added plenty since and while the French has improved, there isn't much I can do about coming from Shildon. But back then, it was the fags that concerned her. If only I would cut down, she wrote to me from Le Mans, her home town, she would in return do anything I asked of her.

 

Talk about open goals. There it was, my cue to secure a lifetime of pass-outs to watch Sunderland !

Bush whacked

Whatever else he has to answer for around the world, President George W Bush has surely now gone too far.

Thousands of miles from my home, even more thousands from his, he stopped me watching the Lads win.

Who are they? They're Spurs (4)

Diamond White, aka Paxton Lee*, leapt at the chance of writing for Salut! Sunderland's new Who Are You? feature ahead of Saturday's game at White Hart Lane. Will we extend our run of one win running? Will we snatch a plucky draw? Or will we just continue this season's normal away service of losing most things in sight? Paxton thinks he knows the answer Let’s not pretend otherwise, for us this week is all about the League Cup Semi-final 2nd leg against the Woolwich Wanderers. We haven’t beaten them for years and we are a game away from Wembley. However, we would be foolish to underestimate the importance of Saturday’s affair with Sunderland. One look at the league table will show you that an away win would see Sunderland within one point of us.

With the Black Cats locked in a relegation battle such a result would surely mean, after nursing the bruised egos again, that we aren’t particularly safe ourselves either. And with the following two league games being a trip to Everton and the visit of Man Utd, three points this Saturday have to be earned and has to be a must.

Who are they? They're Spurs (3)

Sunderland fans would settle for a controversial win on the lines of a 1938 FA Cup tie clinched by a Raich carter goal. Logan Holmes* and his fellow Spurs supporters want Berbatov to emulate the scoring record Jimmy Greaves (pictured) had against us

Saturday’s game at White Hart Lane will be the 100th competitive meeting between Spurs and Sunderland with Tottenham holding a slight advantage in the overall record: 38 wins ahead of Sunderland’s 35.

Throughout that record, Sunderland have a history of spoiling Spurs’ hopes and ambitions.

Back in 1938 - no, I wasn’t there - Sunderland travelled to London for an FA Cup 6th round tie. Sunderland were the 1st Division side and the FA Cup holders while Spurs had dropped down into the 2nd Division three years earlier.

White Hart Lane recorded the highest ever attendance – 75,038 were packed into the ground as the players took to the pitch. Such a scenario, a record crowd, deserved a home win but Sunderland had other ideas; however their victory was not without controversy.

Today’s television commentators would have been in their element trying to assess if the Spurs forward had handled the ball before or after it crossed the line.

It was into the second half of the exciting game when a cross shot from Colin Lyman was handled by Spurs’ Jack Gibbons as it crossed the line. Was it a goal? The referee awarded a goal but after consulting the linesman, he ruled against Spurs. Sunderland having escaped that scare won the game late on when one of their most famous players, Raich Carter, scored the only goal.

In September, 1969 after a poor start to the season, Spurs manager, Bill Nicholson, gave a debut to a young home grown player for the visit of Sunderland. His name was Steve Perryman. Unfortunately, Sunderland rather spoiled his first game by again winning 1-0 through an own goal from Spurs’ Welsh international, Mike England. At least the early set-back to his career didn’t upset Perryman who went on to become Spurs’ captain and to be a vital member of the successful Spurs’ teams in the early 1970s and 1980s as well as make the most appearances for Spurs.

In 1961, 2nd Division, Sunderland almost achieved something that the top clubs of the day failed to do. They made Spurs fight all the way in the FA Cup 6th Round tie at Roker Park. Spurs had taken an early first half lead through Cliff Jones but after half-time Sunderland came roaring back, fully supported by their fans who created an incredibly atmosphere in the ground. Sunderland equalised through Willie McPheat and by the end Spurs were greatly relieved to escape Roker Park with a draw but they managed to win the replay in mid-week to continue on their way to the double.

Spoiling Spurs’ ambitions – Sunderland don’t have to go back any further than last August, the opening day of the season and a deserved win with a last minute goal from a substitute, Michael Chopra. Spurs went in to that game with such high hopes for the season but they fell flat in the face of a determined performance from Sunderland.

Sunderland will be hoping to do the same on Saturday and deflate Spurs’ tentative recovery under Juande Ramos. Roy Keane will demand total commitment and hope to add further misery to Spurs’ season.

Enjoy the game!!!!

* Have supported Spurs since 1964 - long-distance - but travel to White Hart Lane about six times each season. Just missed Bill Nicholson's Glory! Glory! days of the early 1960s but have many memories of Nicholson's and Burkinshaw's successful teams and am patiently waiting for the next successful team - it's been a long wait.

Having remembered some of Sunderland’s finer moments against Spurs, I will just mention a Spurs legend. Jimmy Greaves loved playing against Sunderland – 10 goals in total, including four in a game in 1968. Perhaps, Berbatov could take over that role, if he’s in the mood.

Who are they? They're Spurs (2

Thanks to all you Spurs fans. Thanks even more if you recognise our greater need for points (just now) and grant us an away win on condition you still finish much higher.

The response to my launch of Who Are You? has been tremendous, with articles lined up for future games and a great bunch of postings for more immediate use.

Sappers's witty offering is already up there and further pieces from Logan Holmes and "Paxton Lee" will appear over the next 24 hours, with yet another, from Greg Meyer, also promised.

I will find a way of making the multiple Spurs pieces easily viewable without cluttering up the main postings column. If I can. But with mentions of Raich Carter, Chris Waddle, Paul Stewart, Jimmy Greaves and Ben Alnwick to come, it's worth sticking around whatever my struggles with blogosphere technology.

With the exception of my very good friend David Sapsted's words, already posted, these items appear thanks to Jim Duggan, who runs the Topspurs site. And no sooner had I thanked Jim for being such a gent than this arrived (from Jim):

Was out in Saudi when I got your mail earlier in the week and with work and whatnot could not put together anything useful but glad to see that your cup overflows with pieces from some of my regulars. One little titbit you may want to add, there have been plenty of great memories up at your place from a 3-2 a couple of years back and the Klinsmann cup game but my most memorable Sunderland game at WHL was in the spring of 1978 when Spurs unbeaten at home all season needed just three points from the last three games of the season to get promoted faced Sunderland at home. In the reverse fixture, Spurs had won at Roker 2-1 and no expected anything other than a Spurs win with eyes not just on promotion but championships Sunderland scored early and scored again to go a couple up - Bob Lee is a name that has appeared in my mind as the goalscorer - and although Spurs pulled a couple back, a third Sunderland goal sank the unbeaten home record and nearly put the skids under what had seemed a certain promotion for so long. Fortunately a jammy win 1-0 win against Hull with dodgy goal and a just as dodgy (ask a Brighton fan) 0-0 at also promoted Southampton in the final match saved the day. Not sure what Spurs will turn out this weekend - if Sunderland go for Spurs you'll have a chance as that defence is far from sorted and you lot are overdue a win down here. Equally the forwards are pretty sharp and are likely to bag at least a couple. Its safe to say Spurs will turn up this time unlike on the opening day and although you lot have a better chance than the bookmakers suggest, I think Spurs will win 2-1 or 3-1. btw - full record of sunderland-spurs games: can be found here and just looking through the list, probably my second most memorable Sunderland Spurs game was another home defeat, this time when Chris Turner held of Spurs almost singlehandedly in a league cup tie in the mid 80s.

Three is obviously too many. Four is absurd. It will never happen again. But this is a launch after all and how can you turn away such kind and compelling stories of and reflections on the history, recent and less so, of our two great clubs? There is truly fascinating reading in these essays.