Page 21 - 360633 LP236168 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (April 2022)

One, these have been joyless years.
A couple of years ago, Andy gave him
the option to quit following Sunderland entirely.
“When it was getting really bad, I gave him the option of supporting another team if
he wanted to. I said if you want to support Liverpool, Chelsea or Man City, I don’t mind, go for it. But he said this is our club and our family tradition (I mean it’s not really). He said I’m going to stick with it. I said, you idiot, you idiot. I’ve given you the chance to get out and you haven’t taken it. Now you’re stuck for life.”
With all the developments and investment into the city centre, I asked if there was a chance of a live Athletico Mince show in Sunderland. The closest it has been so far is in Newcastle.
But whilst his son has mainly watched dross, Andy does remember the good old days. His favourite Sunderland moment is that incredible first half against Chelsea when we were four nil up at halftime. “That was just surreal. That season started with us losing four nil at Chelsea and we turned it round. It was unbelievable. The
If it feels safe, we hope to do it. I’d love to do Sunderland. I’d probably try and do the Empire. Or the Stadium of Light, live on the pitch. That’s maybe pushing it a bit.”
Niall Quinn/Kevin Phillips era is easily my favourite time being a Sunderland fan. I don’t think I appreciated it as much at the time because I was drunk, mostly. Those were the good days. We kind of thought we’d made
If you haven’t got to a live Mince show, you have missed out. They are riotous shows
and Andy is an energetic performer. They try and make it into a show as opposed to the industry standard live podcast from a desk in an auditorium. With Bob’s experience of being a comedy performer, they are able to take it to another level and do something way more theatrical. And it’s really, really funny. When I saw them at the Tyne Theatre, my throat was sore from laughing, which I didn’t know was a thing that could happen.
In the absence of live shows, in the meantime you can find Andy on Twitter @Profanityswan. His podcasts Athletico Mince, Top Flight Time Machine and Beans on Toast are available on all major podcasting platforms.
it and we were there forever and now look
at us! That era was my favourite time. The 105-point season team I liked even more. We had Lee Clark, a brilliant player for us, I’m sad it went wrong with him. We had Allan Johnstone in that team. Summerbee and Johnstone on the wings and Clark and Kevin Ball in the centre and the two lads up front was a joy to watch. That’s as good as it’s ever been for me.”
“We wanted do a Time Machine show at the Fire Station, but it didn’t work out. We were going to do the Top Flight Time Machine Christmas party here (Pop Recs) but it got postponed. As for Mince, we don’t know if we are going to do more shows. Bob is vulnerable having had heart surgery and everything.
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Of the current state of the club, Andy is pessimistic.
“The current team, there’s potential but the blend isn’t right. Not enough wise old heads in there. I think to get out of League One automatically you need a certain level of cynicism in your team. You need to be able to play direct sometimes. The philosophy of League One should be get out of League One. You have to be more pragmatic about it. We’ve put a lot of faith in youth and loan players and a lot of them you can’t get a 46-game season out of. We need to stop acting like a club who belongs in League One when you’re a club as big as us. We’ve been fed mediocrity for years and people are beginning to get used to it. Thinking ‘this is how it should be’ but it really isn’t.”