Page 4 - 360633 LP236168 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (April 2022)

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editorial ISSUE #258
Hello and welcome to issue 258 of A Love Supreme, had-crafted on the banks of the Wear by a small but perfectly formed bunch of die-hard fans. Since last we printed, my “the head coach is only a cog in the SAFC machine” comments proved to be nonsense, as the two games we played under the stand-ins (Michael Proctor and Mike Dodds) simply weren’t god enough. A pair of 2-1 defeats, at home to Donny and at Cheltenham, showed that the hierarchy, whoever the string-pullers may be, very much took those games for granted. “Donny and Cheltenham? We’ll breeze past them.”
But we didn’t, and the fact that it took
two weeks to appoint Alex Neil showed
a distinct lack of thought. Forget “doing the decent thing” as far as LJ was concerned, we should have had the whole replacement thing sorted out in a matter of days, especially as the transfer window was only recently closed. All this meant that the incoming gaffer had little or no idea who he was working with apart from what he’d learned from trawling through his extensive collection of “EFL on Quest” recordings.
Of those who arrived in January, we’ve seen very little of Trai Hume, but enough to suppose that he’ll be useful and Northern Ireland saw enough to call him into their recent squad. Danny Batth looked decent in his first appearance but got injured. On the positive side, our makeshift back three of Wright, Cirkin, and Winch at least gave young Doyle a break, and the kid has come back looking refreshed. Jay Matete went straight into the side and hasn’t looked out of place. Despite not being that big physically, he’s a tenacious beggar and not afraid to put himself about.
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The big news, of course, is that one former hero didn’t arrive (Keane) while another did, but with limited impact other than in our collective emotions. Defoe came, LJ went, Keane didn’t arrive, Alex Neil did, and rumours about who actually brought Jermain back fuelled the conspiracy theorists. As we didn’t bring in any other centre forward options in January, it’s to be hoped
that Broadhead is fit and robust enough to survive the remaining games, and that Pritchard is too, oh, and don’t forget McGeady in what will almost certainly be his Sunderland swansong. January arrivals Roberts and Clarke have the youthful exuberance, but Geads can match their fancy footwork and add to it eighteen years of experience and might just be able to turn a few games our way. Xhemajli, or Mr Scrabble, finally returned to first team duty, looked absolutely the business at Wigan, but then seemed to drift out of the scene again.
This issue arrives after an international break, as Hume and Evans were selected for Northern Ireland, but strangely not Carl Winchester, one of our better performers this term, and Ross Stewart for Scotland. The Loch Ness Drogba’s goals made him a top contender for a place up top for his country, and his selection is just reward. Dan Neil, Callum Doyle and Dennis Cirkin were all part of the England kids’ squad, which was nice.