Sky Sports News has reported that we have won the race to sign Hearts and Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon for £9m, smashing the British transfer record for a goalie. Apparently, he has passed his medical, agreed personal terms and will sign/has signed a 5-year contract. The transfer fee will consist of a £7m up front payment plus a potential £2m extra depending on appearances.

I have been following this transfer with great interest over the last few weeks and have seen us have bids rejected, pull out of the race, Aston Villa and Man City show interest and now, if tonight’s reports are correct, we have finally got our man. I will still be nervous until I see pictures of Gordon at the SoL holding up a #1 Sunderland shirt! Hopefully we will officially unveil him tomorrow.

I can’t wait until Saturday – bring on Spurs!

Update @ 21:40 – Apparently, again according to Sky Sports News, Niall Quinn has just confirmed that the deal is complete!

Tags: Craig Gordon,football,SAFC,Sunderland
Categories: Sport
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NOTE: I have updated the fixture list to reflect changes since it was first published. I shall continue to keep this list up to date as and when matches are rescheduled.

The Barclays FA Premier League fixtures for 2007-08 have just been announced. Sunderland AFC’s return to the top flight will begin in front of the Sky Sports TV cameras on August 11th at the Stadium of Light against Spurs. Other fixtures of note include Newcastle (home) on November 10th, Man Utd (home) on Boxing Day, Newcastle (away) on April 19th and Arsenal (home) on the final day of the season.

Here is Sunderland’s complete fixture list:

Google Calendar users can add the full fixture list to their calendar by clicking the button below:

Tags: football,SAFC,Sunderland
Categories: Sport
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Well done to Sunderland AFC – Championship winners 2006-07! Today’s 5-0 demolition of Luton at Kenilworth Road has sealed an amazing debut season as manager for Roy Keane.

I’d like to say a huge “THANK YOU” and congratulations to everyone at Sunderland AFC. From Quinn and the rest of the Drumaville consortium, to Keano and his players, and everyone else connected with the club, it’s been an amazing year. We’ve gone from the foot of the table to the top and can now look forward to playing the big teams next season. My daughter Katie and I already have our season tickets ordered for next year and I can’t wait for the fixtures to be announced in June!

Once again, well done to everyone at the club. Ha’way the lads!

Tags: football,Roy Keane,SAFC,Sunderland
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After the first four games of this season, Sunderland AFC were bottom of the Championship on zero points. Now, following our 2-1 victory at Southampton, we are top of the league and favourites to be promoted to the Premiership!

Roy Keane has done an incredible job in his first season as a manager. He has instilled a winning attitude in the players and the whole team is playing with confidence. We now look like winning every time we step onto the pitch and are unbeaten in 2007. Hopefully we can carry on this superb run of form and win promotion as champions.

Ha’way the lads

Tags: football,Roy Keane,SAFC,Sunderland
Categories: Sport
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Good luck to Roy Keane who looks set to become the new Sunderland manager on Monday. He has agreed terms with the club today and is expected to put pen to paper straight after the West Brom game.

In all honesty, I’ve never been Keane’s biggest fan. There’s no doubt he is one of the best midfielders to have played in the Premiership and he was an inspirational captain at Man Utd. Unfortunately, the Alf-Inge Haaland incident and the World Cup 2002 fiasco have spoiled his footballing CV.

Nevertheless, I am 100% behind Keane and really hope he has a positive impact at the club. We are desperate to break our duck this season and I think Keane’s no-nonsense attitude might be the kick up the backside that our players need. He certainly won’t put up with anyone giving less than 100%. All the better if the rumours are true and he brings Brian Kidd in as his assistant. Between them I can really see them turning things round for us.

Quinny is reportedly ready to give him a £20m transfer kitty, so this really is an opportunity that doesn’t come around very often. Ha’way the lads!

Tags: football,Roy Keane,SAFC,Sunderland
Categories: Sport
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Well, what to say… I’m absolutely gutted that England have been knocked out of the World Cup

We haven’t performed throughout the group games and again against Ecuador, but I always believed that our squad was/is the best we’ve had for about 16 years and that they’d come good. Unfortunately it was another laclustre performance against Portugal. That said, after Rooney was (stupidly) sent off, the players battled hard and put in a fantastic “backs to the wall” performance. I thought Peter Crouch was especially effective once he came on – he held the ball up well and put in 100% in what was a difficult role as a lone front man in a ten-man team. Owen Hargreaves also deserves a mention for the effort he put in.

It would be easy to blame Rooney for getting himself sent off; it was a very stupid thing to do, reminiscent of Beckham’s red card against Argentina in 1998. Maybe the sending off wouldn’t have happened if Cristiano Ronaldo hadn’t remonstrated with the referee? You could blame the penalty takers – Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher – as their penalties were fairly poor. What about Sven? I still can’t fathom out why we persisted with that 4-5-1 formation. At the end of the day though, it doesn’t do any good picking out individuals for blame. Portugal beat us and we are out of the 2006 World Cup at the quarter final stage. It’s very hard to take, but there you go.

I don’t want to be bitter, but I do hope either Brazil or France stuff Portugal in the semi final

My prediction: hosts Germany to win.

Tags: England,football,World Cup
Categories: Sport
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NOTE: I have updated the fixture list to reflect changes since it was first published. I shall continue to keep this list up to date as and when matches are rescheduled.

The Football League Coca-Cola Championship fixtures for 2006-07 have just been announced. Sunderland AFC’s season will get underway on Saturday 5th Sunday 6th August away at Coventry City, (game switched to Sunday for Sky). Other fixtures of note include Leeds United (home) on Boxing Day, Leicester City (away) on New Year’s Day and Luton Town (away) on the final day of the season.

Here is Sunderland’s complete fixture list:

Google Calendar users can add the full fixture list to their calendar by clicking the button below:

Tags: football,SAFC,Sunderland
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Middlesbrough FC chairman Steve Gibson – someone I already admire – has just gone up even higher in my estimation. I got an email earlier today about a bloke called John Boileau who had applied for the vacant manager’s position at Boro. The letter and CV he sent to the club are available to read on his website and are very funny. The icing on the cake is the reply he received from the Middlesbrough chairman.

Did he get the job? I’ll let you see for yourself…

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~kritip/managers%20job.htm

Tags: Boro,football,Middlesbrough,Steve Gibson
Categories: Funny, Sport
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I got back from Hamburg yesterday – what a fantastic place!

The Germans have done an amazing job as World Cup hosts this year. Their “Fan Fest” in the St. Pauli area was great. As well as the huge screen that I watched the England match on, there was an artificial beach complete with palm trees and sun loungers, the biggest table football game I have ever seen (about 30ft long), a goal scoring competition and more bars than you can shake a big stick at. The goal scoring thing was like the Soccer A.M. “Fans of the Week” shooting competition. Even in my big brown boots I managed to score two out of six and won €5 – and it was a pretty small target! And yes Kev, I am still banging on about my shooting ability

The night life was superb, especially on the Reeperbahn. This is a long street in the St. Pauli district filled with bars, restaurants and more than the odd dodgy sex shop. One of the most famous side streets off the Reeperbahn is Große Freiheit, home to “Indra”, the first club that The Beatles played in Hamburg back in 1960. The residents and tourists were treated to some superb entertainment when Kev and I did a set in the nearby “Thai Vase” karaoke bar that John, Paul, George and Ringo themselves would have been proud of

I have added quite a few photos to my gallery, so feel free to have a look at those. There are a few small videos from the Argentina v Ivory Coast game too.

Tags: England,football,Germany,Hamburg,Kev,World Cup
Categories: Sport, Travel
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Well, I finally got my Argentina v Ivory Coast tickets – the day before I fly out to Hamburg! I was getting a bit concerned but they’re here now, so panic over.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that they are in fact top-priced, Category 1, €100 tickets. I assumed that, being a freebie, they’d be in the €30 bracket.

All I have to do now is get the two punctured rear tyres on my car repaired before setting off on the 250 mile drive down to London Stansted. And stay awake – Kev and I are setting off at about 23:30 tonight! And buy an England shirt. And get a hair cut. And pack my bag. Hmm, maybe the panic isn’t over

Tags: football,Germany,Hamburg,Kev,World Cup
Categories: Sport
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