Flight of fancy to Paris in the spring
So, with an international weekend robbing me of a game on Wearside, I decided to book myself a budget airline ticket to Paris to visit friends for a footie-free couple of days.
It started badly; as I got to the easyJet check-in desk at Newcastle Airport on the Friday evening, I could sense some excitement behind me.
I’m well aware that I’m not exactly box office, as Niall Quinn would put it, so I turned my head to notice a bloke stood next in line that appeared to be copying Djibril Cisse’s haircut and pulling off a very decent impersonation of our bling king. I pondered whether it could be him and if my soccer sabbatical was doomed from the beginning.
After a moment of confusion, I quickly decided that there’s no way our flashy forward would be travelling home via easyJet, but after spotting his gold trainers and a diamond-encrusted mobile phone I started to waver. When I heard him call his child Prince Kobe I realised it had to be him and had a quick chat with Mr Flashy Underpants himself.
I’d assumed that would be the end of that until Cisse got on the plane and his entourage of eight all sat with me, and I ended up trying to keep his kids quiet for him as he watched episodes of Family Guy on his posh screen. So that was my SAFC-free weekend ruined before I even touched down in Europe.!
With that plan foiled I went online while I waited for my airport pick up. With a couple of exiled kilted Scottish fans making their way towards Amsterdam as I arrived, it sparked my interest and I was intrigued how Craig Gordon was getting on for Scotland.
Not very well, as it turned out. Our record-breaking buy’s omission from the Sunderland first team resulted in him losing his place between the sticks for his national side. He’s since come out and said he’ll leave SAFC unless he gets game time pretty soon. As much as I don’t doubt that Craig will come good at some point, the sad truth is that at the moment he’s just another one of Roy Keane’s overpriced signings rotting in our reserve team.
Also spouting off to the press was our very own chairman, Saint Niall, who is starting to confuse Sunderland fans.
It is season ticket renewal time here on Wearside, so Quinny has been giving his annual sales soundbytes to the press, which initially sound frank and forthright, but when you dig a little they are ambiguous and puzzling.
Despite Ellis Short being the majority shareholder at Sunderland AFC, Niall talks about what life could be like if the American’s takeover goes through, as if it hadn’t already happened.
There was brief excitement last week when we were linked to Louis van Gaal as a replacement for Ricky in the summer, only for Quinn to deny it and promise Spag Bol would be hitting the continent to run the rule on some summer signings. That won’t boost next year’s advance ticket sales, but he can hardly say he’ll sack him if we go down at the moment, can he?
Finally, I was amused by a Newcastle fan last week who appeared in court after resorting to desperate measures to avoid watching his poor side. The stupid Mag who invaded the pitch when Djibril Cisse scored against them in February, had his plea to be barred from St James’ Park turned down!
Instead Kevin Southerton was fined £200 (e215) for going on to the playing area at a football match. When police arrested Southerton, he yelled: “I hope I get banned. I’m sick of watching this.”
Long may their demise continue, it may just save us from the drop...
* Read more from Martyn McFadden on www.a-love-supreme.com
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