"Phillips won't be cheap" - agent

Kevin Phillips's agent Phil Smith has warned potential suitors - including Southampton FC - that his client won't be rushed into signing for anyone.

Sunderland issued a statement today saying they have agreed a fee with Gordon Strachan's Southampton FC for the striker, but Smith told Radio Five Live tonight, "It's a shame it's come out. In an ideal world we would have been able to digest it better and maybe the chance for the player to speak to his prospective manager without it being out in the open."

And he stressed that Southampton wasn't the player's only option, despite Sunderland's statement that talks can now be opened with them. "It will be looked at over the next two or three days - it won't be rushed. There are a couple of overseas clubs that were interested but he wanted to stay here. There will be other interested parties. He wants to win domestic competitions and he wants to play for England."

Smith continued with a hint that should Phillips decide he does want to play for the Saints, that the south coast club won't skimp on the player's wages. "His present contract with Sunderland was negotiated at a time when football was much more buoyant financially. There's still plenty of money in the game but let's not kid ourselves - clubs use it as a negotiating tactic.

"They've just got £7million from Wayne Bridge which they weren't expecting - we'll take some of that thank you."

The footballer’s wife, the treacle sponge and the blowtorch

Part of the ‘job’ contributing to RTG involves keeping the news pages updated as far as having a life and my real job will allow, so you get a decent ‘feel’ (oo-er missus) for the transfer news and speculation at any given time. So being out of the country on summer holibobs means I lose that awareness briefly (unless I can be arsed to find a cybercafe which I usually can’t. So I went off to Ireland the other week fully expecting to spend the week largely unaware of new rumours and not particularly expecting much in the way of actual moves given the transfer market apathy to date. Not that I was singling out Ireland as an incommunicado backwater, but with no ready web access and no Sky access in the cottage we’d hired I was ready for an SAFC-stress-free week.

But it turned out to be much harder to avoid references to Sunderland than I thought. For starters our cottage was in County Kildare – I found out pretty early on that Kildare is the new home county of former SAFC crowd favourite Niall Quinn. Not surprising, really; Quinny loves his golf and racing, and the county is home to two world famous racecourses - the Curragh and Punchestown, and there’s a racecourse in Naas as well, and he’s reportedly a member of Tulfarris Golf Club just over the border in Co Wicklow (incidentally I read somewhere that Ireland has over 2,000 golf courses. I mean – 2,000!!!) Even the name of the local supermarket was a reminder – Superquinn.

The “Quinny Connection” didn’t stop there though. The day after we arrived was important in local GAA-supporting circles – it was the Leinster Senior Football Championship final between Kildare and Laois. Absolutely everywhere we went locally, people had Kildare flags, bunting, banners or posters on display, in houses, cars and shops – almost absolute and obsessive support. Everything stopped when the game started, streets emptied, bars filled. Laois looked like they were going to romp it, but Kildare fought back and lost only narrowly. Anyway the upshot is that I bought the Irish Independent newspaper the following day and guess who writes a weekly column, which that day he devoted to reporting on the Kildare-Laois game? 'Our' Quinny. Absolutely marvellous to read his views on his beloved GAA.

But the “Quinny Connection” continued. Idly channel-hopping one day I caught an ad break on RTE, there was an ad for washing powder – typical enough stuff, lady of the house keeping female nipper occupied supervising her baking efforts, junior nipper doing a spot of colouring-in at the kitchen table. Aaaaaw. Then it occurred to me that "mum" in this scenario looked a lot like Niall’s missus, the ever-patient Gillian I remembered from the pics in his autobiography. Could well be, I thought – she was a model before she was Mrs Quinn, could’ve branched out into advertising... “Aisling you’ll get more on you than on those cakes”, says ‘mum’ – and “Michael look at the pen marks all over you” Hmm, Quinny’s nippers are called Aisling and Michael... Coincidence? Nope. The Family Quinn - minus dad - are the new ‘faces’ of a particular brand of washing powder in the Emerald Isle.

The Irish connection in general continued: Tuesday nights on RTE there’s a programme called “The Restaurant” where a celeb is let loose in the kitchen (a 12 hour shift, no less) of a posh restaurant to concoct their own three-course menu, help and supervise the other cooking personnel, then that night’s customers and three leading food critics get to run the rule over the results, before they’re told who the mystery chef is. I watched this particular episode because the ‘celeb’ was to be none other than Jason McAteer. He said his initial plan was to “get all the punters trollied on wine then serve kebabs” but eventually designed a very varied menu:

STARTERS: Fishcakes with green pea puree OR langoustines with scrambled egg OR beetroot and coconut soup.
MAIN COURSE: Chicken & asparagus stuffing OR smoked haddock paupiettes with new potatoes, rocket and olive oil.
DESSERT: Banana & Vanilla cheesecake OR treacle sponge & butterscotch sauce OR apple crumble.

Not bad for someone who said he had a black belt in cooking – “one chop and yer dead!” Trigger and his team reworked some of the dishes slightly as the evening went on in reaction to diners’ comments relayed to the kitchen on hidden cameras. – McAteer seeming to have a lot of input to decisions, right down to the seasoning. The one-time thorn in Roy Keane’s side reacted to one diner’s remarks by wielding a kitchen blowtorch and threatening to singe her eyebrows… Another diner, asked to guess who the celeb chef could be – said she thought it was probably a rugby player with a very girly menu, and one of the food writers said they thought Jase’s presentation of the haddock paupiettes in tinfoil amounted to “haddock abuse”. The end verdict, though, was more positive: “They’re in the category of some of the better fishcakes I’ve had in my life” and “As far as chicken goes, this is as good as it gets” and he got four stars out of five for his efforts – the highest in the series at the time. Macca’s final reaction? “I’m made up – it was a lot of hard work and it’s nice to be rewarded for it.”

And as the week went on, there was less of a drought than I thought for footy news: Breen and Healy committing in principle to SAFC popped up on day one, along with the possibility of no tribunal for Bellion, and the Irish Independent estimating that Sunderland are “€100m in debt” (ie about £70m sterling). Then whispers that a rumoured McCarthy target, David Connolly, wasn’t going to sign for Reading after all – could we nick him? Errr, no as it turned out. Damian Duff to Chelsea was BIG news in the Republic, being an Irish lad as he is – at £17m it became the third most expensive transfer involving a UK or Irish player, after Rio Ferdinand’s two moves at £30m and £18m respectively. The long-expected news of Gavin McCann to Aston Villa was announced, followed by the equally unsurprising news of Tommy Sorensen’s talks with the same club, and the now news of Kevin Phillips’s looming transfer to Southampton where he started as boot cleaner to some bloke who plays up the road and missed a crucial penalty against us. What does surprise me though is the amount of vitriol towards the likes of some of the wantaway players. Okay Phillips wasn’t a shining star last season but he’s given SAFC arguably the best years of his career to date and hung around on the false promise of big name signings in the offing, which never arrived. He’s given Sunderland loyalty when the board at least didn’t deserve it for lapsed promises. A footballer’s career is a short one and they need to make their living while they can; ambition is aiming for the top rung of the ladder while you’re young and fit enough – we should be saying “thanks for everything and good luck”, not abusing him for simply showing ambition. Similarly with Mickey Gray – okay, the times when he was a wizard on the wing and firing in crosses didn’t save us from relegation this time - just as SKP’s 100+ goals didn’t - and like SKP he hasn’t been a shining star lately, but he’s no more culpable than many of the other squad members. He was good enough for England and put in many good performances for us, and stayed loyal to his home club when he probably could’ve moved away for more money. And what does he get? Vitriolic personal abuse, his promiscuity questioned, accusations of alcoholism. Do you think he actually wanted to play badly? Wanted us to get relegated? Wanted to get dropped by the club he adores and supports, himself? I’m not excusing some of his performances last season but I think the abuse dished out to some players really is OTT on occasion.

Admittedly last season was a disaster waiting to happen, it was hell for all of us and we all have our own views on who’s responsible. I know we all have a right to whinge but ultimately, it’ll achieve little other than just depressing us – I’m not sure Bob Murray’s listening, for a start. Whining on with “...but it shouldn’t be like this" and "we deserve better" - yes it’s true enough but it probably won’t change anything. Our role as supporters is to support – to get behind the lads for 90 minutes on a Saturday, not abusing and booing and writing them off before they’ve kicked a ball. I’m not getting into who’s a “true” supporter on the basis of how many and which matches they go to and who’s not – if you’re there, go to support not to belittle. Booing and abusing players doesn’t encourage them to do better.

Someone said to me last season, “Bet you wish you didn’t support them now”. Not the case. I frequently wish they wouldn’t lose as often, and would score a damn sight more goals – but I’ve never wished I wasn’t a Sunderland supporter.

Haway the lads.

"You don't go away!" - Notts Forest guide

THE OPPO – Nottingham Forest
DATE – Saturday 9th August
KO TIME – 5.35pm (to facilitate Sky TV coverage)

---

THE GROUND – The City Ground, Nottingham, NG2 5FJ, click here for a map - the arrow in the centre points to where the City Ground is.

The City Ground is just south of Nottingham city centre, just off the A60 London Road and opposite the famous Trent Bridge Cricket Ground.

Visitors’ turnstiles are accessible through the Brian Clough Stand carpark via Scarrington Road off Lady Bay Bridge. Away supporters are allocated seats in the lower Bridgeford End, disabled visitors have spaces at the front of lower Bridgeford.

GOING BY CAR?

Follow the signs to the ground along the A6011 approach road – both Forest’s AND County’s grounds are signposted. As you might expect, parking restrictions operate on matchdays and you’ll need to get there early to find on-street parking (but don’t block anybody’s driveway and upset the locals!!) Or you could try crossing the Trent Bridge and parking on the other side of the river, which is apparently relatively quiet on Forest (as opposed to County) matchdays.

GOING BY TRAIN?

You can get a direct train to Nottingham from London St Pancras, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool. Travelling from Sunderland you’ll have to change at Newcastle, then from Newcastle you’ll then have to change at Grantham, Derby or Chesterfield depending on which train you get from Newcastle (go to the National Rail website to see what trains are available for that day.

Nottingham Midland station is in the city centre, and less than a mile from the City Ground. Leave by the main entrance/exit and turn left. At the corner of the station turn left again, then go along till you reach the T-junction with London Road. If you turn right here and follow the road along, you’ll see the City Ground across the river to your left. The away end is furthest from the river.

SCRAN AND BOOZE

Nottingham Forest’s official website says that the Larwood and Voce pub – adjoining Trent Bridge cricket ground - is the ‘unofficial’ pub for visiting supporters. You need to avoid the Trent Bridge Inn, though – they don’t allow opposition supporters in. But there are loads of pubs, clubs and restaurants in Nottingham city centre if you’re peckish and/or thirsty either side of the match.

LEND US A FIVER......

There's an HSBC cash machine actually AT the ground itself. Failing that, the next nearest one is within the Trent Bridge Inn on Radcliffe Road, a quarter of a mile away, the Co-Op Store on Bridgeford Road, and there's a Bank of Scotland machine in the service station on London Road.

IN THE NEWS

They’ve recently signed Michael Stewart on a season-long loan from Man Utd – a player Sunderland were linked with fairly recently.

There was speculation recently that Forest would try to hijack Walsall’s signing of Paul Merson – but it never happened.

Former Forest player Pierre Van Hooijdonk is suing them, claiming he is owed money from his transfer to Vitesse Arnhem in 1999.

LAST SEASON

Final league position – 6th
P 46 W20 D14 L12 F82 A50 Pts 74

HEAD TO HEAD

Forest and Sunderland have met 82 times in league matches and we’ve just got the edge, having won 33 to Forest’s 27, with 22 draws.

LAST FIVE MEETINGS

04/03/98: Forest 0, Lads 3 (Rae, Johnston, Phillips)
08/11/97: Lads 1, Forest 1 (Phillips)
22/03/97: Lads 1, Forest 1 (Ball)
21/08/96: Forest 1, Lads 4 (Gray, Quinn (2), Ord)
08/05/94: Forest 2, Lads 2 (Goodman, Russell)

TRIVIA

- Best league win: 12-0 vs Leicester back in April 1909
- Worst league defeat: 1-9 vs Blackburn Rovers in April 1937.
- Record transfer fee paid: £4.5m to Celtic for Pierre Van Hooijdonk (March 97)
- Record transfer fee received: £8.5m from Liverpool, for Stan Collymore (June 95)
- The derby match against local oppo Notts County is the oldest derby match in the world.
- Forest made the first million pound transfer deal between British clubs
- They were in the first league game ever to be shown live on British telly
- James Dean Bradfield, frontman of the Manic Street Preachers is a lifelong Forest supporter.

And it seems almost an insult to put this in with ‘trivia’ but there’s the very obvious Cloughie Connection – the Brian Howard Clough left his local club Boro for Sunderland in 1961 for the princely transfer sum of £45,000, staying for three years and netting 54 goals in 61 games for the Lads. After management spells at Hartlepool, Derby, Brighton and 44 days in charge of Leeds, he took over at the helm of Forest in January 1975 where he stayed for 18 years, cementing his status as one of football’s true legends.

Credits: Nottingham Forest official website, Rough Guide to English Football, Soccerbase, brianclough.com, streetmap.co.uk, National Rail.

Breen completes move to Sunderland

Defender Gary Breen successfully underwent a medical yesterday allowing
him to complete his move to the Black Cats.

Breen, who has signed a two year contract with the club, will this
morning meet up with his former Republic of Ireland manager Mick
McCarthy and the rest of the Sunderland squad as they continue their
preparations for the new campaign.

Name: Gary Breen
Date of Birth: 12-12-1973
Place of Birth: Hendon, London
Height: 6ft 1
Weight: 12st
POSITION
Defender

INTERNATIONAL APPEARENCES
56 for Republic of Ireland

CAREER HISTORY
1992 - 1994 Gillingham
1994 - 1996 Peterborough
1996 -1997 Birmingham
1997 - 2002 Coventry
2002 - 2003 West Ham

Southampton and SAFC agree fee for Phillips

Press release from SAFC, Tues 5 Aug, 3.11pm

---

Sunderland Football Club has confirmed that it has agreed a fee of £3 million with Southampton for striker Kevin Phillips. The club confirmed this afternoon that it has given permission for Southampton to approach the player to discuss personal terms.

Bellion Plays Barcelona

Safcsa Usa:

I never believed I'd ever see David Bellion Play.

Ok I'm living in New York, and I don't see much live football which is fair enough, I mean it's hardly like I get to go to every home match, but even so he was one of the few shining graces from last season that I hoped to be able to witness (and lets face it there were so very few of them) and when I heard that he was leaving I could not say I was surprised.

Deffered wages hardly encourage new blood, or old talent to stay do they? And a 'local' pre season tour on the cheap, and closed SAFC shops were kind of a sign that things weren't going to get any better soon. But even so I was always hoping that he would stay... I kind of wanted to see him play, at least once.

Seeing him play against Barcelona yesterday in his debut match for Manchester United was not what I had in mind and its no exageration to say that I showered the Chelsea fan sitting in front of me with Phillie Cheesesteak when he was subbed onto the field of play.

Bellie had crept up on me, all the way to Philadelphia and had indeed 'got me' as promised; I hadn't even realized that he had travelled all the way from Sunny Sunderland to the Rainy United States East coast.

It had all begun yesterday evening...

I was meant, as part of my Safcsa USA duties, to meet "XPORT", a young amercian interested in the American Sunderland supporters branch and talk about things during the match; but things didn't quite turn out that way.

I turned up a bit earlier then usual to Nevada Smiths sports bar in NYC to secure my place in the throng that should have been heaving in a Bar that boats the Man U supporters association. But the place was half empty. The game, you see, was at Philadelphia (hence the phillie cheese steak sandwich)and everyone was on their way to see it in some coaches the bar had hired.

Now I had no wish to pay the 170+ dollars required to see the game (I'm interested in football; not Man U and I still haven't been paid for my new job yet) but after everyone had gone; the Manchester United supporters (and one Birmingham supporter) clubbed together to buy me the tickets to the game!!!!

It was a four hour round trip in the VIP, lush-leather-lined coach with more then the odd free beer; and with some of the best tickets in the brand new Philadelphia stadium (Man U Barcelona was the first game to be played in it) I had a fantastic time; and it was all down to the NYC Man U crowd.

Of course I got a bit of stick from some of the other Man U fans but I was wearing my New Sunderland Away shirt (Cheers J.W. by the way!!!) and didn't care. I was having a whale of a time; RohnaldMcDonaldDinio was there and getting some stick on the pitch, Barca scored first, we had some mexican waves, and even a comedy streaker courtesy of a man U fan celebrating the end of a sucessfull manchester tour of the states... Until bellion came on.

I was a little peeved. The Lad was fast, very fast. What I had heard about was true!! Until of course his first touch of the ball resulted in a Barcelona Free kick and what could have been a yellow card incident.

Yup; the old Sunderland Influence from that short spell with our Chuckle-vision Coaches and management had paid off. For what followed that awfull clattering tackle was the poor lad failing to impress any of the Man U fans for the rest of the match ("Who's he where did he come from" I was asked time and time again by some of the old school Man U supporters around me) and several easily made mistakes by a player keen to impress in front of the world.

He was good. Obviously fast, but lacked the neccesary finishing of the other players around him on the field that day. It is my opinion that Bellion will be good. he clearly has a lot to learn and the capability to be taught it, but first, before he makes his mark on the world stage, and if he's going to make it, he's got to shake that hangover gained from his days with us. The lads young; its a shame we couldn't be the one to teach him.

The lesson I learned from this?

Well besides from having to thank the Man U supporters for taking A Sunderland lad out on a great day (and even better sandwich) we need a new Coaching staff and a newer start to our approach to the beautiful game.

I'm beginning to wonder if those keepitupies before the matches at the SOL represent 100% of our training. It certainly seems like it watching them on TV (not that I'll get to do much of that next season anyway)

Well at least, according to one rather comical entry page to the official website (why we can only guess, perhaps it was meant to be a moralle booster) Mic Is going to "give it some". "Do we want some*?" The Image asks us...

Well Mic I have to ask what 'Some' is. Because right now it smells a bit like... Second Division Football.

* I am assuming Mic is not personally going to come round and beat each one of us into buying a season ticket of course.

If You would like to know more about Safcsa-USA, and sunderland in the United States of America, then feel free to give me an
EMAIL