Give a reason why you’ve chosen your option too. hi5
I’m not massively concerned but I’ve voted yes. A few months ago I was getting pissed off with the whole love-in about Sunderland but in fairness Keane has done a cracking job there and it’s interesting to see him in management.
They’ll get some amount of coverage in Ireland next year as well I’d imagine.
I don’t care. Its Sunderland. They may becoming a little Ireland up in the North of england but thats no reason for me to start caring about whether or not they get promoted.
By the way read this news a few days ago:
SAFC confirm Ireland tour
Sunderland today confirmed that they will travel to the Republic of Ireland to play three games as part of their pre-season programme next summer.
The tour, sponsored by Irish airline Aer Arann, who will fly the team during the tour, sees Roy Keane’s side take on Bohemians, Cork City and Galway United in a week-long stay in Ireland.
Bohemians, based in Dublin, host the first game at their Dalymount Park home. Founded in 1890, Bohemians are the second oldest League of Ireland club in existence.
Sunderland then move on to Keane’s home city of Cork to take on Cork City FC at Turners Cross.
Elected to the League of Ireland in 1984, Cork City were Champions of the Eircom League in 2005 and played in the Champions League this season as a result.
The final game of the tour sees the Black Cats fly to Galway, where they will face Galway United at Terryland Park.
The games take place as follows:
Saturday July 28 2007, Bohemians FC v Sunderland AFC (7.45pm kick-off)
Monday July 30 2007, Cork City FC v Sunderland AFC (7.45pm kick-off)
Wednesday August 1 2007, Galway United FC v Sunderland AFC (8.00pm kick-off)
Roy Keane, Aer Arann’s Cathal O’Connell and Niall Quinn at Sunderland’s training ground
Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn said: "We are very honoured to bring Sunderland on this summer tour of Ireland courtesy of Aer Arann
“There’s a marvellous feeling of goodwill between Sunderland and the Irish public and this trip will complement the progress at the Club since Drumaville’s takeover last summer.”
“We’re sure the tour will be fantastic for the Club and its supporters and there has already been tremendous amount of interest from Sunderland fans wishing to make the journey to Ireland with us.”
This is the first major soccer sponsorship deal for Aer Arann, which operates more than 600 flights per week across 39 routes in Ireland, the UK and France.
Commenting on the announcement, Colin Lewis, head of sales and marketing at Aer Arann said: "We are delighted to be coming on board as official sponsor of Sunderland’s pre season tour of Ireland.
"There are obvious Irish connections with Sunderland and we certainly welcome the opportunity to work with them as we grow our routes in the UK market.
“We know this tour of Ireland is going to be very successful and the announcement comes at a time when we all wish Sunderland the best in their charge towards the Premiership.”
Aer Arann has recently announced flights from Newcastle to Galway, starting on June 25th 2007.
Tickets for the games will be available in advance from the Stadium of Light ticket office.
However, due to limited capacity at the three venues, tickets will be available on priority to season ticket holders in the first instance.
Any tickets remaining after this priority period will go on general sale - dates for ticket sales will be announced shortly
The only reason I’d like to see them promoted would be to see them get relegated straight away. Roy Keane is a tosser.
I voted yes primarily because I haven’t posted in ages. Second reason is that it creates a genuine Irish interest in the Premiership. Keane is an interesting character, and his progress is in the top flight should be well worth keeping an eye on.
I still can’t understand how anyone cares about how United or Liverpool or whoever the fook gets on over there. But that’s been covered before.
Yes as well for the same reasons outlined by others
Keane will bring a bit of interest to the Premiership but I don’t like him and I don’t really care
I see where Dion Fanning now appears to be permanently reporting on Sunderland matches for the Sindo.
I was just interested. I voted ‘don’t care’. I suppose Keane is an interesting character and it’ll be interesting to see how he progresses as a manager and it’ll also mean a raft of Irish players will get to play at a higher level. However, I also find it hard to warm to a club owned by a group of rich Irish publicans who have now taken to telling the Irish public that they should support Sunderland.
Here, here Bandage. I had the same thought process as you about Irish players(possibly!) getting the chance to play at Premiershop level then I realised theyre not an Irish club(that I have no affinity to) at the end of it all so why should I care.
Voted No because I despise their manager
Yes for the simple fact that it would mean more republic of ireland players playing in the premiership. Not really buying into the hype either, Keane has done am admirable job but he’s had plenty of board support.
And what’s with dion fanning covering every sunderland game these days?
Of course,for the sake of Keano and Quinn,If they wern’t at the club I wouldnt care if they didnt get promoted.
So they come up as champions. They got some belting goals today, especially Murphy and Wallace. I’ll be interested to see how Murphy develops. He’s big and powerful but has a decent touch in the few games I’ve seen him play. Would prefer to see lads like him get an opportunity for Ireland than your Caleb Folans of the world.
Dion Fanning was mentioned earlier on in the thread. Why is he covering Sunderland every week some of you asked ? Well it’s all answered in the Sindo today…Roy Keane’s transformation of Sunderland is one of the stories of this, or any, season. How could a team of losers become unrecognisable upon Keane’s appointment and go on to soar to the top of the league? One man followed the story all season and today Dion Fanning gives us the inside track on Keane’s Sunderland success.
Then he has a 2 page story of little anecdotes that are already in the public domain. What a scoop by the editor’s son!
I think what was impressive was that his net spend was only 1m. Changing around a whole team for that sort of cash from a group of charlatans to a decent side takes some doing. Achieving that within a season is a super effort.
Steve Bruce spent far more money on both wages and transfer fees. And he got a head start on Keane.
I’d agree that Pulis has probably achieved more. Nobody ever argued otherwise. The strongest words used about Keane’s performance so far were “admirable job.” If you disagree with that then you’re just ignorant.
Bandage was impressed with Keane.
They could be in big trouble now after tonights result. I would think they will be seething with Alan Wiley, definitely seemed that he had blown for a free out before Portsmouth scored the equaliser.
Stuck a tenner on them to go down at 11/1 on BF yesterday. Long term evens bet on Hull to go down is still alive too. Between them hopefully I will collect.
They imploded big style tonight after going 1-0. Ferdinand is a clown. I had 0-0 backed at 8/1 and laid it off just before they scored so for a change I finally made some money on a soccer bet.
Can Anton still play for Ireland? His Wiki says he can. He’s not bad on his day. Only problem being usually it’s not his day. But he’s still young.