Mackems dish on Keegan appointment

By: Lucas | January 17th, 2008

An article in today’s Sunderland Echo tells us that Sunderland fans are pleased as punch that Kevin Keegan has been hired on again as the Mags’ manager. Not pleased for the same reasons as the NUFC fans, mind you; the Mackems are happy because they see this appointment as a lame attempt to appease a disgruntled Geordie Nation, an attempt doomed to ridiculous failure.

This schadenfreude-in-waiting is happening all over the Mackemsphere (I apologize, and promise to never use the word “Mackemsphere” again):

Pete Sixsmith at Salut! Sunderland takes his digs: “But there at least 50,000 worse off than us [Mackems] and they are all wearing Black and White as the Great Mag Fiasco Show rides into town again. For here is a club for which the word Fiasco might have been invented. The owner thinks he is a fan and wears a (Sports Direct bought) shirt to prove it.”

SAFC fanzine A Love Supreme made me squirt coffee out my nose this morning with this little blurb which I shall reproduce in full (they don’t have permalinks on their site):

There’s A Circus in the Toon…
Kevin Keegan is a clown

A new circus has recently arrived in the north east with a massive selection of clowns as the main attraction. Tickets are selling fast for the Tyneside based show, but it is expected that the chief clown’s return will only have a short term positive impact before he spits his dummy out in six months time when things don’t go his way and leaves the area in a helicopter made of lolly sticks. To purchase tickets for the event you are required to be overweight, ugly and ignorant, Sunderland supporters need not apply.

Back to the original Echo article: There are quotes from the fellows at the aforementioned A Love Supreme and former SAFC great Jimmy Montgomery, but what caught my eye was this:

Superfan Gary “Sunderland AFC” Lamb, from Seaham, described the Magpies’ hotseat as “a poison chalice” and predicted Keegan would not be around for long.

Without overstating the point, Gary Lamb (or “Gary the Mackem” as he’s known here in Portland) is one of the main reasons I’m a Sunderland supporter today.

Long story short: When Sunderland came to Portland in the summer of ‘05 to play a friendly against the Portland Timbers, we were invaded by hundreds of Mackems, and a quick bond of friendship was formed between the Red & White Army and the Timbers Army. The following spring, a bunch of us went to the UK to support Sunderland (away to Man Utd – that’s Gary on the left celebrating the scoreless draw earned by SAFC that day – and home to NUFC). Thus started a series of reciprocal trips that are continuing to this day (on the right is Gary with the iconic Timber Jim here in Portland last summer).

Gary is the biggest fan I’ve ever met, of any team in any sport. He’s covered in SAFC tattooes, and he changed his middle name to “Sunderland AFC” for heaven’s sake! He’s pretty much a legend around these parts, and if he thinks the Keegan appointment is doomed to bombastic failure, that’s good enough for me. I’ll just pop some corn, crack a beer and wait for the hilarity on Tyneside.

Ha’Way the Lads! Ha’Way Gary!