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		<title>ESPNFC.com - sunderland</title>
		<link>http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland</link>
		<description>ESPNFC.com presents sunderland</description>
		<language>en-us</language>
		<copyright><![CDATA[Copyright &copy; ESPN Internet Ventures]]></copyright>
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			<title><![CDATA[Persistent talk of Liverpool leaves Sunderland facing life after Mignolet]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:29:43 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Pete Sixsmith]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1682]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[It looks very much as if Sunderland's Belgian goalkeeper Simon Mignolet will be leaving the Stadium of Light for Anfield if the many newspaper and internet articles are to be believed.  Despite the health warning attached to most transfer speculation, the interest does sound genuine and the clubs appear to be negotiating a fee -- Sunderland want 10 million pounds, Liverpool are prepared to pay eight million. What&#x26;rsquo;s the betting it is an "undisclosed fee" that is declared when he becomes a Red?]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[New signings and new look for Di Canio's Sunderland]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:29:12 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Kristan Heneage]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1678]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[In the absence of last day relegation drama, Paolo Di Canio took it upon himself to fill the void. His 24 minute rant was captured on video for all to see, as the Black Cats manager tore through his squad. The passion at the Stadium of Light had dwindled in the final hours of the Martin O'Neill era, but Di Canio brought it back in abundance.   Laying bare the problems he believed to be endemic with the club's playing staff, Di Canio was determined to be part of the solution rather than the problem.]]></description>
			<guid isPermalink="false"><![CDATA[1678]]></guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Another win for Wigan over City as fans get their say]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 05 Jun 2013 06:54:14 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Colin Randall]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1653]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[Running a football website is both a pleasure and a pain. Sometimes, the two sensations unite so firmly that innate masochism can be the only reason for carrying on.  Take the start of any new season. I love the fact that football is back and enjoy the league version infinitely more than any international competition that fills the summer gap.  But by the end of July I am also thinking about the minimum of 40 people, supporters of other clubs, I need to find over the length of the coming season to answer questions in one of the most popular features on my site Salut!]]></description>
			<guid isPermalink="false"><![CDATA[1653]]></guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Players behaving badly face headmasterly wrath as Di Canio lays down law]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 23 May 2013 21:51:56 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Colin Randall]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1637]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[What is it, asked Ken Gambles -- a contributor to Salut! Sunderland's series of necessarily gloomy end-of-season reviews -- about footballers in night clubs and 50-pound notes?  He was referring to the unseemly episode in which Sunderland defender Phil Bardsley was photographed lying on the floor of a casino surrounded by money of that denomination.   -Macintosh: Di Canio outburst sets up fall drama  Bardsley, an all-heart plodder whose limitations had already placed a question mark over his continued Sunderland career, was promptly excluded from the squad for the final game at Tottenham Hotspur Sunday and heavily fined by coach Paolo Di Canio.]]></description>
			<guid isPermalink="false"><![CDATA[1637]]></guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Brave last stand not quite enough to escape fourth-bottom]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 19 May 2013 19:34:20 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Colin Randall]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1618]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[In the part of France where I spend several months of the year, friends and neighbours are celebrating in style after Jonny Wilkinson again did his bit for the entente cordiale, helping les rugbymen of Toulon come from behind win a thrilling Heineken Cup final in Dublin. All week, the French media had been saying Clermont were the slight favourites.  Could Sunderland produce their own rear-guard action with the round ball in the final game of their Premier League season on Sunday against emphatic favourites in Tottenham Hotspur?]]></description>
			<guid isPermalink="false"><![CDATA[1618]]></guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Undeserved salvation, thanks to Arsenal -- and Paolo Di Canio]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 15 May 2013 16:40:08 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Colin Randall]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1600]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[First things first.   Thank you Arsenal. And hasten back Wigan. Sunderland are safe courtesy, in the end, of the success and failure of others and it is right to acknowledge that.  The Gunners, of course, beat the FA Cup winners not because they wished to help out Sunderland but to improve their own chances of finishing fourth ahead of Spurs or even third if Chelsea stumble in their final game at home to Everton.  - Rose returns to Tottenham  Some Arsenal fans still went along to Salut! Sunderland after the 4-1 defeat of Wigan to point out that Paolo Di Canio's team now had a solemn duty to return the favour and defy Tottenham on Sunday.]]></description>
			<guid isPermalink="false"><![CDATA[1600]]></guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Yet another failure leaves Sunderland relying on Arsenal or Villa]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 12 May 2013 19:30:17 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Colin Randall]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1575]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[If you needed one match to sum up the woefulness of Sunderland's season, this was it.  For the second home game in succession, a draw was scraped when victory was required. And not a soul among Sunderland's undeservedly large army of supporters could seriously protest after a game in which relatively modest opposition, as so often since last August, was made to look more like a bunch of world-beaters.  Sunderland 1-1 Southampton.  - Match report: Sunderland 1-1 Southampton  Briefly, it looked as if Paolo Di Canio's underperforming, frequently non-performing, side might have fashioned their own Premier League safety.]]></description>
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			<title><![CDATA[Unhappy memories of facing Southampton amid relegation fears]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 09 May 2013 19:05:16 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Colin Randall]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1547]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[Yes, I know where I was when JFK and Princess Diana died -- at a cinema in County Durham and in bed in North Yorkshire, respectively.   It is even easier to identify my whereabouts whenever Sunderland have been relegated in my lifetime. It never happened before my lifetime as the club was ever-present in the top flight until 1958. On many sad occasions since then, I have either been at the match in question or somehow in touch from far away.  On the night of April 22, 1997, I was at a Thai restaurant in London with my wife.]]></description>
			<guid isPermalink="false"><![CDATA[1547]]></guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Sunderland test supporters' nerves, but live to fight on for safety ]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 06 May 2013 23:22:49 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Colin Randall]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1528]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[Others teams find themselves able to produce the big performance when they have to. Aston Villa a week ago, Wigan and Villa (again) at the weekend spring to mind, and even Newcastle United bounced back from humiliation at home to Liverpool to keep a clean sheet at West Ham.  So what is Sunderland's initial response to dire need, especially after their own humiliation (the 6-1 hiding at Villa)? To look a complete, shapeless shambles devoid of threat for half an hour, conceding a bundled goal to Stoke City's Jon Walters and then losing the last of their three top scorers for the rest of the season.]]></description>
			<guid isPermalink="false"><![CDATA[1528]]></guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[PDC's ragged class of 2013 needs the 1973 spirit that defied Leeds]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 02 May 2013 16:43:39 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Colin Randall]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1514]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[After his first game in charge of Sunderland, a narrow and honourable enough defeat at Chelsea, Paolo Di Canio praised his players' effort and told them to prepare for six cup finals, the games from which they would have to claw the points needed to stay in the Premier League.  For two games, the motivation worked.   The Tyne-Wear derby, from which many Sunderland supporters had feared the very worst, turned into an easy romp to victory. Then Everton arrived at the Stadium of Light full of top four ambition -- and left empty-handed as PDC's team club clung in reasonable comfort to a lead established with a classy Stephane Sessegnon shot in the first half.]]></description>
			<guid isPermalink="false"><![CDATA[1514]]></guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Villa thumping brings Sunderland back down to earth]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:56:15 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Colin Randall]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1496]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[For Sunderland supporters, there were two ways of looking at Newcastle United's astonishing collapse against Liverpool. The temptation to gloat was matched by the knowledge that a tough match of their own was to come at Villa Park.   And in a game that Sunderland, up until the start of the second half, looked capable of drawing or even winning, comprehensive defeat brought all the worries of inadequacy and relegation streaming back.   Aston Villa 6-1 Sunderland .  - Villa vanquish Sunderland  On the evidence of a second half rout, despite what I feel was a less than balanced display of refereeing from Lee Probert, I raise no serious complaint about the justice of the scoreline.]]></description>
			<guid isPermalink="false"><![CDATA[1496]]></guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[Can Graham capture Sunderland hearts at Villa Park?  ]]></title>
			<pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:52:50 PDT]]></pubDate>
			<author><![CDATA[Colin Randall]]></author>
			<link><![CDATA[http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/sunderland/id/1479]]></link>
			<description><![CDATA[In March 2008, Michael Chopra, born in Newcastle, alumnus of Alan Shearer's school and out-and-out Magpie, scored a vital away goal for Sunderland at Villa Park.  It was another of those seasons that found the red and white part of the North East, then managed by Roy Keane, involved in a relegation struggle.   The three points from Aston Villa -- who will again be Sunderland's opponents on Monday night, again at Villa Park -- brought Keane's first away of the 2007-08 campaign. It was also the margin that separated Sunderland at the end of the season from the clubs that went down, Reading, Birmingham City and -- beating Sunderland's own record-creating low of 15 points in a Premier League season -- 11-point Derby County.]]></description>
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