Sunderland rolling out the black and white carpet for their local foes

Going into the first Wear-Tyne derby for eight years, Sunderland fans had every reason to be upbeat about their chances of knocking bitter rivals Newcastle United out of the FA Cup. While their neighbours from St James’ Park play in the division above them, their record in the competition over the past two decades has been fairly atrocious and has not improved in recent seasons under the new ownership regime. While Newcastle may have rocketed up the Premier League since the arrival of their Saudi owners, their FA Cup woes have continued and even under the transformative hand of Eddie Howe, they have twice been embarrassed in the third round by lower-league opposition. Given their lengthy knack list and appalling away form, there is every chance that run of early exits could continue on Saturday when Sunderland welcome them to the Stadium of Light.

And what a warm welcome it was set to be. A welcome so extraordinarily hospitable and unprecedented that even if – and it’s a giant Hollywood sign-sized “IF” with flashing neon lights – Sunderland do beat their visitors on the pitch, any temporary humiliation visited upon Newcastle will pale into almost total insignificance compared to the ignominy long-suffering Mackems have just been subjected to by their own club hierarchy. Anyone who has sat through the excellent Sunderland Til I Die documentary series will know fans of the club have had to put up with no end of appalling boardroom decisions but that was all supposed to have changed with the most recent takeover two years ago. Alas it hasn’t and now whatever tin-eared dunderhead signed off on the utterly insane idea to redecorate a corporate bar and dining area at one end of the Stadium of Light with Newcastle colours and slogans surely deserves a lucrative Netflix comedy special of their own.

Confirmed on Thursday, having been swirling around as an unsubstantiated internet rumour for over a fortnight, the news that Sunderland were preparing to toady up to their neighbours in such a fashion has prompted understandable mirth on Tyneside, prompting jubilant Mags to celebrate the most generous gift to be bestowed upon them since a wealthy nation state took over their club. If they can stop laughing for long enough to board the coaches taking them to the derby, an army of 6,000 will still be stitching their split sides back together when they alight near the ground. Given the events of recent days, they can realistically expect to be greeted upon their arrival with a complimentary bottle of Brown Ale, all the better to help them enjoy the sight of their team running out to a stirring pre-match rendition of the Blaydon Races blasting out over the stadium PA.

In stark contrast, Sunderland fans have reacted with such white-hot apoplectic fury to this embarrassing misstep that their young billionaire owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, quickly shelved plans to temporarily turn their ground into a Newcastle theme park and issued a craven apology. “Like our supporters, I was disgusted and hurt by the pictures circulating online of the inappropriate signs that have been ripped down,” he whimpered in an Instachat post that went on to tacitly suggest the hunt for a scapegoat – any scapegoat – is very much on. Whoever ends up shouldering the blame for this fiasco, the responsibility for it lies squarely on the presumably black-and-white striped welcome mat outside Louis-Dreyfus’s door. If he was genuinely unaware, as he suggested, of plans to plaster a certain part of the Stadium of Light with branding that rendered the local fanzine A Love Supreme “genuinely lost for words”, it is a damning indictment on the manner in which his club is run, that not a single person among the many locals who work for him felt comfortable enough to declare what an astonishingly stupid idea it was.

“Crazy,” posted Joanne Youngson, a Sunderland supporters liaison council committee member and just one of many fans to voice their displeasure. “Fair enough, take anything red and white down to minimise damage. But you don’t have to decorate the place for them. It’s just a real shame, their fans are going to be loving it – we would. That’s why I question whether Kyril knows what it means to us. He doesn’t get us, or the region, at all.” Asked about the controversy, Howe played a typically straight bat on Friday even if there were visible traces of a smirk loitering around his chops. “These things can happen,” he tooted. “It’s up to Sunderland what they do with their stadium, it’s nothing to do with us.” While understandably less successful and wealthy than their rivals, Sunderland have now achieved the almost impossible by somehow losing what passes for the moral high ground.

Join Rob Smyth for hot FA Cup clockwatch action from 7.15pm GMT, featuring coverage of Brentford 0-0 Wolves, Fulham 0-0 Rotherham, and Tottenham 0-0 Burnley. Don’t blame us, it’s the Friday night prediction rules.

“It is my one regret that he is not here now to see this. It was something that he said to me before he died: ‘Make sure you go and have a go.’ I said: ‘I will do, Dad, when the time’s right.’ I think he would be proud and you just hope he’s looking down somewhere now” – memories of the great Ray Clemence are shared with Ben Fisher as son Stephen prepares his Gillingham team for the visit of Sheffield United.

Credit where it’s due to Sean Dyche. Having made his opposition to the winter break clear, he’s now avoided one by having an FA Cup replay in the middle of it. I reckon that makes him an innovator, roughly speaking” – Phil Russell.

Re: the Undertones and Subbuteo (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). Towards the end of last year, McTear’s – an auction house in Glasgow – were hosting an auction of a significant amount of football memorabilia from the family of the late, and very great, Bertie Auld. This included a number of signed shirts, both Celtic and opponents, that he’d acquired. One very attractive lot was the shirt worn by one of Bertie’s opponents in the European Cup 1967 semi-final second leg played at Celtic Park. It gave the successful bidder the opportunity to own a genuine Dukla Prague away kit. Unfortunately, despite my letter to Santa, no one got it for me for Christmas. Half man, fully despondent” – Ken Muir.

Like Jürgen Klopp, and seemingly 1,057 others, I’ve also lost my wedding ring (yesterday’s letters). I inadvertently sacrificed it to Njord, the Scandinavian god of water, in order to secure safe passage down a treacherous river (well, it sounds more interesting than ‘it fell off while white water rafting in Iceland’, doesn’t it?” – James Vortkamp-Tong.

Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Phil Russell.

We’re following League Two strugglers Sutton United into the FA Cup third round this weekend. Since their victory over Horsham they’ve sacked manager Matt Gray and replaced him with, well, no one. As it stands Jason Goodliffe is still caretaker having overseen a win, a draw and two defeats after trying to clean up the mess at Gander Green Lane after an 8-0 humiliation at Stockport that led to Gray’s exit. It could be a painful trip to Plymouth but, if we’re looking for a sliver of hope somewhere, the Pilgrims still haven’t got themselves a permanent manager either since Steven Schumacher did one for Stoke, and they haven’t won in four games. Could Sutton party like it’s 1989? Probably not, but we had to make reference to that Coventry upset somewhere.

Former Everton and Denmark defender Rikke Sevecke has announced her enforced retirement after the diagnosis of a heart condition. “As of now I will no longer be running around doing what I’ve done my whole life, playing football,” she said.

Sir Big Jim Ratcliffe will operate a wait-and-see policy as he and his Ineos crew get their feet under the Manchester United table. As a result, Erik ten Hag will apparently not be marched through the door marked “Do One” for the foreseeable, unless the team endure a sequence of alarming results and displays to follow their recent sequence of alarming results and displays.

Everton are to appeal against the red card Dominic Calvert-Lewin received during Thursday’s dour, goalless FA Cup snoozefest at Crystal Palace. “If you slow down everything, you’re going to find what you are looking for,” growled Sean Dyche.

Hamstring-gah will keep Dominic Szoboszlai from Liverpool’s FA Cup meeting with Arsenal on Sunday. “I can confirm it’s not a potential [knack] – it is [knack],” wailed Jürgen Klopp.

Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta has denied that Arsenal have approached the reffing body over the treatment dished out to Bukayo Saka by opposing defenders. “We have regular conversations with the PGMOL but nothing specific about that one,” cooed Arteta. “Wingers provoke a lot of fouls and attention from defenders – that is something normal.”

Football League manager merry-go-round latest: Luke Williams is out at Notts County and in at Swansea (“I have looked him in the eye and know we can trust Luke to be a coach and leader who is aligned with our vision,” whooped senior suit Andy Coleman); Danny and Nicky Cowley are in at Colchester United; while Karl Robinson and his filing cabinet are in at Salford.

And football’s most famous Chilean Stokie, Ben Brereton Díaz, has moved to Bramall Lane on loan from Villarreal. “I didn’t have to say much about Sheffield United because he knows all about us already,” cheered Chris Wilder.

Does it matter if Tottenham win a trophy? David Hytner hears the thoughts of Ange Postecoglou, for whom Giovani Lo Celso has become a key man, according to Ben McAleer.

In selling some of their asset to Sir Big Jim, the Glazers found their formula to stay at Manchester United for eternity, writes Aaron Timms.

It’s been 14 months and 28 matches since Rotherham won away. Could Fulham be the end of that run? Dom Booth hears from some long-suffering fans.

From Rory McGrath feeling up Sean Dyche to relegation from the Football League, John Brewin charts National League leaders Chesterfield’s North Sea-aided rise and rise as they prepare to visit Watford in the third round.

FA Cup things. And yes, there are 10 of them.

In our last update on how Pascal Chimbonda’s leap into management was going at Skelmersdale United, the enigmatic Frenchman had been hit with a five-match stadium ban for charging on to the pitch in a North West Counties match at Barnoldswick Town. His club immediately appealed against the decision to charge him with improper conduct, arguing that the 44-year-old was just trying to stop “his players from getting hurt in a melee”. The FA judged the punishment as harsh and has since reduced it to a three-match touchline ban, plus a £50 slap on the wrists. Ah well, better than nothing, was a summary of Skem’s feelings about this. But the best was left for last in the club’s Social Media Disgrace TwiXer post ostensibly revealing the FA’s verdict. “In other news, Pascal is now registered as a player, and we could see him play against Bury on Saturday 27 January.” Woof!

Yeovil Town player-manager Alec Stock at work in his office immediately after training for his team’s FA Cup fourth-round clash with top-flight Sunderland in January 1949. Stock’s work on and off the pitch clearly worked as he scored in a famous 2-1 victory in front of some 17,000-plus fans. The Glovers would go to Manchester United in round five, where they’d lose 8-0. But nothing can take away the legend of that famous day in Somerset.