On This Day (7th September 2016): Sunderland finally announce the signing of Mika… remember him?
09/07/2024 01:00 AM
Marquee signings weren't exactly the order of the day for Sunderland in 2016, but the arrival of the goalkeeper from Boavista was nonetheless intriguing, as Michael Dunne recalls
I recall sitting in a smoking area of a pub in Dublin on September 1 2016, sipping my pint and eagerly awaiting the raft of new signings that Sunderland were surely going to make to help our beleaguered new manager whilst also cooling the anxiety levels of all the fans who were tearing their hair out after a mediocre start to the season.
As I sat in the pub, the pints were coming quicker than the announcements of new signings…and this window closed at 6:00pm!
Surely Ellis Short was going to back David Moyes, and a new striker to help Jermain Defoe had to have been on the agenda, I thought.
With Jim White sitting pretentiously in his chair with his yellow tie on, the hope of a major announcement in the North East failed to materialise.
This was until later in the evening when my vision was skewered, my balance was off and my inhibitions had more or less disappeared, when the famous yellow ticker appeared showing the news we all wanted to hear: 'Sunderland close to signing Mika'.
At first, I was excited, before reality set in.
This wasn't a cool, singularly-named Brazilian striker, and nor was it a classy midfielder or an up-and-coming defender who could play out from the back. It wasn't even the fella who sang that catchy song Grace Kelly years ago.
No, this was our new Swiss-born backup goalkeeper, signed after Vito Mannone was ruled out for up to three months with an elbow injury.
The joy - or lack of it - ruined my midweek pints and set the tone for one of the most forgettable seasons as a Sunderland fan.
To this day, I'm not even sure if he played for the club, but what I do know is that going out to drink pints while watching Deadline Day on Sky Sports is not a way to live your midweek life- not when your club announces signings like this one.
I should also add that we apparently couldn't announce it until six days later, due to his former club Boavista experiencing technical issues in the process.
On this day, we celebrate the anniversary of our former goalkeeper Mika signing for the club, and wish him well in all his ventures.
According to Wikipedia, he's now second choice goalkeeper at Portugese team Moreirense.
