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Get your holidays in at work - Sunderland are off to France!
With Euro 2016 set to end on Sunday the 10th of July, the people of France have about two weeks to prepare for the arrival of a load of daft Sunderland fans, with the first game of the tour taking part against Swiss minnows FC Stade Nyonnais on Monday the 25th.
Two days later Big Sam's men take on newly-promoted Dijon FCO, whose side contains former Newcastle United player Romain Amalfitano, rounding things off with a game against decent quality opposition in former Ligue 1 champions Montpellier HSC on Saturday the 30th of July.
With the first game of the Premier League season two weeks after that Montpellier game, it would seem that we have not yet finalised our pre-season programme, and you'd have to imagine that we'll announce at least one more game to take place on the following Saturday (the 6th of July).
The venues for all games are yet to be announced, which is slightly infuriating as you don't quite know exactly where to head if you are planning on travelling down to France.
The statement on the club's official Twitter account reads:
For fans planning travel to #SAFC pre-season games in France, they'll be staged around Lake Geneva area. We hope to confirm all details ASAP
— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) June 20, 2016
Not exactly helpful, but there we go.
Sam Allardyce mentioned in an interview with TalkSPORT a week or so ago that we're heading to France largely because the facilities there have been improved superbly for the European Championships and we'd like to take full advantage of what they have to offer, which makes sense.
It is rather frustrating, however, that the club leave it as late as they do to give the fans any sort of idea of where to head for pre-season. Most die-hard Sunderland supporters plan their summer holidays around whatever the first-team are doing in pre-season and it must be really annoying for anyone sat waiting for a proper announcement.
That said, at least you know what days we'll be in the south-east of France.
Fixtures:
FC Stade Nyonnais - Monday 25th July, 7pm, venue TBC
Dijon FCO - Wednesday 27th July, KO TBC, venue TBC
Montpellier HSC - Saturday 30th July, KO TBC, venue TBC
