Parallels with the past: Could this be Sunderland’s most exciting summer since 1999?

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

A few weeks before our dramatic play-off final victory at Wembley, I had a re-watch of Premier Pressures, the one-off sequel to Premier Passions.

Originally aired on BBC One in August 1999, it chronicled Sunderland’s preparations for life in the Premier League after storming to the Division One title with a then record-breaking 105 points.

And for a fan with a long-enough memory, it captured an exciting summer which for me, has not been equalled or surpassed – until now.

There are many other contenders.

Reidy’s first promotion summer of 1996 was exciting, but with very little capital to spend, it always felt as though the 1996-97 Premier League season was going to be a struggle, though it must be said that we were unlucky with injuries and were unfortunate to go down with 40 points.

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The Quinn / Keane magic carpet ride summer of 2007 was another exhilarating time, especially with what appeared to be the dawning of a new era taking shape on Wearside. But this was a year or two before Ellis Short arrived with an open cheque book, and aside from the £6 million signing of Kenwyne Jones near the end of the transfer window, summer signings had been with prudence in mind.

So why does (in my opinion) this very summer become the first to compete with those halcyon days of 1999?

Well, for me, it’s all about potential. Back then, we didn’t know the ceiling of what was almost like a new Sunderland as we prepared for our first top flight campaign at the Stadium of Light.

New stadiums were a rarity at the time, the media were impressed by our show of ambition and it looked as though we had genuinely jumped several rungs up the footballing ladder thanks to our progress both on and off the field.

We didn’t have the capital of the top sides, but Peter Reid made sensible acquisitions in the form of Steve Bould and Stefan Schwarz, complementing what was already a talented squad, spearheaded by the prolific Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips.

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Of course mistakes were made during that 1999-200 season, and in the years that followed. Allan Johnston and later Nicky Summerbee fell out of favour, Quinn got older and would-be replacements, such as Kevin Kilbane, Lilian Laslandes and others failed to live up to their expectations.

But we’d still managed two consecutive seventh-placed finishes (1999-2000 and 2000-2001) and that brings me on to what Kristjaan Speakman said in an interview last week.

Our Sporting Director talked about how Sunderland had “always been, on aggregate, around ninth place in the Premier League.” I haven’t seen his figures and ultimately, we’d all like to be aiming even higher (eventually), but that will do me for now. It’s much better to have a target and a strategy, rather than simply aiming to survive, a recurring theme during our years of struggle from 2011 to 2017.

This summer has even more going for it than that of 1999 – financially. Our Wembley win banked us a lucrative £200 million or so. Yes, it’s all relative in that players generally cost more money now and we also have to be aware of Financial Fair Play (FFP) restraints, but our recruitment team has wasted no time in investing for Premier League football.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Our six new arrivals are likely to be followed by at least three or four more. There are never any guarantees in football, but all signings are data driven these days and are part of a process which we are learning to trust. We’ve also made big strides off the field with notable coaching and leadership appointments.

It’s clear that we’re up for the challenge of bucking a trend which has seen so many newly-promoted sides go straight back down. This is a huge sign of intent from Sunderland.

Just like it was in 1999, we don’t know the ceiling of what appears to be a new Sunderland. And just like that summer, we don’t know what is to come. But I believe that our potential now is even greater than it was back then. Isn’t that exciting?

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