I was taken to my first Sunderland game at Roker Park in 1966.
I mention that fact as it has a bearing on the following statement: this has been the best season I’ve known in my lifetime.
I certainly don’t say that lightly, as there have been many fantastic moments and quite a few very enjoyable seasons. Every promotion season has brought pleasure and excitement but the fact that they were promotion years tells the story — we weren’t competing with the top teams.
The 1979/1980 promotion campaign was
exciting. The 1998/1999 105-point season was brilliant and the subsequent two seventh-placed finishes were a joy to behold — albeit with points totals of fifty eight and fifty seven, and that we won’t surpass this time.
However, the difference this season is that we’ve actually got a target and a goal to aim for in the final match against Chelsea — that of a European spot.
I’ve always thought of Sunderland as a big club.
Our history tells us that and I inwardly groan when people start a fact with “Since the Premier League began…”, as it belies a fundamental understanding of what history is.
You can’t arbitrarily decide which bits of history you want to include and which bits are no longer relevant. History is the past. All of the past. Arsenal winning this season’s Premier League to an extent, is already history. You also can’t decide that ‘“Going back to the 1920s and 1930s is ancient history” and that you can’t count those years.
You have to count those years. They’re part of our history, and the list of league titles reads thus:
- Manchester United/Liverpool: 20
- Arsenal: 15
- Manchester City: 10
- Everton: 9
- Aston Villa: 7
- Sunderland/Chelsea: 6
- Newcastle United/Sheffield Wednesday: 4
We are a big club, in every way you care to judge what that means — unless you’re the kind of airhead who judges it by “Which major trophies have you won recently?”
I’ve always thought of us as a big club. I’m aware of the titles and the cups we’ve won in the past, but trying to comprehend that it’s only resulted in Sunderland playing in a European competition once in my lifetime is astonishing.
Of course, the chances of qualifying for Europe vary from season to season.
When we were one of the biggest clubs in Britain, there were no European competitions, and Peter Reid’s team would’ve qualified twice for Europe via today’s metrics. But nonetheless, here we are on the cusp of doing just that — fantastic times for Sunderland AFC and its fans, and it’s actually quite difficult to take in that we may be about to qualify for a European competition via a league position for the first time in our very illustrious history.
At the end of last season — which was fantastic in itself — with the Coventry games and the Wembley win, it was a sublime summer and we could relax knowing our beloved club was at last back in the top flight.
At the time, I wrote about trying to enjoy the moment; not look too far ahead to the start of the season, but to enjoy the glory and satisfaction of what we’d just achieved. I didn’t think it could get much better, but it just has!
I’m buzzing for Sunday. It’ll hopefully be one of those memorable occasions for all who follow the red and white stripes. But just as I did last year, I’m trying to calm myself before the storm and trying to enjoy these few days as the build up a potential European qualifier.
Supporters of Liverpool, Manchester United and City, Chelsea and Arsenal don’t understand. I’ve talked to some of them and their eyes glaze over when I try to explain that to enjoy real excitement and joy, you have to have endured pain and suffering.
Arsenal have just won the league for the first time in over two decades. Well done to them. They’ll rightly be over the moon, but they’ve never been relegated and they haven’t endured what we’ve endured. Our joy at winning trumps theirs, because we know where we’ve come from.
We know the sadness and the pain that our history has occasionally brought us. Our happiness now was part of the pain back then. That’s the deal.
So after basking in this joyous season with this brilliant, tight-knitted squad, I’ll be ready for Sunday.
We can truly be a twelfth man against Chelsea. That roar can shock them whilst lifting us and driving us on. When legs get heavy and lungs are bursting, we can lift the Lads to new energies and second winds. We’re supporters — on Sunday, that’s our job.
Régis Le Bris will ensure each player is fully aware of their roles and requirements, and ours is to sing our hearts out for the Lads!
