In the hazy, hungover afterglow of what was one of the best weekends any of us can remember, it’s difficult to know where to begin reflecting on what we’ve just achieved, but I think placing our European qualification in the wider context of the club’s journey is a good place to start.
After speaking to many older and wiser people than myself over the years, one common theme I’ve learned is that, for most of us, we only get a handful of truly euphoric, life-affirming moments of joy, which I’m told
the younger generation like to call Core Memories. My dad lists his top two as Sunderland’s FA Cup win in 1973 and England winning the World Cup (it’s a shame there was no room for mine nor my sister’s births, but that’s another story). For me, and likely for many other Sunderland fans, we can now add that gloriously sunny Sunday, 24th May 2026, to our personal lists.
If this seems like hyperbole, then I’d encourage you to reflect briefly on the character-building years of alternating between misery and mediocrity that we’ve all endured. For a decade, we plodded along in the Premier League, usually scraping survival while having little more to celebrate than a few derby wins and a couple of cup runs. We then saw our club nose-dive to previously inconceivable depths, becoming the laughing stock of the nation and the butt of every joke.
Relegations, failed play-off campaigns, off-pitch scandals, a half-empty stadium, drab draws and defeats to clubs from towns with smaller populations than the capacity of our ground. The list goes on and on, and no-one wants to dwell on those memories for too long.
But us fans carried on through these pitch-dark moments, always holding on to the thought that one day things would get better. And just over four years ago, during another flagging League One promotion race at possibly our absolute nadir as a club, things did.
It started out with successes that seemed relatively unremarkable at the time, but with context and hindsight now seem like watershed moments in our rebirth. Securing a League One play-off place on the final day at Morecambe, a club who have since plummeted to the sixth tier but were our league rivals until recently. Triumphing over Sheffield Wednesday, a similarly long-suffering and historic club to ourselves, to finally climb back to a more respectable league standing.
Then came the ultimately unsuccessful, but still memorable, push to the play-offs by Tony Mowbray’s young side. And then, bouncing back from a setback season to claim promotion back to the Premier League in the most dramatic fashion imaginable, making light of pre-season predictions of instant relegation, and securing our first-ever campaign in the Europa League by defeating the World Champions.
All of these moments are crucial parts of our collective journey, but as our magnificent captain said in his inspirational post-match speech, this is only the start.
I’m sure many fans are already looking ahead to the Europa League draw to see which uncharted locations we’ll be descending on, and which household European clubs we’ll be welcoming to the Stadium of Light. But just as we did last summer, let’s take a moment to cherish this feeling and squeeze every last drop of joy from it.
These kinds of experiences are what life is all about, and when the red and white army is packing out those medieval town squares on the continent, dancing and singing to some corny EuroPop anthem, we’ll have even more memories to add to our lists.*
*Disclaimer: on the off-chance that my fiancée is reading this, our wedding will absolutely be in the top three at least. I think I’ve covered my back there…
