Sunderland’s second season back in the Premier League is almost here, and the excitement of what we could do as a club and team is growing to lofty levels.
The summer has been relatively quiet on the transfer front, but we had plenty of pride watching the World Cup and seeing so many of our players shine on the biggest stage. Whilst we’ve not signed a load of players, we’ve kept hold (so far) of some of the quality we’ve built up over the last two years. Even more importantly, these players are better
than they were 12 months ago.
Noah Sadiki and Enzo Le Fée, for example, are far better players and better adapted to the Premier League than they were 12 months ago. From the pre-season showing, Chris Rigg looks raring to go and, over the summer, we’ve had the chance to develop our set-up and plans which served us so well last season, as the bulk of the squad is still there.
Add a bit of quality in a couple of positions, then we’ll be looking great heading into the season. Oh, and we’ll have at least European nights to look forward to with joy and genuine excitement.
Top-class people coach these lads, and they have been brought together by a hierarchy that has shown time and time again what it is capable of. With the end of the window in sight and our activity starting to increase, the squad will almost certainly be bigger than it was a couple of weeks ago.
This coming season is one of great potential and hope, and, optimistically, it feels like an incredible opportunity to do something that hasn’t been done in 53 years and win a trophy.
After all, this version of Sunderland went and qualified for Europe for the first time in half a century – so what’s to stop it taking another step forward and writing more history? We absolutely can, and it’s so exciting.
There will be hiccups along the way, and we’ll have some rough match days this season, but as the curtain is raised on 2026/27, I cannot wait to see what the lads have in store for us.
Bring. It. On.
When that first home game against Fulham kicks off, we’ll have pretty much all of our squad in place, ready for the fantastic months that are ahead. The trip to Ipswich will be tough given that it’s their first game back in the top flight, but we’ve got nothing to fear.
Régis Le Bris loves a good pre-season quote, and in the build-up to the Ipswich game he gave us another beauty.
“They said we would finish midtable in the Championship; we were promoted. They said we would be relegated by Christmas; we finished seventh. We will keep doing things the Sunderland way…”
The Sunderland way has gone well so far for RLB, and hopefully this will continue. SAFC are back and ahead of what could be our most exciting season ever; let’s have it.
