Psychologists have spent decades trying to sort people into neat little boxes. Myers-Briggs has sixteen personality types. Other systems use colours, traits and behavioural profiles. Which got me wondering…
What personality types relate to Sunderland supporters?
With the Premier League fixtures now published, it feels like the perfect moment to ask. After all, what personality framework could possibly account for a fan base whose unofficial motto over the years has often been, “It’s the hope that
kills you”?
Perhaps it isn’t as simple as a fixed personality type. It’s more of a collection of emotional states, some of them contradictory, all of them familiar. On any given matchday, the same supporter can move from quiet confidence to existential dread and back again before the half-time whistle.
Spend enough time around Sunderland fans and certain recurring characters begin to emerge. Not fixed identities. More like emotional modes. Most of us have been every one of them. Here’s some you may recognise…
The Optimist Under Duress
Every Sunderland supporter knows one. This fan genuinely believes good things are just around the corner.
“We can get something here.” “There’s a player in him.” “One good result changes everything.”
The catch is that every hopeful prediction comes wrapped in caution. Years of experience have taught them to expect disappointment, but they’ve never quite managed to stop believing.
In August, they are unstoppable. By November, they are negotiating with reality. By March, they are explaining why a strong finish could change everything. Somehow, they’re back again the following summer, fully recharged and ready for another go.
Football’s version of renewable energy.
The Gallows Oracle
The Gallows Oracle sees trouble long before anyone else. A defender slips. A midfielder hesitates. An opposition winger starts finding space. The Oracle notices immediately. Years of supporting Sunderland have turned them into experts in pattern recognition. They know what danger looks like because they’ve seen it before. Frequently.
When the predicted setback arrives, they don’t celebrate being right. They simply lean back. No triumph. No gloating. Just weary confirmation.
The Lifelong Anchor
Every group of supporters contains someone who appears immune to emotional turbulence.
The Lifelong Anchor has seen it all before. Promotions, relegations, cup finals, great escapes, false dawns and the occasional catastrophe. As a result, they rarely overreact. Three wins don’t guarantee Europe. Three defeats don’t guarantee relegation. A promising teenager isn’t immediately the next club legend.
Experience has taught them that football seasons are marathons disguised as sprints. When everybody else is losing perspective, they’re usually the one reminding the room that there are still plenty games to play.
The Dedicated Pilgrim
For some supporters, fandom is measured in emotions. For others, like me, it’s measured in miles.
The Dedicated Pilgrim treats journeys as part of the experience rather than an inconvenience. Rain, traffic, train delays and Tuesday night kick-offs are accepted as terms and conditions. They can identify motorway service stations better than most geography teachers and have enough travel stories to fill a book.
The result matters. But so does being there. When supporters sing “Til The End”, nobody understands it more literally than this lot.
Where Sunderland go, they go.
The Transfer Window Director
The Transfer Window Director has personally scouted seventeen Scandinavian midfielders on YouTube and can explain, at length, why Sunderland should sign every one of them. No rumour is too obscure. No statistical database is too advanced. No 22-year-old left-sided wing-back playing in the Belgian second division escapes their attention.
By mid-July they have assembled a squad capable of qualifying for Europe, winning a domestic cup and solving three long-standing tactical issues. The club’s recruitment department may have years of experience and access to detailed performance data.
The Transfer Window Director remains unconvinced.
The Memory Keeper
Every club needs historians.
The Memory Keeper carries Sunderland’s archive in their head and deploys it without warning. Mention a late winner and they’ll remember another one from fifteen years ago. Discuss a new signing and they’ll compare him to a left-back who made eleven appearances in the autumn of 1998 before quietly disappearing into football history. Every conversation becomes connected to another season, another player, another story.
No matter how modern football becomes, the Memory Keeper ensures Sunderland’s past remains present.
The We’ll Be Fine Mechanic
Football supporters are not always rational creatures. Thank goodness. If every conversation perfectly reflected reality, football would become unbearable. The We’ll Be Fine Mechanic exists to prevent that from happening.
A poor run of form? We’ll be fine.
Three injuries before a difficult away game? We’ll be fine.
A last-minute equaliser conceded? We’ll be fine.
Evidence is optional. Faith is compulsory. Every fanbase needs one.
Particularly when the rest of us are busy thinking otherwise.
The Youthful Convert
Then there are those still learning. The supporters discovering Sunderland through family, friends, geography or fate. At first they assume the emotional turbulence is unusual. Eventually they realise it is entirely normal. The remarkable thing about Sunderland is how quickly newcomers absorb the culture. Before long, they are using phrases they’ve barely heard before:
“It’s the hope that kills you.”
“Typical Sunderland.”
“Never easy, is it?”
Soon enough, they are indistinguishable from supporters who have been doing this for decades.The transformation is complete.
Which One Are You?
Of course, the flaw in any attempt to categorise Sunderland supporters is that nobody remains in the same category for very long. The Optimist Under Duress can become a Gallows Oracle after a misplaced back-pass. The We’ll Be Fine Mechanic can turn into the Memory Keeper after a late equaliser. Even the Lifelong Anchor has been known to wobble occasionally.
In truth, Sunderland fans are less like personality types and more like shape-shifters, moving between emotional states according to the demands of the afternoon. Sometimes all before half-time.
And perhaps that’s the point.
Psychologists spend years trying to understand what makes people tick. Sunderland supporters have spent years trying to understand what makes Sunderland tick. Neither group has enjoyed complete success.
What unites every supporter isn’t a personality type. It’s persistence.
The willingness to come back after disappointment. To believe again after being let down. To make the journey. To buy the ticket. To renew the season card. To keep the faith.
To convince yourself that this year, this manager, this team, this signing might just be the one.
It’s irrational. It’s exhausting. Occasionally, like the past year, it’s glorious.
The Myers-Briggs people may have identified sixteen personality types. For fun, I’ve come up with eight. Most appear somewhere between the fixture release in June and the final whistle in May.
But whatever category we happen to occupy this week, we’ll all end up in exactly the same place.
Back here again next match.
Ready to support The Lads. Ready to go!
