Schedules matter. You set goals and you try to hit them. As a fanbase, we’ve been through a spell where our ambitions got completely torn apart. We were humbled. In League One, people accused us of arrogance, and I remember feeling a bit taken aback that Wycombe players were taking the piss out of us. But yeah, maybe there was some arrogance there. Over time, stuck in that dross of a division, we reset a bit. We shook off that Premier League mentality, and something changed properly in all of us. We were still
Sunderland, of course. We’ve still got those six league titles and that massive fanbase. But humility gives you a different kind of strength.
As the team bus crawled along the road outside the stadium, there were two kids stood on a bench outside the Beacon of Light, each holding a flare. The future of Sunderland Football Club that I feared would be lost when we surrendered to League One. They can’t have been more than six years old.
What’s happened at Sunderland over the last 24 months has been nothing short of remarkable, and it’s happened way ahead of schedule. Of course, that brings concerns with it. Have we overreached a bit? Maybe. But the faith in the recruitment is still there.
I’ve never been a Sunderland fan who truly trusted the decision-makers before now. Last summer felt like opening an advent calendar: “Who have we signed today?” I’d never heard of most of them, but it was exciting. Now those players have developed, and their value has gone up. They’ve proved themselves, and naturally greedy eyes are watching.
That’s Sunderland now. And you won’t find a bigger Sadiki fan than me – I absolutely love the lad. But if some unbelievable offer comes in, I’ll have to accept he’s probably moving on, and trust that the money will be put to good use. In the past, it would’ve been frittered away on someone like Didier N’Dong or Papy Djilobodji. We’d have signed players near the end of their careers who could maybe still do a job, but were always depreciating assets – players like O’Shea or Wes Brown. Or maybe we’d have taken a gamble on a young lad who looked promising but drifted, like Jack Rodwell.
Not now.
Yes, we signed Xhaka, and he’s obviously a depreciating asset too, but we needed that leadership in among the young lads, and it worked perfectly.
Relegation favourites at the start. Relegated by Easter, apparently. This team just keeps defying expectations. The best thing about this season, though, has been the way the fans have really embraced that underdog spirit. They’ve connected with the players, and the players have connected right back.
I’d say lads like Hume, O’Nien and Ballard have been a huge part of that. They’re grounded, and they understand what’s happened here. They pass that on to our captain, and he grabs hold of that mentality and makes sure everyone else does too.
We’re ahead of schedule. This wasn’t supposed to happen yet. But for the first time in my life, I trust the Sunderland process.
