In a speech of July 1957, one of the last Tory grandee prime ministers, Harold Macmillan, coined a phrase, “we’ve never had it so good.” I was flicking through Twitter this afternoon, and that video of Tommy
Watson stroking that goal home reappeared on my feed. For some reason seeing that again for the umpteenth delicious time made me ponder that phrase from Supermac, as he was to be known.
One of the reasons I love that Rocket Man video so much is that when Tommy turns back to celebrate, about 25 seconds into the video, you can see me and my two pals going mental. All three of us in various stages of our fifties going crazy like teenagers. It’s amazing what football can do to you.
2025 has been an amazing year personally for me, and Sunderland got promoted. Not only did we get promoted, we also consolidated that achievement with some already remarkable memories in the first half of our first Premier League season for eight years.
And watching that video and sharing it on the WhatsApp group I share with those other two, it got me thinking – have we ever had it so good? Mark started the ball rolling:
“So, 2025, best year we’ve ever seen? Perhaps has the most memorable moments – Ballard v Coventry, the win at Wembley, the 3-0 against West Ham, the equaliser against Arsenal, the winner at Chelsea, the comeback v Bournemouth, and the win against the scum. Amazing to look back on the five consecutive defeats before the play-offs too. Not to mention the Villa performance with ten men. Being disappointed to leave Anfield with a draw. Sheffield United on New Year’s Day where it all kicked off.
Neil considered the Reidy years:
“Best ever? Hmmm. Phillips/Quinn first two seasons in the Prem we were fearless. I felt we could beat anybody those two seasons. Anybody. It was a great team. If only Bob had kicked on when we were second at Christmas instead of deciding gold or chrome taps. But to be fair he really didn’t have the money to compete back then, and Reidy was overachieving. Best ever that we’ve seen? Quite possibly.”
What’s been fascinating to watch is the way it has been drawn out. This regime totally threw out the rule book and did it their own way. Concentrating on youth and developing them, selling some off for a decent profit so that by the time we reached the Premier League we were in an extremely healthy way as far as PSR was concerned, allowing us to spend over £150m in the summer.
At the time many other fans’ outlets were claiming that owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus had no money and was using the club to line his pockets. It must be killing those groups that the success we’re currently having has categorically proved them wrong. Would an apology be too much to ask?
And now as we have played our final game before Christmas, played almost half the games of the season, we are sitting in sixth place, and of the five teams that sit above us only one has beaten us; we got draws against three and beat the other one in their own stadium. We sit 14 points above the drop zone and sit above the likes of Man United, Spurs, Everton, Nottingham Forest, Leeds, and the scum.
The stadium has a new lease of life. The owners have spent money on the infrastructure, and the opening of the Keel Crossing happily coincided with happier times at the football club.
As Sunderland supporters, have we ever had it so good?
