I’ve almost got used to experiencing new football supporting emotions this season – winning important games with last-minute goals, going toe-to-toe with the country’s best, internationally renowned players joining the club, and qualifying for Europe through the league. They’re the type of things that we’ve seen other clubs’ fans experience as a matter of course, and more often than not take for granted – but for many of us they’re things we’ve rarely, if ever, been able to enjoy.
Until this season,
of course.
Just how far we’ve come was perfectly illustrated on Saturday when the Dutch national team demolished Sweden, with Sunderland’s Brian Brobbey leading the line.
Yep, our striker being the main man for his country at the World Cup, scoring two and earning glowing praise from the world’s media.
It was a performance that will get the attention of clubs around Europe, and if any of the Champions League teams need a striker he’s going to be pretty high on their list. He’s strong, he’s pacy, and as demonstrated against the Swedes, he does have a poachers’ instinct that sometimes hasn’t been as evident as you’d like it to be playing for us this season.
You can worry about other clubs wanting our players if you want, but the reality is it comes with the territory. If we have good players, other clubs will be looking at them. (We’ve seen the flip side of that all too often, when we’ve been stuck with players we want to shift, and paid wages for years after they’ve left.)
Hopefully, what we can offer is a compelling enough proposition for players to want to stay – and, also, want to join.
And that’s the biggest thing with Brobbey’s performance. It’s a huge redemption arc completed. I don’t know if you remember the reaction from a number of Ajax supporters and media when he joined Sunderland, but it wasn’t hugely positive. He was seen as a bit of a joke by some; ‘I’ll drive him there myself’ comments were there too – albeit the Dutch version. Probably ‘I’ll captain the ferry’.
After a promising start to his career, he’d been floundering. A failed move to Germany and off the field problems weren’t conducive to consistent, top performances, and he’d been pretty much cast aside.
When he arrived at Sunderland, it’s fair to say he looked out of touch – he wasn’t sharp, he wasn’t fit, but Regis Le Bris and the coaching staff worked with him, gave him time to settle in, get his fitness up and this is the result.
For other players who we will be in the market for this summer, there’s no better testimonial than the one Brobbey has written. We’ve got stability, we’ll give you time, get you fit, give you the support you need on and off the field. Your part of the bargain? Come in and give it your all – and you could be playing a leading role in your country’s next international tournament.
The days when players needed to go to a traditionally big team to get noticed are over. Times have changed, and now we’ve created the ideal place for potential to be realised.
It’ll stand us in good stead this summer, and with so many of our players involved in this tournament, the chances are the positive stories have only just started.
Premier League fixtures out: Are you ready?
It’s funny, isn’t it? This time last year I was gagging for the fixtures for the new Premier League season to be published. This year, I would have happily waited a few more weeks. Maybe another month or so.
Since the Chelsea game rounded off the season, it’s been nice to bask in the contentment of a job well done, a successful return to the top flight that was characterised by strong performances by strong characters, and a level of football I don’t think anyone alive has seen before at Sunderland.
Maybe it’s because of the World Cup, too, that the new season still seemed a bit of a way off, but the new fixtures did bring us back to the main task in hand – and excitement will naturally begin to build.
We have to play everyone twice, however, we’re once again facing a newly promoted team in our first away fixture, which gives us an opportunity to learn from Burnley last season, where we failed to step up to the occasion and suffered for it. They’ll have a new manager in place by then too, and it’ll be a tough test in front of a Portman Road crowd who will likely still be somewhat scarred from their last Premier League season.
First up at the Stadium will be Fulham, another club who’ll have a new manager in place, and then away at Brentford, before we face Arsenal and Manchester City – in between which we’ll have our first Europa League game.
It’s a hugely exciting start in prospect – a tough one, no doubt, but this is absolutely where we want to be.
Now the fixtures are out, I can’t wait.
Sunderland Women’s Team – The Future And The Past
Finally, there was news this week that Bay Collective’s purchase of Sunderland Women has been completed, with the club retaining a 20% stake in the team.
While on face value it’s a shame to see the Women’s team ownership move elsewhere, the opportunity for investment and progress is huge, and that can help establish the Lasses team in the top echelons of English women’s football.
The potential was underlined to me when I listened to the excellent podcast Gav and Andrew did last week with Sue Cox (formerly Sue Smith), who was part of the inaugural Sunderland ladies’ team in 1989. This chapter of Sunderland Women’s history is pretty much undocumented, but listening to the podcast and Sue’s enthusiasm for the club really left an impression on me. If you haven’t caught up on it, stick it on – it’s fantastic, and I’ll be watching what happens with the women’s team more closely than I perhaps otherwise would over the coming months.
