A very merry Christmas to one and all. A yuletide fact for everyone: did you know Santa’s outfit is red and white because he’s a massive Lads fan?
There may be truth in that; there may not. But if he has a Sky Sports package (or IPTV for those of you on the naughty list – the elves disapprove) he surely will have had a front-row seat up there in Lapland to a calendar year that, even for Sunderland AFC, you could describe as unfettered carnage.
This time, however, it’s not because we’ve just borne witness
to 12 months strewn with the bodies of defeats, failed objectives, board protests, managerial sackings, and fan unrest. Not to say this was the case then, but if 2024 was very much Sunderland pulling itself from the slurry that was Michael Beale’s tenure, 2025 was a real – as the Americans might say – banner year. The last 12 months have been a vintage of Romanée-Conti Pinot Noir proportions, which I’m reliably informed by Google AI retails for a healthy five-figure sum.
Talking of alcohol, rumour has it in Sunderland there is a new drinking game taking the city’s drinking establishments by storm. It’s called “If you’d said a year ago” in which all the participants must each begin by saying the phrase and then coming up with an iconic SAFC moment from 2025. The last person to fail to name one has to drink.
Apparently it’s the longest drinking game in the world.
The list is endless: the play-off win, the Tommy Watson 95th-minute winner, the Dan Ballard goal, riding high in the Premier League, beating the Visitors, the awesome tifos, breaking the Coventry hoodoo, winning at ’Boro, being a place and a couple of points behind Liverpool… at Christmas. Winning in the last minute at Stamford Bridge, swatting aside West Ham on the opening day, coming back from two down at home for the first time in 40-odd years in the top flight, signing Granit Xhaka, breaking our transfer record many times over…
You can feel the huge sense of pride in the city, which football aside is very clearly a place on the up. And that is hugely satisfying.
Of course at Christmas there is the annual tradition of naming the turkey. Last year Régis cooked up an absolute storm in the Bendelow household. But who gets the title this year? Some may say it’s a one-bird contest with Sunderland’s man-of-steel Granit Xhaka, who turned up at the Stadium of Light in July basted and pre-stuffed and giblets removed. However, I’m tempted to give it to someone who has had a year which could only arguably be better in 2026 if he won the World Cup with Northern Ireland: Dan Ballard.
I’m told Wearside’s favourite talisman has had to start bringing a bag-for-life to matches because he’s run out of pockets to put all of the division’s leading attackers in. He’s a man of such dependability and substance you’d think that Newton’s third law was based on one of his tackles. The man would head a tank trap away if you asked him to. Would you like any more metaphors? No? Well, all I’ll say is rumour has it there’s a Hollywood blockbuster in the works about Big Dan Ballard. Still, if that doesn’t happen he can content himself with having my turkey named after him.
The message this year is, though, one of pride. About, as Régis would probably say, connection. Good connection. We’re talking full fibre. Because the connection between the club, the fans, and the city has arguably never been stronger. Both figuratively and physically, as we saw in October with the opening of the new Keel Crossing – something which has been an absolute revelation.
Who knows what the future will hold, but what has transpired over the last few months has resulted in a club transformed. The hierarchy has hacked its way through arguably two seasons’ worth of redevelopment in one short summer, and the results have been remarkable. What might this mean for the rest of the campaign? Who knows, but it should hopefully ensure a bright future.
And doesn’t it feel good – life – when your football team is doing well? I’m trying to bottle this feeling, but also appreciate it now – because these are the good days.
I must end with a couple of lines on a Sunderland legend: Gary Rowell. He wasn’t someone who jetted in from elsewhere, without being able to differentiate his pink slices from his Lambton Worms. No, a local lad who lived the dream so many thousands of us would wish for. Put simply, if you were to design your football career and the moments that defined it, you would create in your mind the one Gary had with this club – his club.
He was a man whose achievements and legend transcend generations of Sunderland fans, his greatest hits being passed down from old to young. But what a hit – that hat-trick – of Bohemian Rhapsody proportions. And that, in essence, is football fandom. He contributed an immense amount to the legend of this football club, and it is without doubt that many of us will be raising a glass to Lord Rowell of Seaham when the big day arrives. If anyone deserves it, he does, because we all owe him thanks many times over. What a legacy to leave.
Have a fantastic Christmas all you Sunderland fans – and all the best for 2026.
