During the past two decades (and perhaps going even further back than that, if we include our ill-fated 2002/2003 season), it’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment at which the notion of Sunderland ever competing in European competition seemed most fanciful.
Was it the summer of 2006, and the aftermath of our soul-destroying fifteen-point 2005/2006 campaign?
How about 2017, when we plunged out of the top flight and into the swamp of uncertainty under the management of “Mr Charisma” himself, David Moyes,
as his attempts to turn Sunderland into Everton-lite backfired spectacularly?
Or, for the ultimate knife-twist, perhaps it was 2018, when one-time red and white hero Darren Bent netted for Burton Albion and consigned Sunderland AFC to the shameful fate of League One football, as a rapidly-emptying Stadium of Light became a monument to years of failure and ham-fisted financial management.
You could spend a good deal of time and effort trying to come up with answers to the question. But here and now, it doesn’t matter any more. This is, after all, a new club. The crest, the history and stadium remain the same, as does the degree of support the Lads enjoy, but the internals are different. Keyhole surgery? Forget it. We’ve undergone a complete rebuild to get to this stage, and it’s allowed us to dream like never before.
Those dreams and the visions that I’m sure we’ve all shared, of Sunderland running out under the floodlights in European competition, are set to come true when our continental odyssey begins with Wednesday’s visit of AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League.
To some, Europe’s second-tier competition may be little more than a sideshow compared to its bigger brother, the increasingly commercialised and synthetic behemoth of the Champions League.
In the eyes of some fans, it may be the tournament that few care about and invest much energy into – and that may be true if you happen to support a club that’s used to dining at the top table and, for whatever reason, fails to make the cut at the end of any given season.
However, such ideology doesn’t apply here.
Remember those old digs about “Thursday nights on Channel Five”, aimed at clubs that found themselves in the old UEFA Cup? For Sunderland, this is nirvana. It’s midweek clashes on TNT. Glamour, exposure and prestige the like of which we have seldom known – and don’t let anyone tell you any differently.
This matters. It matters a hell of a lot.
If Chemsdine Talbi’s impudent chipped winner against Hull City during last week’s League Cup fixture was the kind of unorthodox yet beautiful goal we seldom score, how can you describe our first sustained foray into European competition without using phrases such as “landmark” and “historic”?
For any supporters fortunate enough to remember our flirtation with European competition in 1973/1974, following the FA Cup success of the previous season, this is an “As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted…” moment, and for the rest of us, it’s something truly magical.
As a young fan, any dreams I might’ve had of watching Sunderland in Europe remained just that amid plenty of turbulence, yet for the kids that make the trip to the Stadium of Light on Wednesday, it’ll be reality.
Sunderland’s current crop of players – combative, skilled, committed, marshalled by the inspirational Granit Xhaka and guided by the calm and composed figure of Régis Le Bris – are more than worthy of the opportunity to showcase their talents on this particular stage, and in the case of new arrivals such as Kevin Danso and Malick Fofana, their timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
The naysayers will be spitting feathers at what they see as the “injustice” of our club competing in Europe based on the fact we had an XG rating of X or a “shots against” rating of Y during the 2025/2026 season, but in reality, who cares?
A league campaign is a marathon; a true and often gruelling test of all facets of your game, and the simple truth is that we had the willpower and the staying power to gain entry into this competition when the music stopped. Will the analysts ever fully get it? I have my doubts. But that’s okay. We know differently.
To borrow a line from the club, Wednesday’s visit of AZ Alkmaar is just the start, and we simply must savour this.
Why? Because it could be fleeting and something we don’t get to enjoy again for some time, such is the fickle nature of football. On the other hand, it could also be the start of something that we get a taste for and subsequently strive to participate in on a regular basis.
Over the years, Premier League clubs that were once deemed “unfashionable”, such as Blackburn and Bolton, have sampled this competition – or more specifically, its predecessor – with varying degrees of success. Now, it’s Sunderland’s turn to stand proudly underneath some of the brightest lights of all, and it’ll represent another waypoint on the journey from a place of utter despair to a new plane of optimism.
