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Dear Roker Report,
To me, a football club is a bit like my car engine.
When things are on the up, the engine purrs. I don’t know which component of the engine is the main reason for my contented smile as I press down the accelerator; in fact, I don’t really know how the engine works or how a clutch, valve, cylinder block, fuel line and the rest link together. I just know I’m happy.
If I can torture this analogy a little further and return to Sunderland.
Again, I don’t really know how the football club works or about the day-to-day
activities of the owner, the manager, the players, the recruitment team, the social media team, the finance and accounting function and the many other components of the business — I just know when I’m happy.
But unlike with an engine, I can at least make some educated guesses that might be as valuable as many other onlookers’ similar guesses and might entertain even if not.
So here goes:
It seems to me that the primary reason that Sunderland are where they are is that they, in their wisdom (which I was seriously questioning after the dumping of Tony Mowbray and appointment of a Cockney fish-out-of-water in his stead, alighted on the professorial talents of an out-of-work Breton whose only foray into management after he obtained his professional coaching licence didn’t inspire giddy confidence.
Others might disagree and select the owner as the primary reason. No doubt a strong case can be made but I can’t help but think there have been plenty of smart, rich owners of many football clubs whose diligent efforts have not resulted in the eye-popping turnaround that we’ve seen at Sunderland.
Similarly, what about the recruitment team?
An extraordinary performance to find players like Nordi Mukiele (a passionate skilful monster of a defender who could surely get into the line-up of almost any team in Europe but whose career was languishing a little after a mixed-time on loan at Bayer Leverkusen) or Granit Xhaka (no words needed) or Enzo Le Fée (a footballing mixture of Legolas, Aragorn and Gandalf) but the very fact that two of those three were, it seems, treading water shows that just being a great footballer is not enough.
So I return to Régis— whom I can’t recall criticising a referee, blaming VAR, being rude or dismissive in an interview, unnecessarily stoking up the furnace before any game, blaming a player or making any interview about himself.
A man that — in a language recently learnt — bonded with this proud and passionate city; who moulded a team around triangles, unselfish running and smart decision-making, who dealt with the highs and the lows with calm; a man with an apparent instinct for understanding what data matters in a data-driven world.
A man that made tough decisions such as moving on one of our most expensive and highly anticipated signings, Simon Adingra, so quickly. A man that eased Chris Rigg into the picture despite the clamour, that integrated Trai Hume, Dan Ballard, Wilson Isidor and Luke O’Nien amongst all the shiny new faces, and that created a platform for Xhaka to produce one of the most extraordinary seasons by any player in my lifetime.
I return to Le Bris and I hear the smooth rumble of perhaps a V8 and I say “thank you”. Then I cross my fingers and say a little prayer that he’ll be with us for many years to come.
P.S. I love the podcast. Keep up the fantastic work.
Damian Murphy
Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Damian. Thank you for your letter.
In my view, the job that Régis Le Bris has done at the Stadium of Light this season (he’s been hugely influential ever since he arrived and was already rightly being acclaimed for leading us to promotion) is not being given enough credit outside of the Sunderland circle, with the achievements of the likes of Mikel Arteta being lauded and Le Bris seemingly overlooked by the wider footballing media.
To my mind, it’s unfair.
To bring such a diverse and uniquely talented group of players together, unify them around a common goal, earn the results to back up the promise of the squad and see it through to an eventual seventh-place finish is one of the most notable achievements of any Sunderland head coach in my lifetime.
To my mind, he’s the greatest boss we’ve had since Peter Reid and his personality — unflappable, gracious in victory or defeat, strong in belief yet relatable and charismatic — is ideally suited to this job.
Like you, I hope he’s here for a long time to come and that he can continue to build something special and sustainable at Sunderland. He’s earned the right to do just that.
Dear Roker Report,
Before I say this, you may take this as something that’s rather annoying or not something that fun to think about, but trust me: after the first few seconds, you’ll realise how fun of a thought it really is.
We could (and should) have finished even higher than we did!
I still can’t comprehend that our beloved Sunderland will be going up against the likes of Juventus, AC Milan, (wonder if we’ll ever see a Mackem there now?) and Bayer Leverkusen! Two of the biggest clubs — not just in Italy, but in all of football, and also the former treble winners who dethroned the one and only Bayern Munich whilst having a genius of a Swiss midfielder in their ranks (I can’t remember his name, but I’m sure one of you will know).
Anyway, just think back to a few games, gents:
- Sunderland vs Manchester United (H)
- Wolves vs Sunderland (A)
- Aston Villa vs Sunderland (A)
- Liverpool vs Sunderland (A)
Five games that could’ve lifted us so much higher if we’d taken our clear-cut chances.
When Manchester United came to Wearside, we were the better team, created plenty of chances, and should’ve scored and won. Arguably our best performance of the season. That would’ve been two extra points.
At Wolves, Dan Ballard was sent off in a game we were dominating and winning for something I personally feel was unfair and aroused discussion of a look at the hair-pulling rules. If that doesn’t happen, we easily win that game for two extra points.
Villa away. Habib Diarra one-on-one after we came back from 3-1 down. I won’t say anything more, but you get the idea. Three points.
Just like Diarra, Wilson Isidor was one-on-one at Anfield to win it, but Federico Chiesa got back to defend against an Isidor who was low on confidence around that time. It could’ve easily been an additional two points.
I could mention the Brentford away game where if Enzo Le Fée hadn’t tried his panenka penalty, we could’ve maybe earned a draw, but I’ll leave that one out on the basis that Brentford could’ve just as easily still won that game as we had an off-day.
So by my maths, that’s an extra nine points we could’ve had on our total.
Our final total of fifty four plus my hypothetical nine would give us sixty three points. In the final standings from teams that finished above us, only Aston Villa would’ve been affected by fantastical waffle, as they would have three less points than the sixty five they finished on.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if things went our way, we would’ve finished in the Champions League spots as this dream scenario would have lifted us to fourth.
What a season.
Gabriel Ridley
Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Gabriel. Thank you for getting in touch.
Whilst I agree that there were games during the season in which we let points slip in occasionally frustrating circumstances, the fact that our powers of recovery and never-say-die spirit allowed us to retrieve a frankly astonishing twenty two points from losing positions was undoubtedly a major driving force behind our eventual seventh-place finish.
We were able to rally consistently, turning around games that might’ve been beyond us, and at the end of the day, 2025/2026 was a learning process as well as a successful league campaign, with the Lads needing to understand what it takes to compete and to win at this level, and occasionally that meant going through some tough experiences.
It was all worthwhile in the end, though!
