Trai Hume of Sunderland celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the Premier League match between Sunderland and Chelsea
After two of the most amazing seasons in our recent history, most of us can scarcely believe how far we’ve come from the not-so-long ago days of League One.
Going back over sixty years or more Sunderland have typically followed up a season of promotion from the second tier with an objective no greater than survival in the top flight. There was of course one notable exception to this pattern in the shape of Peter Reid’s team of 1998/1999, but what we’ve just witnessed has completely broken the mould after qualifying for European football next season.
Looking back from the 1960s onwards, when we started the shenanigans of promotion/relegation and flitting between the top flight, the second tier and even at times bringing the third tier into the equation, there have been a few but significant missed opportunities where as a club, we tottered on what you might call the precipice of success with one foot sticking out, waving our arms trying to keep our balance and unsure as to whether to commit, push off and take the plunge.
In the summer of 1964, with a young, newly-promoted promising team and for reasons which have never been clearly explained, Sunderland manager Alan Brown — the architect of the side over the previous six seasons following relegation — left the club.
Then, in the wake of our famous FA Cup win in 1973, key players who would be become England internationals were sold.
Manager Bob Stokoe eventually did gain promotion in 1976 with the players he was able to recruit, but England players such as Dennis Tueart and Dave Watson could’ve made a huge difference during what was a doomed First Division campaign.
In 1984 Alan Durban was sacked despite being on the cusp of assembling a good young side, many of whom — as a mark of the pedigree they had — went on to win First Division titles and FA Cups with other clubs.
Denis Smith won promotion to the First Division by good fortune with a good young team in 1990, but for a manager who was a savvy operator in the transfer market, he was never backed with the cash he needed to keep us there.
Then came the infamous implosion of Peter Reid’s team in the early 2000s after two seventh-place finishes.
This was during time when with a almost brand new stadium (and one of the biggest club stadiums in the country at the time) and a new academy when most clubs didn’t have them, we really felt we’d cemented ourselves in the top flight and were destined to push onto even greater things.
Finally, our last chance before the present day was one that nobody seems to really acknowledge, and that was Steve Bruce’s team of 2010/20111.
We’d been picking up good results all through the season and all through the winter, and we were firmly in sixth or seventh place in the Premier League…right up until the day we sold Darren Bent.
In the summer that followed, we also sold Jordan Henderson and Simon Mignolet, and incredibly let Asamoah Gyan leave on loan after the transfer window had closed.
What’s the point of all this reminiscing on missed opportunities? Well, we can and should learn from it. Let’s not cock this up. The past sixty years or more are full of opportunities where we have always — not to put too fine a point on it — bottled it!
We’re standing at a point in the history of our club which feels like one of those decisive moments where we decide where we want to go and what we want to become.
It feels like not only have we put one foot out over the precipice, but that we’re pushing off and are ready to take that great leap forward. Let’s not miss this chance, because this is the best position that Sunderland A.F.C. have got themselves into since we used to win things regularly, and that was a very, very long time ago.
We’re all confident in our owners, and if they had a five-year plan to get us into the Premier League, you wonder what their plan looks like now? Although one or two promising mainstays from the team may leave this summer, you can’t see Kyril Louis-Dreyfus selling the family silver, or not backing the management.
We’ve exceeded all expectations to get into Europe — can we push on?
