Twelve months ago, we were all doing the same thing. Scrolling the fixture list, counting up the winnable ones, quietly telling ourselves that seventeenth would do very nicely, thank you, and we’d sign for it right now if someone offered.
We finished seventh.
Fifty-four points. European football for the first time since 1973/1974, when the ground we play in was still a working pit.
A derby double over the Mags, home and away. The double over Chelsea as well, sealed on the final day with Trai Hume and a Malo Gusto own goal, which is about as Sunderland a way to qualify for Europe as I can imagine. An average home gate of 46,842. Not bad for a team that half the country had pencilled in for an immediate return to the Championship in about October.
And then there was my birthday.
For those that missed it, the fixture computer gave us Nottingham Forest at home on 24 April. My birthday. Personal stakes, I said. A lovely little occasion, I said. We lost 0-5. Our heaviest home defeat of the season, delivered on the one day of the year I’d asked the universe for a favour. I’ve had worse birthdays, but I can’t currently remember when.
The good news is that the fixture computer has clearly developed a sense of humour, because 24 April 2027 is Forest away at the City Ground. So I’ll be spending my birthday raising a quiet pint to Brian Clough on his own patch instead. Honestly, that might be an upgrade.
Top ten for 2026/2027? Why not?
Here’s the thing that keeps nagging at me about last season, and it’s not a criticism – it’s the opposite.
That team shouldn’t have worked. Not that quickly.
You can’t bring in that many players from that many leagues in one window and expect them to understand each other by Christmas. What actually happened was that a few genuinely influential footballers dragged the rest into shape, and Granit Xhaka more than anybody. He didn’t just play well – he organised a group of strangers into a Premier League side by force of personality.
That was a season built on individual quality papering over a squad that barely knew each other’s names, but this one is different.
These lads have had a proper pre-season together, most of them for the first time. They know each other’s traits and they know where the runs are coming from before they happen. That’s the bit you can’t buy and it’s the bit we didn’t have in August 2025. If we could take fifty points off the Premier League as a group of near-strangers, I fancy us to be better as a team that actually gels.
Top ten. I’m saying it out loud.
Sunderland’s ‘quiet window’?
Yes, I’ve noticed. We could do with a few more bodies.
Thomas Meunier arriving on a free from Lille is a smart bit of business, though, and not a headline one. That’s a lad who’s played at the very top for years and will bring real experience into a young dressing room. Dayann Méthalie is close too, with a medical expected on Monday, and £25.6 million for a left-back at twenty years of age tells you the club haven’t lost their nerve or their eye.
There’s also another arrival coming that won’t cost us a penny.
Habib Diarra had a stop-start first season, with groin surgery in September, and he never really got the run of games he needed afterwards.
I’ll be honest with you: he hasn’t convinced me yet. Not even close. But he’s had a full pre-season for the first time since he walked through the door, and a fit Diarra with a proper summer in his legs is effectively a new signing. Now’s the time to show us, Bonny Lad.
We’ve also said goodbye to a lot of the promotion class – Dennis Cirkin, Dan Neil, Anthony Patterson and Eliezer Mayenda, all away. That stings a bit, but Régis Le Bris has signed on until 2028, and the spine of last season is still here.
Robin Roefs is still ours. Noah Sadiki is still ours. Brian Brobbey isn’t going anywhere. And Enzo Le Fée, the most technically gifted footballer this club has ever had, is still walking out at the Stadium of Light every other Saturday.
I’m not scared. Not even slightly.
The kids are ready
This is the bit I’m genuinely excited about.
Chris Rigg has had the pre-season of his life, with a goal against York then an assist for Le Fée against Liverpool in Nashville, and Le Bris saying he’s taken a “big, big step”. He’s physically imposing now; he’s involved in everything, and he looks like a Premier League footballer rather than a promising one.
Romaine Mundle is about to put pen to paper on a new deal after the club knocked back enquiries, which is exactly the noise you want to hear.
Jocelin Ta Bi laid one on a plate for Le Fée against York and can go past people in a phone box, though he did have to sit the American tour out after his visa got knocked back. Welcome to the club, Bonny Lad! We do things the hard way here.
Also, keep an eye on Finn Geragusian.
Eighteen years of age, a big lad up top, an Armenia international already, and he came to the Academy of Light from Silksworth Colliery Welfare in the Wearside League. Rangers were sniffing and he signed for us instead. Thirteen goals in the academy last season. If we get a knock or two up front, he’ll get a look, and I think he’ll take it.
Europe won’t break us – it’ll build us
The question everyone keeps asking is whether Thursday nights will cost us on Saturdays. My answer is “no”, and I’d go further than that: I think Europe is going to be the making of this squad.
Le Bris ran a very tight rotation last season, because he had to. He can’t do that now. Eight league-phase games – four of them at the Stadium of Light – plus the cups, means minutes have to go somewhere, and they’re going to go to Rigg, Mundle, Ta Bi and the rest.
Those lads are going to be blooded in proper competitive football rather than dead rubbers in the League Cup. By March, we’ll have a deeper, harder, more experienced squad than the one we started with.
The draw is in Monaco on Friday 28 August. Get the calendar out.
Haway, then!
Ipswich away on Saturday. Fulham at home the week after. An easy enough start on paper, though we’ve all been burnt by that sentence before.
Look, we might get a bloody nose somewhere. Second seasons can be cruel and September has Arsenal and Manchester City in it. But we’ve got a settled group, a head coach tied down, a European campaign to look forward to and a crop of young lads about to get their chance.
Twelve months ago, we’d have taken seventeenth. Now I want top ten, and I want Thursday nights.
