We Aren’t Just Back!
Last week, seeing Tommy Watson slot the ball in the bottom corner of the Sheffield United goal in the play off final felt like 2 minutes ago. By 5:30pm on 16th August 2025, it feels like a life time ago. Football is back and Sunderland is back…or is it? What does Sunderland being back mean? Yes back in the Premier League but this isn’t the same Sunderland that left the Premier League with a whimper under David Moyes and Ellis Short. This isn’t the same Premier League we are going back into as it was when we left, so what’s changed?
Well everything, this is a reinvented Sunderland. This is a club which is been driven off the pitch by an owner who has seen the potential of a club when it was on its backside when he bought into the club. A commercially savvy Chief Business Officer who has a plethora of experience he’s brought back to his home. A Sporting Director who told us from day one to trust the process and who has routinely delivered on his promises. On the pitch, we have a French head coach who is like a conductor of an orchestra, carefully and expertly guiding his band through the trials of tribulations of English football. The club has been given the infrastructure to succeed, it’s took time and no doubt mistakes have been made but the progress has been nothing short of excellent.
However, enough has been written about the journey the club has been on and where it’s came from to where it is now so I don’t think there is any value being added to it at the moment. Give it 10 games or so. Back to Saturday. Our first Premier League game in over 3000 days. Aiming for the best possible start against West Ham who have been a solid Premier League team for a good few years now and were European champions not long ago. A newish manager who has had the chance to bed in his methods and style of play. Yes they’ve lost players, but they’ve also brought in some handy players. A draw would be acceptable but just a good performance is all that is desired.
When the teams were announced it was a strange feeling because only 3 of them had featured in the play off final and Dutch Centre Back Jenson Seelt has only managed to feature in 18 games since his arrival in 2023 because of injuries. The rest were new faces who have only been together for a few weeks. What type of performance we would get is a mystery to everyone. Then, once in the ground, Dance of the Knights starts, the emotions begin to flood over, I had a tear in my eye, I seen a few around me with tears in their eyes. The newly designed tunnel looks tremendous by the way. Never has a piece of music best defined a moment in time. Grandure, expectation, something majestic is going to happen and boy did we get a majestic performance from the band.
I think the first half went as expected in all honesty. I felt before the game that how we manage Jarred Bowen and where he gets the ball is key. If he’s going to be receiving the ball in and around our back line, he can cause us problems. Which in the opening minutes he did and caused us problems but we coped, we dealt with it and held our nerve and overall gave a good account of ourselves. 2nd half, that’s a different story, the lads were in the front foot, a lot more positive in possession and a lot more proactive in out of possession. We were no longer letting West Ham get forward so easily and Bowen dropped deeper, then wider. He just wasn’t impacting the game the way he wanted too
In between this Sunderland scored 2 fantastic goals, there’s been criticism of the West Ham defending which is fair to a point, but you have to give more credit to Mayenda and Ballard. They got goal side of their men and were physically stronger and quicker. Mayenda’s header in particular also drew criticism of the Hammers Goalkeeper but the ball hits the side netting, the keepers gone with such force, he’s ended up off the pitch behind the post, he’s tried his very best to get there.
Wilson Isidor then wrapped it up with the most Wilson Isidor goal ive ever seen. Counter attack, running in on the angle, finds the bottom corner, we seen him do it a fair few times last season. A wonderful way to round off the day that 3 crucial players from last season scored on the opening day of this season. You couldnt have wrote a more fairytale start to a premier league season. However, its game 1 and game 2,3 and 4 will not be far behind. However, enjoy this. Drink it in, watch it back, celebrate all over again, we’ve earned it.
Sunderland Association Football Club isn’t just back, it’s back with an energy and a plan, it’s back with a united front of fans and players who wear the badge with honour and see it as a privilege not an obligation. To paraphrase the words of the Lambton Worm Tifo “the team that wins, is the team that thinks it can” and this team has proved it can.
