That’s how quickly things can change
So said Clive Tyldesley as Eliezer Mayenda rammed the ball home with fourteen minutes of normal time remaining at Wembley last month.
That really did sum up this incarnation of Sunderland AFC, a side packed full of young guns who are creators of moments and the masters of change.
Sure, things have changed considerably in a month.
We’re seeing some old faces that we haven’t seen for eight years — as well as some new ones in a very different Premier League landscape — and we’re all being told one thing by them: “You’ve got no chance”.
However, that’s what we want you to think: for the side to be written off, underestimated and consigned to the drop before a ball has been kicked.
Hasn’t this been the case quite a lot lately? Written off when Régis Le Bris was appointed; written off ahead of the playoffs, written off before the final and written off for the first seventy five minutes at Wembley.
Sheffield United v Sunderland - Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
It’s an easy thing to say, isn’t it — “Sunderland will be coming straight back down”— but why?
The reason for this is, funnily enough, not much of our making.
We finished twenty four points behind the top two last season but it would be disingenuous to claim this as a cut-and-dried argument that Le Bris’ men start way behind even our fellow promoted sides in Leeds and Burnley.
The principal fact is the six previously promoted sides have all come back down with not so much as a whimper, and more than that, they were dead on arrival. The reasons for their collective failure centred on one thing: incredibly poor recruitment.
As it happens, during the week prior to Jobe’s sale to Dortmund, a stat was floating around social media pointing to the fact that in four and a half years, Sunderland had risen from mid-table in League One to the top flight, had increased their squad value tenfold and had a spend of -£1.1 million.
Basically, we didn’t spend a penny in net transfer fees to get there, but of course the figure will actually be higher once you factor in the sale of the aforementioned Jobe.
It’s not quite as simple as that of course, but what it does suggest is that what’s been achieved has been in large part down to superb recruitment by the club — which coincidentally is what will have to be demonstrated again.
The nuance of this is lost on so many, because they don’t understand what is going on at this club, and have no idea whatsoever about how those in charge are going about their business.
Sunderland Unveil New Signing Enzo Le FÈe Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images
We’re of course in a position to do things others may not have the ability to do, with the January signing of Enzo Le Fée an example of the pulling power and persuasiveness of Le Bris, Kristjaan Speakman and the club as a whole.
Sunderland are a club that doesn’t do things like Luton, Burnley, Sheffield United, Southampton, Leicester or Ipswich before them. Don’t believe me? Go and take a look at the players they recruited upon promotion and ask yourself whether we’d do the same?
Of course, returning to the Championship is on the list of possibilities and to state otherwise would make me such a big happy clapper that my hands would have friction burn. We need a secret weapon and how the club is perceived could be a key one.
Therefore, it’s not the foregone conclusion many are predicting, and so many have Sunderland written off before anyone has actually had a chance to assess our squad.
There’s so much more context to this club that those on the outside have yet to explore. That’s only to their detriment and we should be thankful for their ignorance as it can only be to our benefit.
‘Til the End was the phrase of the playoffs, and this coming season, perhaps it should be Keep the Faith.