Sunderland 2-2 Arsenal reaction: How far can this team go under Régis Le Bris?
Dan Ballard’s performances – and his growing catalogue of iconic moments – are awakening something deep in Sunderland fans
I’ve been thinking a lot about Dan Ballard lately – and I suspect many Sunderland fans have too. There’s a reason for that. Every so often, a player arrives who feels as though he has always belonged here. Someone who slips into the fabric of the club as if stitched into it from birth. Someone who embodies the place, the people, the history. Someone you can’t even picture in another shirt.
Since signing from Arsenal three years ago as a fresh-faced 22-year-old, Ballard has grown steadily, relentlessly, into exactly that kind of player. His defending has been superb, yes, but what elevates him into a different category is the way he has started producing moments. Big moments. Iconic moments. The sort centre-backs aren’t supposed to deliver. His contributions against Coventry, West Ham and now Arsenal haven’t just changed games – they’ve stirred something deeper. Something faintly familiar. Comparisons, at least in my mind, to the purest and greatest of all Sunderland icons: Charlie Hurley.
Hurley – “The King” – sadly passed away last year at 87. To mark his death, The Echo recorded a podcast with Sunderland historian Rob Mason, who vividly remembers those towering years at Roker Park between 1956 and 1969. Hurley helped pioneer the image of the centre-half charging forward for corners, his aerial dominance becoming an event in its own right. Mason told us the air would crackle when Hurley began that long, thunderous stride toward the box – the whole ground sensing something was about to happen as the chant of “Charlie, Charlie” rolled around the terraces.
And in recent weeks, that crackle has returned. You can feel it within the Stadium of Light – a ripple of expectation every time Ballard marches into the penalty area. His goal and assist against Arsenal were the latest proof. After full-time, I tapped Rob Mason on the shoulder to ask if I was completely barking up the wrong tree with this comparison. The answer came back, firmly, that I wasn’t. And quite honestly, that’s good enough for me.
The echoes between the two men are hard to ignore. Both have Irish roots. Both played for Millwall before finding their true home on Wearside. Both are centre-backs who defend with authority but also shape the biggest moments in a season. Both helped carry Sunderland back to the top flight. However different the eras, however different the football, the parallels are unmistakable.
Of course, it’s still early to place Ballard alongside a mythical figure like Hurley. I never saw Hurley play; I grew up on the stories. But that’s the point, isn’t it? Sunderland is a club built on the power of those stories, on the passing down of legends. And I strongly suspect that, one day, I’ll be telling my grandchildren about Big Dan Ballard in the same way older generations spoke to me about Hurley.
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Hurley finished with 401 appearances and 26 goals – numbers that would look even more extraordinary today had assists been officially recorded back then, given how often he caused chaos at corners and free-kicks. Remind you of anyone? Ballard, still only 97 games into his Sunderland career, already has eight goals – including one of the most significant in recent memory against Coventry in the play-off semi-final. At his current scoring rate, he would reach Hurley’s tally somewhere around the 315-appearance mark.
Nobody is suggesting he is Charlie Hurley. But now and then, a player comes along who reminds Wearside what a centre-half can mean to a club. Right now, Ballard is doing exactly that – and the sound of the crackle reborn is unmistakable.
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