In his first guest column here on Roker Report, long-time SAFC journalist James Hunter looks at the departures of two of the heroes of Sunderland’s renaissance…
Wembley Stadium, 4:59pm on 24 May 2025, was a seismic moment.
Who can forget Tommy Watson’s 95th-minute winner against Sheffield United in the Championship play-off final?
It ended Sunderland’s eight-year wait for a long-overdue return to the Premier League and set the stage for the magnificent season Régis Le Bris and his side are currently enjoying.
Eight months on, the aftershocks of that day — and the paradigm shift it triggered — continue.
I write, of course, in the wake of the departures of Dan Neil and Anthony Patterson, two of Sunderland’s Wembley heroes and mainstays of that promotion-winning side.
Midfielder Neil started all but two league games last season — one of those absences due to suspension — while goalkeeper Patterson started all but four. Both also started all three play-off games.
But promotion changes everything. It always does.
LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 24: Dan Neil and Regis Le Bris the head coach / manager of Sunderland lifts the EFL Sky Bet Championship play off final trophy during the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final match between Sheffield United and Sunderland at Wembley Stadium on May 24, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 24: Dan Neil and Regis Le Bris the head coach / manager of Sunderland lifts the EFL Sky Bet Championship play off final trophy during the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final match between Sheffield United and Sunderland at Wembley Stadium on May 24, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Getty Images
And with Sunderland stepping up a level, the summer was spent building a squad fit to compete in the top flight — a process that left Neil and Patterson among those squeezed out.
Sunderland fans loved seeing homegrown stars Neil and Patterson thrive last season, and they would have been thrilled to watch them test themselves in the Premier League.
Instead, Patterson departed without making a top-flight appearance, linking up on loan with former Sunderland boss Alex Neil at Millwall for the remainder of the season. Dan Neil’s involvement on Wearside, meanwhile, was restricted to three substitute outings totalling just 13 minutes before he joined Ipswich Town on loan to play out the final months of his contract.
Sentiment is a fine thing, but there is little room for it in the upper echelons of professional sport.
For all Patterson’s undoubted ability, Sunderland upgraded last summer with the signing of Robin Roefs, while the arrival of Melker Ellborg earlier this year cleared the path for his departure.
And while Neil was one of the first names on the teamsheet in the Championship, the equation changes when players of the calibre of Granit Xhaka, Noah Sadiki and Habib Diarra arrive at the club.
Dan Neil speaks to Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson following a misplaced goal kick during the Sky Bet Championship match between Sunderland and Plymouth Argyle at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, England, on January 25, 2025. (Photo by MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Dan Neil speaks to Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson following a misplaced goal kick during the Sky Bet Championship match between Sunderland and Plymouth Argyle at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, England, on January 25, 2025. (Photo by MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Sunderland are moving onwards and upwards, and with that progress comes inevitable change.
Neil and Patterson are simply too good to become perennial substitutes or bit-part Premier League players.
Better, then, that both have joined clubs competing for play-off places — and perhaps more — at the sharp end of the Championship.
Their roles in Sunderland’s rise cannot be overstated.
For Neil, captaining his boyhood club to Wembley glory was the stuff of childhood dreams. And the image of him and fellow Black Cats fan Patterson lifting the play-off trophy together is one that will live long in the memory.
But Wembley was both a summit and a turning point. Neil and Patterson delivered Sunderland back to the Premier League, and in doing so helped usher in an era that ultimately moved beyond them. That is not failure or rejection, but the price of progress — and one Sunderland can afford to pay because of what they gave.
Follow James Hunter over on X by clicking here!