Sunderland secured European football for only the second time in their history on Sunday as a 2-1 win over Chelsea guaranteed a place in the league phase of next season’s Europa League.
European qualification caps a remarkable season that has seen the Black Cats successfully reestablish themselves in the top-flight following promotion via last season’s Championship play-offs.
In the wake of winning at Wembley last May, Sunderland embarked on a spending spree that saw them invest more than £150m in 14 players to transform the squad that had made it out of the second tier.
Crucially, though, some key members of the old guard remained, and when Le Bris’ side saw off Chelsea at the weekend, it was surely no coincidence that the crucial opening goal came when O’Nien set up Hume.
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The pair were both part of the Sunderland team that was scrapping to get out of League One just four seasons ago, and have been key contributors to the rise that has now taken the Black Cats all the way to Europe.
“It’s good for them because they are so well connected with the identity of the club,” said Le bris. “They set the tone. They helped the new lads when they came to the club to understand what our identity was, and they were really important.”
O’Nien spent most of the first half of this season sitting on the bench, but the centre-half developed into a key performer in the second half of the campaign, slotting in when the likes of Dan Ballard and Omar Alderete were unavailable through injury.
Hume has undergone something of a transformation this term, evolving from a right-back to a right-sided attacking midfielder making increasingly important contributions to Sunderland’s play in the final third.
He opened his Premier League goalscoring account after coming off the bench in last month’s dramatic defeat at Aston Villa, and held his nerve superbly again at the weekend, firing home from the right-hand side of the 18-yard box.
Le Bris had backed Hume as a right-midfielder earlier in the week and was delighted to see his faith being justified in so influential a fashion.
“It's good,” he said. “It’s really nice to have this conversation one week ago, and then he scored. Often we try to analyse the players with a technical lens, but it's more than that. It's about connection, hard work, connection between players and balance.
“Trai is a good example of a really good player, a strong team-mate, always working hard for the team, and then after that you have an emergence, and that was the case for him here.”