Playing cards on the desk: I don’t miss the Championship.
I don’t miss the grind of the forty-six sport schedule, the often-ropey crimson button protection on Sky Sports activities, the attritional type of soccer or the incessant proclamations that Jack Rudoni is a future Ballon D’Or winner — and I actually don’t miss Andy Hinchcliffe and Don Goodman’s often-laughably anti-Sunderland commentary. No, Don. We don’t really feel sorry for Kieffer Moore. We didn’t again then and we don’t now.
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Maybe it is a results of being drunk on the fun of Premier League soccer since August (when you’ve seen Rayan Cherki within the flesh, been lucky sufficient to witness Omar Alderete pocketing Erling Haaland and subsequently watched on with delight as we accomplished the double over Newcastle, there’s no method again) however because the 2025/2026 season heads for what appears to be like like an exhilarating conclusion, it’s an actual supply of delight to see so many former Sunderland gamers concerned within the race for the Premier League.
On the time of writing, Ellis Simms — one thing of an underrated striker and a participant I had loads of time for throughout his temporary spell on Wearside — is inside a sport or two of prime flight promotion with Coventry, and Dan Neil and Jack Clarke are very a lot within the field seat as Ipswich purpose for a prime two end beneath Kieran McKenna.
Elsewhere, Alan Browne and Middlesbrough are combating tooth and nail to maintain themselves within the combine; there’s each likelihood that Wembley heroes Alex Neil, Tommy Watson and Anthony Patterson might assist to carry Premier League soccer to The Den if Millwall can maintain their nerve down the stretch, and who’s to say {that a} reborn Ross Stewart can’t hold Southampton within the image as properly?
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At this stage, it will be tempting to pithily declare that “Sunderland are simply that rattling massive and that’s why so many former gamers are combating to hitch us again within the massive time” (to which individuals can be properly inside their rights to reply with the ‘get in there and make it about you’ meme), however on a severe be aware, it’s simply nice to see so lots of our one-time crimson and white prospects competing on the sharp finish of the second tier — even when I’d fortunately not see Sunderland kick a ball in that league for an extended, very long time,
Stewart’s restoration from harm and rebirth as a harmful Championship striker, as an illustration, ought to come as no shock.
Alongside Simms — whose Everton recall was undoubtedly a turning level in itself as we focused an unlikely promotion beneath Tony Mowbray — he took to the second tier with ease again in 2022 and who’s to say what may’ve occurred in direction of the top of that season had he not fallen sufferer to harm at Fulham?
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As for the 2 Neils, one ought to be classed as a modern-day Sunderland nice and deserves one other crack at promotion at Portman Street, whereas the opposite may’ve walked out in unsavoury style however he stays a critically good Championship supervisor — while the Sunderland legacies of Watson, Patterson and Clarke want no embellishment.
After all, if two or three former Sunderland gamers are celebrating promotion come Might, the query can be whether or not they’ve obtained what it takes to step up and make an impression within the Premier League.
If as most followers agreed on the time, Clarke was continuously deployed within the improper place throughout Ipswich’s 2024/2025 season, would it not be completely different subsequent time? Might Simms’ qualities translate to effectiveness within the prime flight beneath the administration of Frank Lampard, and will a deal be reduce with Millwall so as to give Patto a real crack at Premier League soccer if the Lions might emerge from the playoffs as winners?
After all, you may say that that is the ‘pure degree’ for these lads and that’s why we determined to section so lots of them out of the primary group image on the Stadium of Gentle, however I’m not fully satisfied by that.
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It’s true that for sure gamers, sport time merely wasn’t going to be plentiful sufficient on Wearside and in Watson’s case, his departure got here earlier than we knew what was going to occur within the 2024/2025 playoffs, however they’re all proficient lads and it will be nice to see them confound the doubters and assist their respective golf equipment to attain their ambitions for this season.
Have been that to occur, there could also be loads of intriguing and presumably long-overdue reunions on the playing cards for 2026/2027 — with their contributions to Sunderland’s personal rebirth hopefully not forgotten.