Alan Shearer, the most mighty of all black and white legends sparked the great debate: do we Geordies want Sunderland to be promoted to the big boys’ playground this season? Of course, we do.
However, I would suggest the discussion ought to go much further than the decades-old Tyne and Wear-Derby argument. The wider northern landscape dearly needs the return of their splintered power base but will the Mackem kids, who currently sit astride the pinnacle of the championship, provide a significant shift against all pre-season odds and expectations?
United require neighbours for Premier League company; otherwise, the geographical extremities of English football will remain a wasteland. We have lost down the years the likes of Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Leeds United, Sheffield United, and Sheffield Wednesday. All passionate areas with proud fans in large numbers but little joy.
We’ve always maintained in our bias that football is best served by the passion and obsession of northern powerhouses like Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Newcastle United. However, numbers have dwindled since the demise of those who provide chief support.
For example, when was the last time Newcastle, Sunderland, and Middlesbrough were all in the same top flight? Answer: 15 years ago, in 2008-09, when it all went badly pear-shaped. United and Boro were relegated and Sunderland avoided the dreaded drop by the seat of their pants.
Therefore, the wider question is not only can the Wearsiders make it this season but even could Boro possibly squeeze in through the backdoor via the play-offs if they can find some consistency.
The overall picture is pretty bleak. What has happened to Leeds since Don Revie assembled a mixture of artists and artisans like Billy Bremner, Norman Hunter, Allan Clarke, Jack Charlton, Peter Lorimer, and Eddie Gray to twice win the old First Division title? In 10 relentless seasons of Revie power between 64-65 and 73-74, Leeds were never out of the top four, finishing champions twice, runners-up five times, third once, and fourth twice.
Yet how the mighty have fallen—the last 20 completed seasons have seen the pride of Yorkshire play only three campaigns in the top flight, spending 14 in the Championship and even dropping into League One for three successive humiliations.
Meanwhile, where has the steel of Sheffield gone? United have been a yo-yo club—mainly down rather than up it must be said—while Wednesday may have won the greatest league prize on four occasions in the dim and distant past but this is their 25th successive season out of the top flight, having been banished way back in 2000.
Sunderland have lived the life of a pauper as well. It will be nine seasons by the end of current hostilities since they share PL parity with Newcastle because we must exclude last term’s derby when a 3-0 canter on the Wear was in the FA Cup.
Having been relegated from the land of the elite at the end of 2016-17, Sunderland spectacularly sank into League One, where they took up a residency rather than making it a season-long banishment but now they unexpectedly stand on the very summit of the championship.
Unexpectedly, because of a boardroom obsession with treating the dressing room like a kindergarten, filling it with youngsters and because of their unexpected and unknown choice of yet another first team coach.
‘You win nothing with kids,’ Liverpool legend Alan Hansen once famously said and while it isn’t strictly true, it holds a lot of credence. Tony Mowbray thought so when in charge of the red and whites and so have others.
However enter the extravagantly named Regis Le Bris, who had just got Lorient relegated from the French Ligue 1, which hardly filled Wearsiders with wild optimism that a new messiah had arrived at their door but against all that appeared sane, he has catapulted the Mackems to a succession of terrific results. They have started like a sprinter in a marathon and should be warned there is a long way to go round a Grand National course but it’s a fine start nevertheless despite the tapering of three successive draws.
Not only has Le Bruis to take credit but Sunderland’s scouting system too has unearthed some bright kids who escaped the net of the big-time trawlers. Mackems would say Geordies have to be cautious about what they expect once derbies resume because Sunderland have become something of a jinx of recent times. In the last nine PL derbies, United haven’t won a single one losing six and drawing three—the six defeats coming in a row.
Maybe but last season’s cup tie revealed the current massive gulf between the two sides and traditionally, teams that are promoted from the championships are favourites to go straight back down. Such is the gulf between the two divisions. Certainly Newcastle will fear no promoted clubs, including Sunderland. Their development is way ahead of those putting their imprint on new land.
Shearer, United’s greatest ever goalscorer and a Mackem slayer like Shola Ameobi, wants Sunderland up just like me and would expect six points just like me. Fun and serious desire all wrapped in one.
My Derby memories are vivid… John McNamee swinging on the crossbar after heading United level 3-3 at Roker Park, Liam O’Brien’s bend-it-like-Beckham free-kick on the same soil that won it for Kevin Keegan’s Entertainers, Shearer’s goodbye match when he scored the 206th goal of a fabulous Newcastle career at the Stadium of Light, and the 5-1 destruction of poor old Steve Bruce through a Kevin Nolan hat-trick.
However, I must confess, I also remember with a shudder United sensationally being blown away by the G Force, Gabbiadini, and Gates in the play-offs at SJP and Colin Suggett, who later became a Magpie, being the Sunderland’s Shola as their goalscoring executioner.
Will Derby Day return next season? I am far from convinced so early in what is a championship obstacle race but bring it all on again. I love Derbies me!
