It is hard to remember a time when Sunderland were burdened with so little pressure at a season’s turn.
Never in League One, the level where they were expected to win promotion in each season. Nor when fleetingly last in the Championship, dogged by disillusionment and turmoil. Before that, it was almost a decade spent scrambling for top-flight survival where happiness was perennially hard to find.
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Perhaps not since Steve Bruce was briefly threatening to turn the club into a top-half Premier League team in 2010-11 have Sunderland known such carefree days heading into the second half of a season. Before that? Probably those dreamy days of Peter Reid, Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn at the turn of the century.
Yet here Sunderland are, in the top six of the Championship, wondering what might be possible with fair winds and following seas in 2023. Supporters do not expect much from this season after only escaping League One’s clutches in May, but they can suddenly hope for plenty from the free hit presenting itself.
A 4-1 win away to Wigan Athletic took Tony Mowbray’s young squad to new heights on Thursday night. Three days after beating Blackburn Rovers in front of almost 44,000 at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland were worthy of three more points and a leap into the play-off spots for the first time since mid-September.
Wigan, who finished eight points ahead of Sunderland when winning the League One title so impressively last season, were teased into submission by full-time. There were olés and adoration from an away end enjoying its last orders in a year that has changed everything.
Sunderland have not given supporters many teams worth their unconditional support in recent years. There have been individuals that pointed to better times but not often a collective.
This one, though, is different. It is young, industrious and endearing. There are ample shortcomings, as the home defeats to Burnley, Cardiff City and West Bromwich Albion have underlined since October, but they are undeniably on the right path. “They don’t know all the answers,” said Mowbray on Boxing Day. “But they’re great kids.”
Sunderland, revived since the arrival of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus as majority shareholder, are unrecognisable from the team that fell through the Championship without a shred of dignity in 2017-18. That shabby squad, led first by Simon Grayson and then Chris Coleman, was packed with underachievers and loafers. They collected just 37 points all season.
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The far less experienced class of 2022-23, by chance, hit that same mark away to Wigan this week. And they did so with a swagger that is becoming a trademark of Mowbray’s side when things fall into place.
A promotion challenge was never supposed to be Sunderland’s aim this season. Consolidation was the only target after finishing fifth in League One last term. The average finish for newly promoted teams across the past four seasons has been 19th, and not since 2017-18 has promotion to the Championship been followed by a top-half finish. Patience would be needed. Or so went the message.
The back-to-back wins that closed out 2022 should not have altered the outlook materially, but 25 games in and there is an understanding that the Championship hides no demons in the congestion. Mowbray’s greatest immediate challenge is to keep expectations in check. He knows there are clubs with greater budgets also coming good, like his former employers West Brom and Middlesbrough.
“The target for this team was to stay in the league and compete in mid-table and see where we go,” said Sunderland’s head coach after the Wigan win. “That might be the case come the end of the season, depending on how the squad survives the rigours of the season.
“At the moment the fans can dream because we’re right in the mix with loads of other teams, and yet we’re mindful that you can lose a couple of games and be 15th.”
Looks, of course, proved deceiving for Sunderland this time last year. They had ended 2021 with a 5-0 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday to go clear at the top of League One, but inside a month the season had fallen apart. Lee Johnson, manager 12 months ago, was sent packing after a 6-0 drubbing at Bolton Wanderers in January, eventually replaced by Alex Neil.
That appointment was Sunderland’s best since turning to Sam Allardyce in 2015, with momentum gradually built before the season’s climax, a cathartic 2-0 victory over Wycombe Wanderers in the League One play-off final at Wembley.
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Sunderland had escaped the third tier at last and it is here in the Championship, the division famed for its erratic nature, where the club’s model has finally begun to look fit for purpose. Neil might have left in late August, lured away by promises of greater control at Stoke City, but Mowbray’s steady hand has kept progress visible in an age of sustainability.
It is not the perfect model, one that is universally approved by supporters, but Sunderland’s self-imposed budget limitations have brought a focus towards youth and those seeking second chances. Sometimes there are players to tick both boxes.
Like Jack Clarke, the winger signed from Tottenham on a permanent basis this summer. The 22-year-old has begun to resemble the fearless rookie that made a name for himself at Leeds United in the Championship. Patrick Roberts, chewed up and spat out by Manchester City, is another excelling since arriving on Wearside with Clarke in January.
The real bloomer of recent months, though, has been Amad Diallo. The youngster loaned from Manchester United has been a revelation, tormenting defenders with his tricks and adding an end product to his game. Amad already has six goals in 11 Championship starts and the latest, adding the icing to the cake at Wigan, was a stunner.
A spectacular strike from Amad Diallo in Sunderland's 4-1 win over Wigan tonight ⚡ pic.twitter.com/kVuB6ux9xS
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) December 29, 2022
Clarke, Roberts and Amad — who collectively cost Tottenham, Manchester City and Manchester United about £50million ($60.3m) — make Sunderland one of the Championship’s slickest attacks, providing the creative support for the team’s fit-again Ross Stewart in attack.
Stewart has consistently been Sunderland’s brightest star of 2022, scoring 19 goals in 35 appearances, but is also turning into the greatest headache. Although Sunderland have the option to extend his contract by a year, a new long-term deal has been discussed for months without an agreement amid interest from elsewhere. The longer the impasse extends, the greater the concern that Sunderland’s best option will be to sell.
Stewart’s future will say as much about the club that Sunderland are as the one they hope to become. The Scot was signed from Ross County for a fee in the region of £300,000 in January 2020 but has blossomed to become one of the best attackers in the EFL. Retaining Stewart is the obvious choice but Sunderland know the end of this looming window will be the point his value decreases without a new deal signed.
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This is when romantic ambition meets financial pragmatism. January promises to be a telling month. Stick or twist?
At least any immediate threat to the optimism building was averted at Wigan. Even with changes to a starting XI that were designed to retain freshness ahead of travelling to Blackpool on New Year’s Day, Sunderland had too much in a side that began with eight players aged 23 or under.
Ellis Simms, loaned from Everton, continued his encouraging run with the opener before Stewart and Roberts emerged off the bench to render Wigan’s efforts futile.
Amad’s late fourth was the perfect finale to a calendar year that has restored pride in Sunderland. It remains an awfully long shot to believe 2023 can bring Premier League football back to the Stadium of Light, but this season is shaping up to be a whole lot more enjoyable than most could ever have envisaged.
(Top photo: Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)