NEW SEASON NOTES

With the Lads gearing up for their second season in the Premier League under RLB’s stewardship, we are very excited to see what it holds for us. Are the Lads able to avoid second season syndrome where most surprise packets one season, flirt with relegation the next? That’s the big unanswered question that RLB and his red and white heroes are going to answer the proverbial bell about. But one thing is for sure, this bunch of guys certainly don’t do surrendering to anyone without putting up a bloody good fight.

SQUAD OVERHAUL

Last season, the Lads brought in 20 (yes, twenty) newcomers to Wearside following that dramatic day at Wembley. When fellow Premier League side Nottingham Forest did something similar in readiness for the 2022-23 season, they skirted with survival for much of that campaign and only stayed up by the skin of their proverbial teeth. Those erstwhile pundits, were predicting the Lads to replicate that but unlike Forest, would be doomed to fail.

As it was, the overhaul was nothing short of amazing. Whenever one player was missing for one reason or another then you would find another one ready to step up into the breach. One of those was of course Mr Sunderland himself, LO9, whose enthusiasm never waned despite playing at a level he had only dreamed of. But aside of him, others showed their worth and the strategy had paid off handsomely as we know.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD – PART 1 (TRANSFERS)

As stated above, the Lads made a real statement of strengthening the squad. Overall, we spent a shade over £200 million in transfer fees over the two windows and that would have been heart attack syndrome back in the day. But the Lads knew that they couldn’t rely upon all of those that had gotten them there as in the Premier League you have to upgrade your squad to avoid an immediate return to the Championship. There is a clear division of the have’s and the have not’s and breaking the top half mould can be hard. You need to find that perfect blend just like Barry Crocker’s Neighbours theme.

It’s hard to disagree that the signing of the season had to be the General himself, Granit Xhaka. Granit bought into the project that KLD had sold him, and made everyone (well, most) an improved version of themselves. His leadership, attained at Arsenal, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and nationally for Switzerland: demanded a step up. If the squad was an orchestra, then Granit Xhaka is certainly the conductor of that orchestra – making sure that everyone is in tune with what he wants from them. He will forever go down in SAFC folklore as one of the Lads finest signings of all-time.

That said, for every Granit Xhaka there’s someone or players that fail to match his expectation. Unfortunately, we had two, in my eyes personally, that failed to set the heather alight. The first was Simon Adingra, who for £21 million, seriously flattered to deceive. He never looked comfortable, perhaps the weight of the SAFC jersey was too heavy for him to handle. Thus, it didn’t really surprise me that the Lads shipped him out to AS Monaco for the second half of the season. His miss against Germany in the World Cup was reminiscent of his time on Wearside, a failure. The other was Arthur Masuaku who looked like the proverbial rabbit in headlights in the four games he played for us. I see little future for both here, although the latter is swapping Wearside for Turkey. Can he take Adingra with him?

FINGERS UP TO THE FOURTH ESTATE

The fourth estate out there, especially the mainstream, had written us off before we kicked a ball in the Premier League. Not because of the afore-mentioned squad overhaul, but because they have this mentality about that all newly promoted sides are certainties to be immediately relegated. It felt like we were the victims of a massive pile on of sorts, and there would be no way for us to come out of it.

They had reservations too about RLB, who was about to start his second season with us. In fact, some had him down for the first managerial casualty of the Premier League 2025-26. But everyone loves an underdog story, don’t they? We would disprove those predictions in such a way that large slices of humble pie had to be dished out and even AS had to swallow his barcode pride and appreciate us.

As the heavy metal Five Finger Death Punch said in one of their songs: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Bring it!” Quite apt really.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD – PART 2 (MATCHES)

There were many superb performances in the season just gone, and I could write an entire article on them all but I am not going to do that. The highlight for anyone who had just bought into the SAFC story had to be the double over those upstarts at Sportswash United up the A19 who still think they are better than everyone else. Talking about being an entitled bunch. However, completing the double over a lacklustre Chelsea, and taking at least one point from everyone, bar Fulham remain as highlights for me.

The lowlights must be that we couldn’t get anything from those Fulham matches mentioned above, it felt like they had the proverbial Indian sign over us. The home implosion to Nottingham Forest was also a very bitter pill to digest as well. Nobody saw that coming at all, it was like someone that replaced the live match and put on a horror movie that few might thought it was directed by Wes Craven. Beating them this new season would certainly put that record damn straight.

WHAT FOR 2026-27 THEN?

The new season brings new challenges and one of those is the adventure that will see the Lads feature in the UEFA Europa League, a tournament that has been rather kind to Premier League sides over the last couple of seasons. There is a massive question mark here, do the Lads have the strength in depth to advance? We simply don’t know to be fair. We have gone through quite a cull in the close season and at the time of writing, only brought one newcomer to Wearside in the shape of experienced Belgian internationalist Thomas Meunier. For some that’s a bit of concern but these guys in red and white have a habit in getting hold of those predictions and making nonsense of them.

The plus is that we have been able to keep hold of players like Xhaka, Noah Sadiki and Brian Brobbey which gives belief. However, a total of just seven goals by your top scorer (Brobbey) is one thing that needs to be improved upon. But is it yet just another masterplan that RLB and all are cooking up? Lull everybody into that false sense of security and then pick them off when they’re caught off guard? We just need to get all these ducks in a row and build on that amazing season that was 2025-26. It’s going to be a hell of another magic carpet ride; just make sure you’re sitting comfortably.