Born on this day is Sunderland’s utility man, Luke O’Nien. The versatile O’Nien has played in midfield, right back and centre back for the lads.
O’Nien came through at Watford, before making his name in the EFL at Wycombe. In 2017, he was named Community Player of the Season, and helped Wanderers to promotion to League One the following year.
Following Wycombe’s promotion, and Sunderland’s relegation to League One in the same season, Jack Ross came calling for the energetic midfielder. It was a breath of fresh air- a young, enthusiastic midfielder from a lower league rather than the washed-up journeymen that came before O’Nien.
However, O’Nien’s debut couldn’t have gone much worse. He started in midfield next to the young Bali Mumba against a tricky Charlton side. The pair’s inexperience was clear for all to see, and O’Nien looked totally lost in his first match. He was hooked at half time, and he wasn’t seen regularly for a while after that.
When O’Nien was eventually reintroduced to the team, it was at right back. When Jack Ross asked if he’d ever played there before, O’Nien reportedly lied and said yes so he could get back into the team!
The makeshift fullback excelled so much at right back that he ended up being first choice in the position, and in the following summer Ross claimed that there were Championship sides who wanted to sign O’Nien as a fullback.
The following season, under both Ross and Parkinson, O’Nien played almost every minute for Sunderland. He continued to impress at right-back, but was unable to help Sunderland push for the play-offs as the season was curtailed.
Then in the 2020/21 season, O’Nien really made his name as Mr. Versatile on Wearside. Amid Sunderland’s injury crisis, he filled in not just at fullback but also as a centre half! He even made it into League One’s Team of the Season despite playing in an unfamiliar position.
Prior to the 21/22 season, O’Nien extended his stay on Wearside. In a season that started with Lee Johnson we made a strong start to the campaign, finishing the year off in fashion with a 5-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday to top the table. Only four games later Johnson was sacked following the dismal 6-0 defeat to Bolton. In came Alex Neil and we made a late surge to the playoffs with a fantastic run to the end of the season, losing only one game in our last 14 of the regular season which saw us finish 5th.
In the Play-Offs Luke played every minute, including in the final. And in the final we needed his physicality against his old side, Wycombe. We had him playing in midfield with Evans and we controlled the entire game and finally got out of League One, accomplishing his initial goal that he had when he first came to us. Conveniently, his birthday happens to be exactly six months after we conquered Wembley too.
In the 22/23 Pre-Season he remarkably sent Jose Mourinho furious in a friendly against Roma after he made a challenge that Jose didn’t agree with. After the challenge, Jose ran onto the pitch demanding Luke gets sent off. Following the game Luke went to Instagram with his hilarious reply:
“Mrs: Shall we go to Rome for our Honeymoon?💍”
“Me: I think we will give Rome a miss for a while 🙅♂️🙈”
This season, an array of signings in midfield gave Luke some more competition, and a lot of injuries to our centre backs forced Mowbray to play O’Nien in centre back. Despite not being too tall, Luke, in my opinion, was playing the best football of his career. He has quite a deceptive leap on him and he loves the nitty gritty and at centre back he’s been solid alongside Batth. His versatility has come in very handy too, as he has played in right back too covering for Gooch whilst he’s been out. The best thing for us is he’s only 28, and he’s continuing to get better so long may it continue!
