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LIFE WITH THE LADS: THE 2010S


Welcome to the definitive penultimate part of my SAFC chronicles where I look back on the years supporting the Lads. We're into the millennium good and proper now and enter the 2010s with the Lads in the Premier League. However this particular decade will see more and more changes for the Club and for us as fans, a real test of our emotions. It was a time when we would were hoping for plenty of stability but what we got was the polar opposite. In fact, for the established Lads supporters, it kinda felt like deja vu from a previous decade not that long since. Let's go back then and discuss what kind of black cloud enveloped the Black Cats. This is the 2010s.


The first season of this particular decade would be the Lads' third consecutive season in the Premier League. We had flirted with a drop down back to the second tier and this was becoming a nervous time for all concerned. The season would see a new face as manager in the shape of boyhood Mags fan Steve Bruce, which to a number was seen as a very bold move by the Club. Bruce had ten years managerial experience behind him and that probably swung the job in his direction. Bruce's job? Make sure we don't get involved in another relegation scrap and push the Club into an upward trajectory. Pre-s