Were there ever a doubt that Martin O’Neill was truly a Sunderland supporter as a young lad then he’s dispelled it. “Disaster is around the corner. It is, it’s lurking…” so he said.
And thus speaks a Sunderland fan.
Many a club and many a supporter would think a manager, who has won nine games out of 13 since taking over and whose previously failing team sit atop of the form charts, must be barking to utter such a bizarre statement.
Shouldn’t he and shouldn’t we be basking in this rare winter sunshine, this slice of footballing Nirvana?
Not a chance.
We await the bus with no wheels.
Because, like MON, we know our history. And it is a history of false dawns and
unfulfilled potential. Sometimes bad luck and sometimes the self destruct button.
We would make a yo yo dizzy with our promotion and relegation sagas. There can’t be another club in football over the last 50 years that has been up then down then up again.
So it is good our manager knows what lurks after we did what few Sunderland teams have done in recent memory and ground out back to back away wins in the space of a few days in nasty conditions while not playing with any particular flair.
It’s what teams which win things do.
And, frankly, we find it hard to grasp. So we wait for the dream to end.
But maybe, just maybe, because we and he won’t get carried away by all this winning malarky we’ll somehow keep the jinx at bay.
It’s why we don’t think he’s gone crazy. We understand each other.
And we do understand it is lurking…but perhaps if we all agree it won’t last
because, after all, we are Sunderland, then it can just damn well lurk for a long
time yet.
Sharkey’s Shadow
(Our Canadian Correspondent)
