I’ve been holding off on saying this, because it’s Sunderland and we all know how quickly things can change, but without getting too far ahead of ourselves, I genuinely think we have an opportunity to flip a script that may have been easy to accept just a short while ago. When the mags got taken over by the Saudis and became 'the richest club in the werrrld', I remember the chat on here at the time and I felt the same. Loads of concern that we would be left behind forever, we were in League One so it wasn’t hard to feel like it. I remember posts like, 'that’s it, we’ll never be able to compete with them again', and, 'all the top young players in the area will be sucked up by their academy now'. I would love to look back at that thread if can find it.
Yet here we are, and it feels like we’re on the cusp of building something sustainable and potentially long-term. A proper identity, signing young, hungry players who want to prove themselves, who clearly get the club and the city. Players with character, not just ability, and importantly, we’re giving youth a chance. There’s a pathway here, which you can see from afar. From the outside, the mags are starting to look like a bit of a soulless machine, all cash, no connection. There’s a growing respect for how we’re doing things from fans outside the region who are noticing it, which I witness firsthand as an exile. If you’re a talented young player coming through in the North East right now, and someone asked which academy you’d rather be in, where would you point them?
We’re on the rise, doing it properly, and if we keep going like this, all those fears will be long gone or potentially even reversed. It's crazy to think back to this time and look at what KLD and the team have done in such a short space of time when at one point all felt lost.
Let's stick it right up them. HWTL.
