When I was offered the role of Sunderland Manager back in July 2025, I was absolutely baffled. Why does a recently promoted Premier League side, desperate to stay up for the first time since 2017 and compete with their Saudi backed neighbours, want a Journalist to lead their team in such an important season for the club? Of course though, I never hesitated to sign. Management had been a dream of mine for years, so to get the chance, at the highest level at that, was an absolute honour. I signed the 2 year contract and prayed that my years of tactical analysis and reporting would mean that I would have a shot at succeeding with the club.

After a solid pre season, with wins and losses where we learnt the strengths and weaknesses of the squad, we started the season at home to West Ham, where we got our first win of the season. A 58th minute Mukiele Header from a Granit Xhaka free kick put us 1-0 up, where we held it till full time. We had a slightly rockier rest of August, with a win in the Carabao Cup, and 1 point in 2 league games, when we finally received our only 2 signings of the Window: A new Goalkeeper in Léo Jardim, and a winger to line up opposite Adingra in Liel Abada. Both of these slot into the team well, helping us with key victories like a Penalty shootout win against Liverpool in the Carabao, but our league form was rocky. Behind the scenes I wasn’t sure how to fix it, but alongside my assistant Luciano Vulcano, we set up a new Tactical system to take advantage of the strengths of our Squad, and introduced it as a gift in our Christmas fixture against Leeds.

We hit the ground running after that, beating Leeds 5-1 with 4 goals amongst our front three. We Drew 3-3 with giants Manchester City, and beat Spurs 3-2 on aggregate to get to the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal. We added a few new players to the squad in January to boost this new system further: Takehiro Tomiyasu, a versatile defender who could help in any position across the back line. Takumi Minamino, who could hopefully add a little extra to our Attacking midfield options and compete with Enzo Le Fée. Ismaël Doukouré, a young Ball Playing Centre-Back who could double as a Defensive Midfielder. We brought back Jobe Bellingham on loan, to provide cover in all Midfield areas. And we brought in our new Striker, Matias Arezo.

We came to the Carabao Cup final in great form. We had won 11 of our 18 games since we changed the system. Adingra, Abada and Arezo were firing on all cylinders. We had made it to the FA Cup Quarter Final where we’d face Nottingham Forest. As confident as we felt though, it was still Arsenal, They were our worst result in the new year, a 4-0 loss at the Emirates. No one could perform against them, and I’ll be honest, I was terrified. We lined up with what we believed to be our best eleven. Minamino lost out to Enzo Le Fée , since he was performing, while Minamino hadn’t scored for us, And Tomiyasu was benched as we had Reinildo and Geertruida both fit. We set ourselves up for the best possible result.

We started the game with a bang. 6 minutes into the match, after a long ball across the pitch from Jobe Bellingham, Adingra got on the end and fired it past Kepa to put us 1-0 up. Our first goal against Arsenal this season. Spirits were high. We had a chance. We had to Take it. After 40 minutes Geertruida launched an attack on the right, crossing the ball in. Ben White failed to clear the ball, hitting Saliba instead. Adingra collected the ball against the post and converted. We were suddenly 2-0 up against the future Champions League winners. We held on, substituting tired players for fresh legs to maintain our lead. And then in the 83rd minute Jobe Bellingham took a poor shot from the edge of the box, which Kepa easily controlled with his feet. He didn’t notice he was being quickly pressed though, and before he could react Takumi Minamino had taken the ball and put it in the back of the net, scoring his first Sunderland Goal and putting us 3-0 up. We held on, winning the game 3-0, and gaining qualification for the 26/27 UEFA Europa Conference League.

After our miraculous Carabao cup win we qualified for the FA Cup Semi Final after beating Nottingham Forest 2-1, meaning we’d soon be returning to Wembley, this time against Manchester City. We had some poor performances before this match, losing to Spurs and drawing to Villa and Forest. But this was Wembley, anything could happen. Unfortunately that was true, as a first half Hat-trick from Marmoush and a goal from Haaland had us 4-0 down at half time. We didn’t look like a team that wanted to progress, and I made sure the squad knew their performances were not up to par. They seemed to take this to heart, as although we went out of the cup here, we scored 3 in the second half, only losing 5-3. Despite the loss I’m proud of the squad and how resilient they were to recover from that first half performance.

We finished the season well after that, without losing again, with heights such as a 6-2 away win against Wolves, and a 1-0 win at home against the Super Team of Chelsea. We finished 12th in the table on 49 points, 2 points above Manchester United. We didn’t lose to Newcastle all season. I actually survived a season of Premier League Football. There is, and was a lot to celebrate over the season. But I must now look ahead. I have to look at improving on our placement. I have to prepare for Sunderland’s first season in Europe since 1974. Hopefully this time next year I can sit here, typing out more stories of success, and not my own failures and resignation.

Article by It Kitt

1st of June 2026

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