Sunderland’s season ended in high drama, but this seemingly miraculous conclusion was the culmination of a process long in development.
This said, the final two games of 2024-2025 were loaded with intrigue and weight of hope.
After eight long years and over 35,200 minutes of blood, sweat and tears, Premier League football was in touching distance.
Sunderland’s first obstacle: Coventry City.
Both sides were spent. Extra time was up. Nothing could separate them. Each dugout braced for the penalty shootout that would determine who was heading to Wembley and the Championship play-off final.
But former Wearside powerhouse centre-half Gary Bennett’s intuitive footballing brain sensed otherwise.
‘‘You just had that feeling that something was going to happen, when you’ve been around the game for so long, sometimes you just know’’.
There was one kick left, corner 17, the game’s last. The players arrived in the box, waiting for Enzo Le Fee’s right-footed, in-swinging delivery.
As the Frenchman trotted closer to the North-West stand corner, 43,730 fans offered a brief roar then fell silent. Some were nibbling on their fingernails, other arms crossed and the rest: hands clasped, eyes lifted, praying for the improbable. From his vantage point, Bennett had witnessed years of heartbreak. But this felt different.
Precognition.
Daniel Ballard. The centre-back headed away 34 clearances across both legs; a feat Bennett would be proud of himself. He still can’t believe it happened despite his sixth sense prediction.
‘‘Le fee has put the ball down on the corner spot, kissed it, crossed it in and somehow, Dan Ballard has got his head on it, it’s hit the crossbar and gone in.
‘‘I’m not sure that moment will ever be topped, (I’ve) never heard the Stadium Of Light like it,” Bennett said.
The header won’t be forgotten either; it’s as unorthodox as they come. The double man-of-the-match winner shouldn’t have been able to wrap his neck around the ball like that. But he did, and somehow, unchallenged.
Maybe it was Ballard’s header finding the net the moment the clock hit 122 minutes. Or the weight of back-to-back relegations that had kept Sunderland stuck in League One for four long years. There was a palpable feeling: Something was happening.
‘‘I always felt the club would get back to where they belong, it was just a matter of when and how,” Bennett said.
But surely part of his uncanny prediction came from his deep knowledge of Sunderland’s rebuild. Cut to several years earlier: back-to-back relegations, a play-off final loss to Charlton, and Netflix’s Sunderland ‘Til I Die‘- where Zlatan Ibrahimovic ended up on a League One target shortlist.
Bennett’s commentary partner, BBC broadcaster Nick Barnes said then that while owner Stewart Donald cared his business partner Charlie Methven, didn’t mesh with the club.
‘‘His personality didn’t suit Sunderland or the football club, I don’t think he read the signs of what exactly Sunderland was all about, its history, its demographic.’’
New beginnings
When new owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus arrived alongside sporting director Kristjaan Speakman, the Black Cats we’re a giant, stranded in League One, with a squad value of £9.41m and average age of 27.6.
Sustainability became the heart of transformation on Wearside. Dreyfus stated their five-year plan would see them back to the Premier League. The club moved on from high earners and short-term fixes, shifting towards a youth-centric structure and long-term thinking; the Black Cats got younger and better.
After beating Wycombe in 2021-2022 for promotion, the value within the squad nearly doubled between 2022-2024. Then, after a playoff failure in the 2022-2023 season, a blip season, success followed at Wembley in 2025.
‘‘We travelled down in thousands, starting at Trafalgar Square (night before final), Friday night,’’ Bennett said.
A sea of red and white descended that evening, with Sunderland’s faith in their Category 1 academy playing a pivotal role in getting them there.
Rebuilding Sunderland: A story told through investment in youth
Chris Rigg made his debut at 15, and at 17, became the youngest player to start a Championship play-off final.
Dan Neil broke through at 16, and at 23, captained his boyhood club to promotion.
Anthony Patterson, 24, claimed the No. 1 shirt in the League One promotion campaign at 20, making that save v Sheffield United.
Tommy Watson, debuted at 17, now 19, left a parting gift: A £10 million fee to Brighton for his services, and – bring us to Wembley – a goal worth north of £200 million, the retainment of key assets, and the addition of new ones because of Premier League football.
With a big smile, Bennett explained that no writer could script the final. Watson, belittled by fans in the previous weeks due to poor form and a pre-agreed move to Brighton, picked up a loose ball, drove forward, steadied himself and slotted it into the bottom corner with aplomb.
‘‘Again, you had that feeling, it was going to happen, it had to be him, some fans didn’t even want him on the pitch,” noted Bennett.
Barnes praised Regis Le Bris’ rotation of the squad, questioned weeks earlier, as in the play-offs his side were fresh.
‘‘The best signing was Regis Le Bris, he manipulated the whole situation, even after losing five games, he believed in his rotation, and he was right.’’
Bennett added: ‘‘(At Wembley) He moved Le Fee into the middle with (Jobe) Bellingham, with two wingers (Romaine Mundle/Watson then Patrick Roberts) and (Wilson) Isidor and (Eliezer) Mayenda.’’
Experience in youth
Barnes praised the six core players from the League One era (above), especially Hume (23): ‘‘His progress from signing from Linfield (Northern Irish club) to being in the Premier League now and wearing the Northern Ireland captain’s armband is remarkable.’’
He too pointed to the value Sunderland found in Mundle (21), Mayenda (20), and Bellingham (19) sold to Dortmund for up to £33.5milion, with Bennett believing: “The experience of Alan Browne and Chris Mepham was important’’
Sunderland’s average age rose to 23.2, up from 22.4 the previous season – a subtle shift that paid off.
Most importantly, when struggling, Le Bris didn’t waver. After Isidor’s two missed penalties against Burnley in January, it struck me how calm the Frenchman was: ‘‘Football is like that, you can make mistakes, but you have to learn from them,’’ he told me and other reporters.
The 49-year-old’s coaching allowed for growth through trust and belief; Isidor hadn’t scored for 14 straight games heading into the first leg and scored.
Spanish U21 international Mayenda, goalless last season, scored the winner in the away leg and equalizer at Wembley.
Three play-off games, three late winners, like their campaign: ‘Till the end’
Now, the infrastructure and production on the pitch is unrecognisable from the dysfunction laid bare for the world to see.
Bennett is enthused by the six new arrivals and the impact of new director of football Florent Ghisolfi, working in tandem with Kristjaan Speakman with ‘several’ more expected to follow.