Sunderland’s board have triggered a bold promotion push..

We’ve all got a mate like it — the person who is last to the bar. Each time he pulls a tenner from his pocket the Queen blinks in the light. Every pound is a prisoner and all that.

The sort of parsimony and careful financial planning that means the very same pal – whose nickname is probably something like Money Saving Expert, or Whoops! after those little yellow Asda stickers – he jets off to the Maldives for three weeks with his girlfriend to the shock of absolutely everyone, because he told no one; didn’t even mention it once. Jaws hit the floor, people doing that counting motion on their fingers, Dave is going mad in the corner saying muttering about how “he owes me 16 pints and a kebab and he’s going where?!”

It’s the type of behaviour exhibited by Sunderland AFC this month, and no one saw it coming. The sudden show of wealth that signals they mean business; the willingness to spend top dollar on players to facilitate something quite special. I, for one, am fully supportive of it.

Except Dave in this scenario is Birmingham City, who must be absolutely fuming at the loss of Jobe for the equivalent of a pint over at the Sheepfolds. It must also be said that Jobe doesn’t have a Whoops! sticker on him — it just goes to show you can get a very nice steak for £2.18 if you know the right time to buy.

Enough of the supermarket analogies though. The big question is: what does this mean? Are we signalling a new era and approach by the board? The answer is almost certainly yes. The best bit: it was the plan all along.

Back when Kristjaan Speakman was appointed in 2020 he spoke of a long term, multi-season process with which to help build the squad based on an organic, pragmatic but exciting basis. You only need to look back at the line up from his first game at the club to see how things have transformed – Conor McLaughlin, McFadzean, Scowen, Graham. I’d go on but I don’t want to overwhelm the region’s rehab centres.

To think how far we have come with the squad we currently have is a testament to the work that has been done so far. For balance, I should say it hasn’t been plain sailing, but the missteps have been few and far between when all is told.

And yet, there is the palpable sense this is a project only partially completed. Fourth place in the Championship is not the final destination anyone would be content with.

For so many of Sunderland’s young stars, the ceiling is very, very high. It’s clear that to reach their full potential, it will probably require a move elsewhere. But the desire for us all is to enjoy the ride with as many of them as possible, for as long as possible. That means promotion is a requirement.

Photo by Martin Swinney/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

However, if and when our brightest stars do leave, it’s okay. Speakman and KLD will have a plan for that, because throughout the last four years they’ve demonstrated the wheels are constantly in motion at this club. Many have been unable to see past short-termism — the desire to get back to the Premier League, or simply not fall back into League One has created a climate of fear and/or desperation amongst some fans — and that’s understandable.

Now though it feels very much like the situation back in 2022 when Lee Johnson and Alex Neil were attempting to haul the club out of League One. There was a sense that the squad that had been assembled to date would more than be able to hold its own in the Championship. Such a notion was confirmed by Sunderland’s performance in the League Cup against QPR. They did not look out of place, and while a playoff finish the following season might have been a surprise to those on the outside, it really wasn’t for us.

And so we find ourselves in the same position. A talented squad many of whom you just sense would be able to step up to the top flight. For now their relative youth is preventing them from performing at their peak levels consistently, but that will come with experience.

It wouldn’t be overly ambitious or arrogant to suggest that if Sunderland are promoted alongside two of Leeds, Sheffield United and Burnley, that next season this club would leave the others far behind. Because one thing is sure — if Speakman and KLD want to press the button on promotion, it’s to stay up.

This is what we are seeing with the decision to spend now. It’s come as a surprise in some ways, but what this tells us is that those at the top of the club feel the time is right to invest, and push. They have raided the sock drawer and laid down the sort of sums we didn’t think was going to happen. All it has done has injected excitement throughout the fanbase – but most importantly the message to the playing squad that this is the time to kick on.

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