Sunderland fans have a huge role in saving club
WE think we flog our players with the number of games in late December/early January.
But what about the supporters? Take my old club Sunderland, and their brilliant fans who have to travel further to away Premier League games.
They played at Arsenal yesterday, a forbidding task even with their strongest team. As it was Sam Allardyce played most of his usual bench in the cup tie.
So Sunderland fans got to watch half their reserves lose as expected yesterday before Wednesday’s crucial away game at Swansea.
Lee Cattermole (left) was one of the regulars who did turn out yesterday and I met him for Football Focus this week and he spoke about the relationship between fans and the players at Sunderland.
While I didn’t have the best of times with them myself up there, I genuinely understood their passion for their club and for football.
Cattermole knows how knowledgeable they are, and how a player like him can thrive on their support.
Supporters at other clubs hate Lee. Sunderland fans love him, because he plays like he is one of them and he wants to wear the shirt.
They know what they will get when he plays and they feel better when his name is on the team sheet. He is one player they know will try to get team-mates to perform to his, and the fans’ standards.
That’s why he stressed players like John O’Shea and Seb Larsson are so important for Sunderland to survive. Allardyce, he said, is the most forward-thinking manager he’s worked with – and he’s had a few there.
He admitted he thought of him as old-school but back when he was my youth team coach at Preston, Sam was always trying to move with the times and adapt to sport science and get staff round him to work with players.
It is all about providing everything for the player so he can perform at his best. And that has never changed.
He knows all about the importance of recovery and organisation and work-rate.
And, importantly, he’s got the fans on side too because they know he might just guide them out of trouble.