Good Luck To Our Former Lads In The Championship Promotion Race!

Jack Clarke of Ipswich Town celebrates scoring his team's first goal during the Sky Bet Championship match between Ipswich Town and Millwall at Portman Road, Ipswich, on March 21, 2026. (Photo by David Watts/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images) | NurPhoto via Getty Images Cards on the table: I don’t miss the Championship. I don’t miss the grind of the forty-six game schedule, the often-ropey red button coverage on Sky Sports , the attritional style of football or the incessant proclamations that Jack Rudoni is a future Ballon D’Or winner — and I certainly don’t miss Andy Hinchcliffe and Don Goodman’s often-laughably anti-Sunderland commentary.

No, Don. We don’t feel sorry for Kieffer Moore. We didn’t back then and we don’t now.

Perhaps this is a result of being drunk on the thrill of Premier League football since August (once you’ve seen Rayan Cherki in the flesh, been fortunate enough to witness Omar Alderete pocketing Erling Haaland and subsequently watched on with pride as we completed the double over Newcastle, there’s no way back) but as the 2025/2026 season heads for what looks like a thrilling conclusion, it’s a real source of pride to see so many former Sunderland players involved in the race for the Premier League. At the time of writing, Ellis Simms — something of an underrated striker and a player I had a lot of time for during his brief spell on Wearside — is within a game or two of top flight promotion with Coventry, and Dan Neil and Jack Clarke are very much in the box seat as Ipswich aim for a top two finish under Kieran McKenna. Elsewhere, Alan Browne and Middlesbrough are fighting tooth and nail to keep themselves in the mix; there’s every chance that Wembley heroes Alex Neil, Tommy Watson and Anthony Patterson could help to bring Premier League football to The Den if Millwall can hold their nerve down the stretch, and who’s to say that a reborn Ross Stewart can’t keep Southampton in the picture as well?

At this stage, it would be tempting to pithily declare that “Sunderland are just that damn big and that’s why so many former players are fighting to join us back in the big time” (to which people would be well within their rights to respond with the ‘get in there and make it about you’ meme), but on a serious note, it’s just great to see so many of our one-time red and white prospects competing at the sharp end of the second tier — even if I’d happily not see Sunderland kick a ball in that league for a long, long time, Stewart’s recovery from injury and rebirth as a dangerous Championship striker, for instance, should come as no surprise. Alongside Simms — whose Everton recall was undoubtedly a turning point in itself as we targeted an unlikely promotion under Tony Mowbray — he took to the second tier with ease back in 2022 and who’s to say what might’ve happened towards the end of that season had he not fallen victim to injury at Fulham? As for the two Neils, one should be classed as a modern-day Sunderland great and deserves another crack at promotion at Portman Road, whereas the other might’ve walked out in unsavoury fashion but he remains a seriously good Championship manager — whilst the Sunderland legacies of Watson, Patterson and Clarke need no embellishment.