• May 24, 2009: Despite losing 3-2 at home to Chelsea, Sunderland stay up at the expense of both Middlesbrough and Newcastle.
• May 24, 2025: Sunderland score a last-gasp winner at Wembley to gain promotion back to the Premier League after an eight year absence.
• May 24, 2026: Sunderland beat Chelsea 2-1 to qualify for the Europa League and achieve European qualification for the first time in over 50 years.

I think the above is sufficient argument for Spring Bank Holiday to be extended to a Bank Holiday week on Wearside, with the 24th being an official day of celebration across the city.

I mean, for Newcastle United to be relegated with Alan Shearer in the dugout to be the third-best thing to happen on May 24 in the last 20 years is quite remarkable.

For many years, ‘on this day’ content was a source of depression for Sunderland fans. They were usually humiliating reminders of signings that made you shudder involuntarily even during a heatwave, a reminder of yet another humiliating loss, a relegation, or as we will get on July 23 this year, the tenth anniversary of David Moyes’ appointment on Wearside.

Of course, those events have not been erased from our history, but now rather than cementing our discontent at our own football club, it reminds of how far we have come and even laugh at some of the depths of despair that we plummeted to.

For example, as I write this, it is the seventh anniversary of our Play-Off final defeat to Charlton Athletic, which made it 46 years without a win at Wembley and fifth loss in a row at the ‘Home of Football.’

At the time, I remember feeling physically sick and I don’t think me and my dad said a word to each other until we were more than halfway home.

However, had we won that day, would Kyril Louis-Dreyfus have taken over the club in the Spring of 2021? Would we have simply gone straight back down the following season or been entrenched in Championship mid-table mediocrity?

Of course, we will never know but if we were given a time machine, I doubt anyone would change a thing on our timeline of recent history in case it risked jeopardising any of our current position.

This phenomenon is commonly referred to as the butterfly effect, and with Sunderland it certainly plays a key part in our story.

I started out by emphasising the significance of May 24, 2025 and 2026, but equally significant in our journey is June 22, 2024, 124 days after the dismissal of Michael Beale, the club confirmed Régis Le Bris as their new Head Coach.

There is no doubt that this date has forever changed the direction of the entire football club, a promotion at the first time of asking and European qualification are two achievements that speak for themselves. However, his arrival also created a piece of new history in a much less overt, but equally significant way.

On January 10, 2025, Enzo Le Fée joined Sunderland on loan with a £19 million obligation to buy clause, should we achieve promotion. The second date does not happen if Le Bris was not appointed six months previously.

The relationship between Le Bris and the French midfielder was so strong, that when he wasn’t getting sufficient game time at Roma, Le Bris reached out to him and persuaded him to take a chance on a Championship side.

We have since seen the absurdity of that scenario and if we’d paid double that asking price after gaining promotion to the Premier League, nobody could have complained based on his performances this season.

Granit Xhaka quite rightly grabs many of the Sunderland-based headlines, but Le Fée’s contribution has been equally as big in terms of embodying what it means to represent both the club and the region. His work rate has been second to none and he is arguably the most technically gifted footballer I have seen represent the lads.

Speaking of Xhaka, it was 30th July 2025 when we brought him to Wearside and since then our progression has felt turbo charged, with his combination of determination, quality and helping us attract other stars to the club. Throughout the season he has spoken at length of demanding more from the group, while emphasising the need to stay humble at all times and not take anything for granted.

Although it only pricked national consciousness around a year ago, ‘Til The End is not a new concept or marketing campaign.

In fact, its usage can be traced back to the build up of the League One play off semi final against Shelffield Wednesday in 2022. That was the first usage of the cat’s eyes in the East Stand and a YouTube video entitled, Highlights: Til The End was uploaded on 1st May 2022.

At the time, the slogan rang equally true, as late winners against Crewe, Gillingham, Shrewsbury, and Oxford propelled Alex Neil’s side into the play off positions. Four years later, we went ‘Til The End against the likes of Arsenal, Newcastle, Chelsea, and Everton, accumulating 22 points from losing positions.

Of course, it’s not been a journey of entirely linear progression and the 23-24 season is best locked away in an inaccessible corner of your mind, only to be accessed at 3am when you can’t sleep.

But since that play-off campaign in 2022, we have written new history on a regular basis, starting off with a stoppage time winner away at Hillsborough.

We then won at Wembley in front of fans for the first time in 49 years, we beat Coventry away for the first time since 1985 and won our first ever Championship play-off final, all featuring last-minute winners of course.

We beat Newcastle home and away (alright, some things never change), we won at Stamford Bridge, held Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United to draws at the Stadium of Light, achieved 54 points, and qualified for Europe.

It’s not all been plain sailing and after a 5-0 loss to Nottingham Forest and a 1-1 draw to basement boys Wolverhampton Wanderers, it felt as though our chance had gone.

But from Le Bris, to Xhaka, to Luke O’Nien to the flawless marketing campaigns and belief of the fanbase, we stuck together and went ‘Til The End once again and made history once more.

Now, rather than our social media feeds being filled with ‘on this day Sunderland signed Jack Rodwell, Marc Wilson, and Joel Lynch, we can look forward to some much more pleasant reminders such as:

On this day we completed the permanent signing of Enzo Le Fee, reminders of bringing the likes of Noah Sadiki, Reinildo, Chemsdine Talbi, Granit Xhaka, Robin Roefs, Omar Alderete, Nordi Mukiele and Brian Brobbey.

Almost as significantly, we can laugh at the sliding doors moment of ‘on this day Marc Guiu returned to his parent club following an injury to Chelsea striker, Liam Delap.’

As the season goes on we can watch clips of ‘this time last year and remember victories over, West Ham, Brentford, Nottingham Forest, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Chelsea, Bournemouth, The Visitors, Crystal Palace, Burnley, The Hosts, Tottenham, Everton and Chelsea again.

Then on May 24, 2027, “On this day Sunderland AFC returned to the Premier League, following a last-gasp Tommy Watson goal against Sheffield United.” And we will be transported back to that moment, watching the slow motion replay of the goal set to Rocketman, zooming in to spot ourselves going mental.

But we will also watch, “On this day Sunderland qualified for Europe for the first time 53 years, after a 2-1 win over Chelsea confirmed our place in the Europa League.”

Videos of the speeches will be played and recalled, photos of the team photo in front of the South Stand will be posted.

We are already writing new history and our ‘on this days’ going from grim and depressing to uplifting and inspiring.

Let’s hope next season we write even more new history and one day we will look back and reflect upon our first European night at the SOL, our first win in Europe since 1973, our first European knockout tie and many personal stories and memories that makes following the lads special.

Drink it all in, reflect on how far we have come as a club and as Xhaka said, “This is just the beginning.”