A love supreme: this Sunderland fan in Australia is happy to embrace nocturnal fandom
When we first started dating, I remember asking him, an Englishman, which Premier League team he supported. He was very well spoken so I was expecting a London club, or, because everyone else seemed to support them, one of the glamour teams. So, when he said Sunderland, he caught me off guard.
He explained. Sunderland isn't a team you choose – it chooses you, whether you like it or not. It gets passed on. 'My dad was born near Roker Park … it's in the blood.'
I liked that answer. Norwood Football Club is in my blood. When my Papou died, the hearse drove down the Norwood Parade in Adelaide so he could have one last look at the footy ground. And now that we have a son, I like that he has passed on Sunderland, for better or for worse, to our boy.
Unfortunately, there has been a lot more of the worse than the better. Following from more than 16,000km away in Australia only exacerbates the cruelty. Setting your alarm for 5am and watching your team get beaten on a regular basis is not my idea of fun. At least being in a cult dangles the carrot of salvation.
Sunderland's fanzine is called A Love Supreme. It's an apt name for a supporter base whose devotion has been pushed to its absolute limits yet somehow still stayed strong. That love has never been more tested than over this past decade. If there was silverware for heartache, torment and despair, Sunderland's trophy cabinet would be bulging.
Their downfall has been as spectacular as it has been swift. In 2017 they finished bottom of the Premier League. The following season, in 2018, they somehow managed to repeat the feat in the Championship. And then, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, they spent three seasons threatening, but never quite managing to get out of League One. Three seasons trapped in footballing limbo, where no one can hear you scream.
In 2022, in their fourth season in League One, Sunderland finally won in the playoffs to climb back up to the Championship.
One statistic sums up the stability of the club perfectly: since 2017 Sunderland have had 18 managers (including caretakers). Yet during all the disappointments, fiascos and failures, the fans still turned out. Here's another remarkable statistic: the club finished with the highest average attendances in each year during their time in League One – and for each year in the Championship.
But as loyal as the fanbase is, it craves success. If you've seen the 2018 Netflix documentary, Sunderland 'Til I Die, you'll know what this club means to its fans.
From its first historic home, Roker Park in 1898, and on to the Stadium of Light in 1997, Sunderland AFC has been part of the city's DNA – its heartbeat. This city has endured plenty of economic hardships since the collapse of its once thriving shipbuilding, and coal mining industries – and is still doing it tough. Despite this, the one collective sense of pride has always been its football club. Its success – and failure – is felt deeply by all. It's in the blood.
So, in the early hours of 26 May, while the rest of our neighbourhood slept, we sat in front of the TV, stomachs churning, watching the Championship playoff final at Wembley. Sunderland v Sheffield United. After eight years, one match away from a return to the biggest football league in the world.
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Sunderland scored the winning goal in the last minute of time added on. For once a fairytale ending – and it felt just as magical, the final whistle acting like a flick of the wand, its shower of fairy dust magically erasing a decade of pain. There is no way we didn't wake the neighbours.
Now the glittering lights of the Premier League await – which explains the new addition to my morning routine. As I make my son's lunch for school with the kettle brewing, I check the summer transfer market. The last time I did this, my son, who is soon to be a teen, was crawling.
Granit Xhaka, the former Arsenal midfielder, is moving to Wearside. Fist pump! We need premiership experience. He joins a squad bolstered by eight (at the time of writing), mostly young, exciting additions. We've been busy – and for once we seem to be ahead of things. For a club whose motto this past decade could have been, Hope Springs Eternal, we seem, dare I say it, to be making the right kind of moves.
The bookies have us as favourites to go straight back down but, to steal a line from the terraces, 'that's utter bollocks'. Now is not the time for negativity. Now is the time to embrace the nocturnal hours. Now is the time to luxuriate in the build-up, now is the time to check out the new home and away strip (love it!), to pour over the fixtures (first up West Ham at home. Brilliant. Three points in the bag). Now is the time to dream.
The wilderness years are over, and the Black Cats are back. Their devoted fans are back too, soon to fill the best stadiums in England with their roar and their anthem – the sweet sound of Elvis's, Can't Help Falling In Love.
Amen to that. The countdown to midnight 17 August has begun.
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The post said: 'This guy went to a school that costs £23,000 a year to attend as a day student and £46,000 a year to attend as a boarder. Yet, he's got every Deano in the land eating out of his hand as some fake working-class hero. Embarrassing.' Skinner who has admitted being dyslexic replied in a lengthy post which did not name Brentwood School, but stated: 'I got a sports scholarship to a fantastic sports academy school, that I later got expelled (for selling porno DVDs my dad got from me off his mate in the pub so I could have a few more quid in my pocket) and I was an idiot when I was younger.' He added: 'I'm dyslexic and struggled with school, I was an extremely lucky child who got given the opportunity to go there, what's wrong with that? But I worked extremely hard to get myself there and I proud of that. 'I've been working on markets since the age of 12. I work every day and Employ 18 people. I have previous criminal records because I had to do things when I was younger that I'm not proud of and I was naive. Pictured: Jack Skinner and his father at 80s pop star Paul Young's wedding to wife Lorna at the Old Marylebone Town Hall Skinner's parents are thought to have split up around 2012 when his father disappeared off the electoral register records for the house (Pictured) He later spent time living separately with his mother and father at their respective home (Pictured his childhood home, which has an immaculate and spacious lawned rear garden) 'But learnt from it and made me the man I am today. I'm proud of where I've come from and what I've achieved in life. All I try to do is spread positivity and let the world know anything in life is achievable with hard work.' Skinner was ejected from The Apprentice by Lord Sugar in Week Nine of the show in 2019, and went on to capitalise on his TV work with appearance on 8 Out of Ten Cats and Celebrity Masterchef. But his social media fame only really took off in Covid when he started posting videos of himself while speaking of the joys of being British, having a happy family life and motivating fans with messages such as: 'It doesn't matter how big those steps are you're taking as long as they're in the right direction.' Many of his clips were filmed behind the wheel of his trusty Transit van while he was making deliveries across the country. Since Covid, his social media posts often show him tucking into breakfasts at Dino's. It emerged this week that he was invited to meet JD Vance at his Grade Two listed manor house holiday home in the Cotswolds, thanks to them both being mutually acquainted with Dr James Orr, associate professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge. Orr told the Telegraph this week: 'He's a very busy man. He's up at 3.30am grafting, going for those revolting breakfasts, gets in his van, drives around the South East delivering mattresses, has a cheeky pint at his local.' He said he viewed Skinner as being a patriotic, straight talking family man and effectively 'England incarnate'. Orr said: 'There's something timelessly English about him… It's the energy, the sunny optimism, the authenticity. And maybe… a glimpse into what's been lost.' Earlier this year, Orr persuaded Skinner to speak at a London conference called Now and England which he was organising for the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation after seeing some of his videos. Referring to himself as 'a modern-day Del Boy', he wrote: 'Success, money, work, it's never come to me, it's never been handed to me. Everything I 've ever had, I've had to go out and work for and that's generally the rule in life'. He added: 'We had too many wonks, eggheads, politicians, and nobody who could speak of England… I thought, 'This guy is Romford on legs and I want him at this conference'. 'He came to the conference and gave a barnstorming speech, and what was so powerful about it was it wasn't political, wasn't point-scoring, wasn't having jabs at the Government or Opposition… He talked in a straightforward and emotionally powerful way about his love of England.' Orr suspected JD Vance would get on well with Skinner and sent his politician friend a picture of him, saying: 'We have to go for pints with this guy'. JD Vance later voiced support for Skinner on X after the former Apprentice star said he had received 'death threats' and 'vile comments about my children' following posts in which he claimed 'something's gone wrong' in the UK. In response, the Vice President posted a picture of a cartoon character and wrote: 'Hang in there, my friend. Remember that 90 percent of people attacking your family look like this.' Following their surprise meeting, Skinner posted a picture of himself on Tuesday, dressed in a smart white shirt and tie with his unlikely political friend dressed in a polo shirt 'after a few beers'. He added that it had been 'a cracking night in the beautiful English countryside with JD, his friends and family' and a 'once in a lifetime' moment, before his trademark, signing off with the word: 'Bosh'. Skinner who has a combined 1.1 million followers on Instagram and X had his profile raised still further this week when he became the tenth contestant to be announced by the BBC for this year's Strictly starting next month. He also spoke of how his life spilled into criminality after being handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for handling 4,992 stolen tubes of Body Shop cleansing gels and 2,000 Valium tablets He welcomed the news, saying: 'I'm beyond excited to be joining Strictly Come Dancing. I've tackled the boardroom and some big breakfasts in my time but stepping onto the dance floor under that glitterball is next level stuff! 'I've never danced in my life (other than at weddings) but I'm ready to graft and of course have a laugh. Bring on the sequins, sambas and most importantly, the BOSH to the ballroom!' Skinner who now lives in Brentwood with wife Sinéad and their three children described in his book how his father 'worked the markets and always had a business opportunity on the go' during his 'idyllic normal upbringing'. But the Daily Mail can reveal that his father was at the centre of a long running investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority into his attempts to revive the former Our Price records brand as an online operation selling discounted goods which led to investors losing nearly £4million. He and a business associate were found to have breached financial regulations by selling shares in their company Our Price Records Ltd to 260 investors, with amounts invested ranging from £1,200 to £252,000 Lee Skinner was said to have duped investors with bogus promotional material without telling them that at least £1.58m in commission on the share sales was being paid to third party shell companies. It was revealed in 2020 that he had been leant more than £760,000 by one of the companies which had received commission in return for him supposedly providing administrative and marketings services for Our Price Records. The High Court heard that most buyers were introduced by a company which falsely stated that Lee Skinner was 'a personal friend of Richard Branson' and that the band Madness had agreed to appear for free to promote the scheme. As a result of the case, he had a bankruptcy petition filed against him by the FCA in May 2020 and was banned from being a company director for ten years, according to financial records. wife Sinéad Meanwhile further details of Thomas Skinner's now spent conviction for handling stolen goods have now emerged. He was aged just 20 in 2012 when he was charged with a much older co-defendant Albert Jackson, then 61, Jackson from Aveley, Essex, who died in 2015 was accused of handling 9,552 tubes of the same gel to the value of £76,000 as well as 171 pairs of Sketches footwear worth £8,000. A woman who was once in a relationship with him said: 'I don't know what Albert's connection to Tom Skinner was beyond them being on the same charge in court - but I can tell you Albert was a wrong un. 'He was a proper thief, very into drugs and violent - he once attacked a fella n a pub with a crowbar. A nasty piece of work.' Skinner spoke of his brush with the law in 2019 when he told the Mail: 'Many years ago before I had my business, when I used to work on the markets, I was young and naïve and brought stock from a source that I didn't know. I wasn't aware that the stock was stolen and paid the consequences for the mistake I made.' As a result of his ordeal, he stated that he now only buys from 'trusted sources'. He added: 'That is now well in my past and I have had a string of successful companies since then… I was put in situations I didn't fully understand when I was younger but they have made me the man I am now. I am a changed man.' But Companies House records suggest that Skinner may be having business problems, or at the very least not keeping up with paperwork, due to lateness in filing returns to Companies House. His firm called The Fluffy Pillow Company which was launched in January 2019 last filed accounts for the year ending in January 2022, with accounts for the following year now being nearly 22 months overdue. Even the last set of accounts raised questions about the company as its net assets were listed as £51,301 with £50,000 falling due eventually to creditors. Unusually, the figures for the previous year were exactly the same.
