The Sunderland Chronicle
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Darlan Mendes would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Darlan Mendes is living that version at Sunderland, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Sunderland
Omar Alderete was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
3 academy players handed senior numbers at Sunderland
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market17 Aug 2026
One of our own: Jason Henderson joins the Sunderland first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jason Henderson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
James Stewart steps up from the Sunderland academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. James Stewart has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market17 Aug 2026
One of our own: Christopher Grant joins the Sunderland first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Christopher Grant is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
Darlan Mendes arrives at Sunderland as the heir apparent
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Darlan Mendes is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ahmed Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Sunderland are making the ground bigger
Work is signed off on a capacity of 56341. It is the sort of decision a club is judged on twenty years later, by people who were not there when it was taken.
In brief
- The terraces Everybody has an opinion about Darlan Mendes
- Squad Granit Xhaka has company in his position