Fan Letters: Luke O’Nien — The Heartbeat Of Sunderland AFC
· Yahoo Sports
Dear Roker Report,
From League One to Europe via the Championship and Premier League in double quick time. Wow!
Special praise must go to Luke O’Nien, who in my opinion is the heartbeat of Sunderland Association Football Club.
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He may not be the best player at the club or in the starting eleven every week, but when he puts on the Sunderland shirt, we always see the best version of O’Nien: loyalty, desire; a team player with a winning mentality and a great ambassador for our club, and someone the academy players can look up to and emulate.
When seeing him on the pitch after the game on Sunday, you could see how much it meant to him. Priceless.
During the summer, some players will come and go as we continue to build, but I hope O’Nien leads the team out in Europe.
Haway the Lads!
Mark
Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Mark. Thank you for your letter.
O’Nien’s story is one that’s never going to be repeated at Sunderland, and his rise from League One to the Europa League is the kind of fairytale that football rarely seems to throw up nowadays, but for which we should be immensely grateful when it does.
In my view, he’ll be a valuable member of the squad as we tackle a larger number of fixtures for 2026/2027, and his leadership and influence on his teammates shouldn’t be underestimated, either. A class act in every single way.
Dear Roker Report,
I’m unsure if you’ll publish this, but as a seventy one-year-old, I’ve recently discovered these brilliant Sunderland AFC music videos on YouTube, and I thought I would bring your readers’ notice to them.
The songs, lyrics and content are brilliant, and deserve far more views than they’ve currently received. They do contain strong language but epitomise everything about being a Sunderland supporter whilst also poking fun at the visitors up the road.
The latest video/song concerns Sunday afternoon’s match against Chelsea and no matter what the result, encompasses what a great season the club has had.
I must finally point out that I have no knowledge of who produces these videos/songs but I believe whoever it is deserves acknowledgment for their skills.
Mentalmackem
Ed’s Note [Phil]: Thank you for getting in touch.
I think the Sunderland-related chants have been superb this season.
Brian Brobbey’s Wear/Tyne derby song is my personal favourite, but the Enzo Le Fée (“I just don’t think you understand…”), Eliezer Mayenda (“Oi! Big Man! What’s your name?”) and Granit Xhaka (“We’ve got…”) chants are fantastic and to hear them being belted out loudly and proudly on Sunday, both inside and outside the stadium, was brilliant.
With European football to look forward to for next season, let’s hope that we can keep devising new songs in tribute to the Lads — and they’ll be heard in stadiums across the continent when the Europa League campaign kicks off in the autumn!