You may or may not have noticed but Sunderland haven't lost a league game this year. If you're from gypsy stock (like I suspect I might be) you probably think that me merely mentioning that fact will put the mockers on it. But that doesn't worry me.
We may or may not get an automatic promotion place this season, we may or may not go up via the playoffs. But I can say with absolute confidence that if we don't go up this season, we will piss it next.
The reason for my confidence can be expressed in four words: Naill Quinn and Roy Keane.
Sunderland fans have known Niall was a top man for some time now (we always loved him more than Kevin Philips) but I'll be honest, I had contempt for Keane until recently. I now think that his time as a star man for Man Utd, when he won League titles, FA Cups and the Champions(!) League, was simply training for his main purpose in life - to make Sunderland great.
We've had our false dawns at Sunderland in recent years but this one is different. This time it is right. This time we have a chairman and a manager who are talented and focussed. I am supremely full of faith. By 2008/9 we will be established as one of the very topclubs in Britain.
I can feel it in my water.
