2 hours ago
1
Midnight was fast approaching when Eddie Howe faced a curve-ball question: if he could be offered a draw at the Stadium of Light on Sunday would he accept it?
If the typically straight-bat answer – “no chance, we prepare to win every game” – was expected, Howe’s subsequent reaction spoke volumes about Sunderland’s recent metamorphosis.
Newcastle’s manager was standing on a concrete concourse at the BayArena, where his team were hugely frustrated to have been held 2-2 by Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday, but his focus had switched to a potentially bigger challenge on Wearside.
“It’s probably the most intense derby game there is,” said Howe, whose side sit 12th, one point and three places beneath promoted Sunderland. “The north-east’s absolutely obsessed by this game. It’s an intense rivalry. It’s a game where my players can write their names in the history books and it’s also my first time going up against Régis Le Bris. I’ve been impressed by how his team have played this season.”
It is all so very different from January 2024 and a third-round FA Cup tie on Wearside that Sunderland supporters regard as perhaps the darkest hour before an unexpectedly glorious dawn.
The thoroughly outclassed Championship hosts, under the short-lived management of Michael Beale, lost 3-0, with Dan Ballard’s own goal paving the way for Alexander Isak to score twice for Newcastle. After the final whistle Howe’s assistant, Jason Tindall, incensed home fans by taking a celebratory group photograph of the visiting team on the pitch.
By way of further exacerbating Wearside pain, the Sunderland owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, had been forced to apologise for “a serious error in judgment” on the eve of the match when a bar at the Stadium of Light seconded as a corporate hospitality area for visiting fans was repainted black and white.
That summer Louis-Dreyfus made proper amends. His appointment of the little-known former Lorient head coach Le Bris would transform the topography of north-east football.
After last spring’s playoff triumph Louis-Dreyfus presided over a £167m investment in 14 players that dictates that only two starters from that 2024 defeat – Ballard and Trai Hume – are likely to be involved on Sunday.
It is the first league derby since a 1-1 draw at St James’ Park almost 10 years ago but the rivalry between two cities situated 12 miles apart dates back to the 17th century when Newcastle was royalist while Sunderland backed the parliamentarian rebels. Such tribalism intensified when, during the later Jacobite uprisings, Newcastle supported the Hanoverian monarchy while Sunderland sided with the Scottish Stuarts.
Given that the French assisted the Stuarts it is perhaps appropriate that Sunderland AFC are benefiting from Gallic input. While Louis-Dreyfus, whose late father owned the Ligue 1 club Marseille, is Swiss-French, Le Bris is a proud Breton and the dressing room has become heavily populated by French speakers, including the former Roma playmaker Enzo Le Fée and the former Paris Saint-Germain defender Nordi Mukiele.
If Le Fée’s defence splitting passes and incisive dead-ball delivery can damage a Newcastle side strangely vulnerable to set pieces, Howe possesses a gamechanging France-born player of his own. Newcastle’s hopes of a first league win against Sunderland since 2011 could be enhanced if Yoane Wissa, finally fit after three months spent nursing a knee injury since his £55m move from Brentford, is ready to start.
It is not impossible to imagine Howe fielding Wissa and Nick Woltemade in attacking tandem in a 3-5-2 formation possibly involving the former Switzerland defender Fabian Schär man-marking either Le Fée or his similarly influential former international teammate Granit Xhaka.
Wissa and Le Bris are old acquaintances after crossing paths as coach and player at Lorient. “It wasn’t easy to anticipate Yoane’s pathway then,” said Sunderland’s manager. “But Yoane was really good on the pitch. I’m so happy for him that he’s done well but I hope he won’t be at his best against us.”
Le Bris, who will strive to retain his coveted DR Congo midfielder Noah Sadiki amid interest from Chelsea, has been listening to derby stories for his entire Wearside tenure.
“The fans have been talking about it since I first came here,” he said. “At the beginning of this season, one told me: ‘If you beat Newcastle you can be relegated.’ I’m not sure about that but I know it’s really important.”
So, too, does Howe. “This rivalry’s very different when you’re seeing it from afar on TV to actually living and experiencing it yourself,” he said. “When you’re here you realise it’s much more intense than you thought from the outside. The biggest stick I’ve ever had was when I started the Great North Run [in 2023]. I got abused by about 50% of the people there.
“But you want to experience the biggest games and throw yourself into the biggest challenges and I think this match will be one we’ll always remember.”
Whether those memories are good or bad may hinge on the key decisions Howe pondered as Newcastle flew back from Germany in the early hours of Thursday. Does he drop Aaron Ramsdale in goal and replace him with a fit-again, if recently error-prone, Nick Pope? Should he rest Sandro Tonali, his best player but latterly out of form, and hand a midfield place to the 19-year-old Lewis Miley? And would it be better to start with a back four or five?
Le Bris remains adamant about one thing. “We’ll be the underdogs,” he said. “We’ll go into the game with humility … but also with excitement. At kick‑off I’ll feel proud. And happy to be in this place. It’s a privilege to be part of this club and to feel its momentum. To be part of this story is really important.”
English (US) ·