ALS: SAFC Fanzine

27/12/2025

RLB PRE LEEDS

Ahead of our final game of 2025, Regis Le Bris spoke with the press as he prepares his squad for Sunday as they try to maintain their unbeaten record at home in the Premier League this year. Leeds went up last season alongside us and Burnley and whilst they haven't reached the heights we have, Regis knows that like every team in this division (except Wolves), they are a real threat.

LEEDS FORM
“Absolutely and Leeds are in good form at the moment, especially over the last four games, they switched into a back five with three midfielders and two forwards and they are going maybe a bit more direct now, especially in key moments. They are strong in set pieces, good takers, good delivery, tall, strong physical presence in the box so they are doing well and its not unusual in this league so we will have a tough challenge at home once again.”

ALWAYS DRAMATIC
“It’s always a different story but the two games were a really good balance I think with good moments for each team’s equaliser at the Stadium of light was really positive for our fans and for us and probably we lost our dynamic for the automatic promotion at Leeds as well so good memories but I repeat it will be a new story.”

LOW AMOUNT OF GOALS RECENTLY
“I think it’s a progressive process and if you think about foundations, often you start with the defensive shape, then you work on your build up, the progressive phase then you finish up with the final third. I think now we have better control of the ball and we are more confident, like we did at Brighton for example to build up under the pressure against the strong press. Now we have to fine tune this last part. Its sometimes a question of collective behaviours but its also a question of confidence, offensive, or the game time so its not the easiest part but I’m not worried about this part.”

LIKE PLAYING LEEDS
“Yeah, I like playing against Leeds to be fair because they are intense, they play a proactive style of play so its always a good game, an exciting game. After that, we know that some non-negotiable points will be key in this game, especially the intensity, the way we’ll defend on set pieces for example so its another challenge, especially at home but we are looking forward to it.”

PERIPHERAL FIGURES
“We’ll have five games in two weeks with a small group so they are involved. Obviously, you can’t see the training sessions, but they are playing really well. So, it means something for me about their standard, about their ability to stay connected and football is like that, sometimes you don’t feel the opportunity close to your ambition but just a moment can define this opportunity so maybe they will play.”

MASUAKU TO LEAVE IN JAN?
“Probably the most competitive part of our squad is the back line. We have many good players, some of them gain momentum and for Arthur, even if he is a really good player, he didn’t have the opportunities to play in this squad but he is still important for us. We had the conversation together, just before AFCON and we agreed that in this transfer window we would have the opportunity to discuss but it doesn’t mean that he will leave. We still have to be aligned so if the collective and the individual projects are aligned, we can go like that, if that’s not the case and we have the opportunity to change we’ll see.”

26/12/2025

XMAS-NEW YEAR'S OPENING HOURS

26/12/2025

OPPOSITION VIEW: LEEDS
Now all the Christmas dinners and beers have been consumed we’re right back in the swing of things with the football as we host Leeds on the 28th. We spoke with Stuart Rayner from the Yorkshire Post to see how one of our fellow promoted sides are getting on.

16th in the League for Christmas. You'd have taken that at the start of the season right?
I definitely would. When Big Sam was Sunderland manager he always used to preach more points than games played, and apart from a couple of weeks in November, Leeds have always been on at least a point a game, and above the dreaded dotted line.
But Leeds have a demanding fanbase and some have got fidgety at times. That is mainly the fault of your lot for raising the bar of what is possible for a newly-promoted side way above what the dismal intake of the last two seasons did.

Much like Sunderland, Leeds also had a busy summer transfer window. Who has been their best signing so far?
Leeds put a high premium on physicality, with almost every signing over six foot tall. Sean Longstaff, who won't play again this year, and Anton Stach have really beefed up the midfield but the man of the moment is Dominic Calvert-Lewin, with six goals in his last five games. Leeds have mainly gone to a 3-5-2 formation lately and having a strike partner has really helped him.

Leeds boast a strong home record but how are they away from home?
Ropey, but showing signs of improvement. They won at Wolves but that barely counts, does it? The away form was becoming a bit of a concern but they gave Man City a fright, Phil Foden's stoppage-time goal seeing them off 3-2, then became only the third team this season to take points at Brentford in a 1-1 draw they ought to have won.

There were some rumours flying around about Daniel Farke's position being in jeopardy, what's the fan opinion on Farke? Farke in or Farke out?
That was before Man City (lost 3-2), Chelsea (won 3-1), Liverpool (3-3), Brentford (1-1) and Crystal Palace (won 4-1) so he's in credit at the moment, but it will come around again.
Even though he won 190 points in two Championship seasons, some Leeds fans have never been sold on Farke - his cautious football, and his slow and formulaic substitutions and stubbornness with regards to selection and tactics (both those have noticeably improved in the last five games). Plus he was never able to keep Norwich City in the Premier League, so there are valid doubts about him, for all the mitigating circumstances there.
It means when results are not there, there is not much to fall back on but the results are there right now.

What have you made of Sunderland's return to life in the top flight?

Hugely impressive, especially at the Stadium of Light, and very good for the Premier League and English football in general. We need at least one newly-promoted team, preferably more, to stay up this season.
I'm surprised how quickly Regis Le Bris has been able to gel things after so many summer singings, and like Leeds, their home form is huge for them.
My fear for the Black Cats has always been how they would fare with half the team in Morocco. The next month will be a big period for them because newly-promoted teams who start well usually tail off in the second half of the season when opponents get more of a handle on them, but they have done a good job of building up a reservoir of confidence and points, so fingers crossed.

Which LUFC player could cause us some damage?
Calvert-Lewin. Also, set pieces were big when the sides last met and Leeds have put a lot more emphasis on them this season.

Alternatively, which Sunderland player has caught your eye the most and worries you?
Clearly Granit Xhaka has been one of the signings of the season for the team of the first half of the Premier League season, so Leeds would probably have liked him to have got suspended for this game. Wilson Isidor's goal threat is always a concern.

What's your score prediction? Who will get the goals?
3-3. Calvert-Lewin, and maybe Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk at set pieces for Leeds, a couple for Isidor and maybe one from Dan Ballard at a corner.

Finally, where do you think both sides will finish this year?
I think Sunderland will get dragged into lower mid-table, but it looks good for them to stay up, which is all that really matters. Leeds I think will be touch and go. They can do it, but I wouldn't put my house on it.

26/12/2025

NEXT FOUR AWAYS

A Love Supreme online store. Your one stop shop for away coaches, t-shirts and other Sunderland related merchandise. 01915654422 - [email protected]

26/12/2025

Areet, not sure if this is the place to go but had an idea for an Omar Alderete song and have no idea how to even start getting it going as my seats in the Monty Stand not the South Stand. You may not be the place to go with it but you will know better than me and I think the fella deserves one.

To the tune of Made of Stone by The Stone Roses

There’s a guy,
From Paraguay,
His names Omar Alderete
Super Omar Alderete
He plays beside Ballard
They’re both well hard

Anyways,
Merry Christmas and FTM
Jack Coombes

26/12/2025

OTD: DENNIS TUEART DEBUT

On this day in 1968, Dennis Tueart made his first appearance in red and white, aged just 16, in a 0-0 draw at home to Sheffield Wednesday in the First Division. He would go on to play for Sunderland over 200 times, winning the FA Cup and scoring in a European competition along the way.

The season after his debut, in 1969/70, Sunderland were relegated to the Second Division and tried to bounce straight back up the following season. However, manager Alan Brown was unable to achieve this and we were stuck in the Second Division for a while.

Sunderland appointed Bob Stokoe in 1972, sitting second-bottom in the table. However, Stokoe quickly turned our fortunes around as we went on a monumental FA Cup run. Tueart was a key player in our run to the 1973 final, with the winger playing in wins against the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal. He played the full 90 as we achieved cup glory against Leeds, going down in the SAFC history books.

After impressing on Wearside, scoring memorable goals such as a perfect hat-trick against Swindon Town and a great goal against Vasas Budapest in the Cup Winners' Cup, Tueart joined Man City in 1974. He became a hero in Manchester, and became a League Cup winner in 1976 beating his boyhood club Newcastle United in the final. He actually scored in that game, an amazing overhead kick which has been voted the greatest goal in the history of the competition.

In 1978, Tueart joined American side New York Cosmos, where he played alongside greats such as Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto and even Pele! Two years later, he moved back to Manchester City, where he played in another FA Cup final but this time losing 3-2 to Tottenham Hotspur in a replay. Tueart then played for Stoke City, Burnley and Derry City before retiring in 1986. On the international stage, he earned six caps and scored twice for England.

Outside of playing, he worked as a director at Manchester City until the club's takeover in 2007 and he is currently a director of conferencing business at Premier Events. The ex-player has also published an autobiography called My Football Journey with the book's proceeds donated to a cancer hospital.

26/12/2025

OTD: ALEX HASTINGS IN MEMORIAM
On this day in 1988, Alex Hastings passed away in Adelaide, Australia. Hastings was our captain for the majority of the 1930s, one of the most successful decades in our history. He led us to the league title in 1936 but missed our FA Cup final win through injury. Raich Carter was the man who collected the trophy from the Queen that day in Hastings' place.

Initially a right back as a boy, Hastings moved to centre half and then even forward temporarily before adapting to left half. He excelled in this position and was mature even at a young age. Hastings made over 300 League and cup appearances (including games he played for Stenhousemuir in Scotland) and would’ve made even more, had the war not interrupted his career. The war meant that he was at the club for 15 years, a frankly staggering amount of time.

Hastings became a Scotland international whilst on Wearside but never exactly travelled the world with Scotland as both his appearances came against Ireland. His two appearances were well earned and he probably should have been capped more times.

Whilst his years at the club were successful, Hastings as club captain had to navigate the turbulent weeks after the untimely death of goalkeeper Jimmy Thorpe. Thorpe, just 22, had been a stalwart in goal, making 139 appearances for the Lads and tragically died just four days after playing against Chelsea in a 3-3 draw. In that game, Thorpe was kicked in the head and badly injured. These injuries, in conjunction with diabetes mellitus and heart failure, brought about Thorpe’s tragic death.

Hastings had to spur on his men for the run in. The loss of a friend and teammate must have weighed upon the team’s mind but Hastings and the rest of the team played brilliantly for the rest of the season. We were the undisputed kings of English football, having won the league more than every other side in the country, as well as being the only team never out of the top flight.

He lost key years to the war, which is an awful shame. Once the war was over, Hastings appearances were extremely limited. He went on to be manager of Kilmarnock, his only managerial job before he took over a hotel in Monkton. These were the days when former footballers, even those who played for the best club in England and won the First Division, went on to have a career as a landlord. He went back to Scotland and became a licensee of a pub in his home town of Falkirk and then went on to manage a bookshop in Edinburgh.

Imagine the CV handed in to the bookshop. It is the equivalent of Vincent Kompany handing in his CV to Waterstones in the Bridges. Kind of over-qualified but also inexperienced at the same time. His CV got even stranger and more diversified when he emigrated to Australia. Whilst his Scotland career took him only as far as the Emerald Isle, Hastings ended up journeying half way across the world. In 1965, he became the president of the South Australian Soccer Federation, which was definitely more of an appropriate position for someone of Hastings’ reputation.

He died in 1988 in South Australia and will be remembered as the man who captained our last First Division title and as one of the finest booksellers in the City of Edinburgh.

26/12/2025

OTD: OMAR ALDERETE BORN
Current Sunderland defender and Paraguay international Omar Alderete was born on this day.

Alderete was born in Paraguay’s capital city, Asunción, in 1996. He came through the academy of local team Cerro Porteño His senior debut came in May 2016 in a defeat to Rubio Ñu in the Paraguayan top flight. Two months later, he scored his first senior goal in a win over Guaraní. Also in 2016, he played in the round of 16, quarter final and semi final stages of the Copa Sudamericana (the South American equivalent of the Europa League).

His first time truly playing regular senior football though came during a loan spell with Gimnasia y Esgrima in the Argentine top division in the 2017/18 season, the defender played 22 games and scored once. He must have caught the eye in Argentina because, once his loan spell came to an end, he was picked up by Huracán of the same league on a permanent deal. In his one season there, he featured in the Copa Libertadores (the South American equivalent of the Champions League) and made a handful of league appearances.

In the summer of 2019, he moved to Europe with Basel of Switzerland and played lots of football in his first campaign away from his birth continent. There were 48 appearances from him total in all competitions, including in Champions League qualifiers and the Europa League proper, with him scoring once in the former of those against PSV Eindhoven. He also found the back of the net in the Swiss Cup final, having played in every round up to that point, but unfortunately his team were defeated 2-1 by Young Boys. After another six games for FCB the following season, he was signed permanently by Hertha BSC of the Bundesliga.

He was more of a sporadic feature for Hertha, playing 17 games (all of them in the league) in his sole season there, before spending the rest of his time contracted to them out on loan in La Liga. Alderete first moved temporarily to Valencia and the Paraguayan was a usual sight on the teamsheet with 34 appearances in all competitions but there was more heartbreak in a cup final, this time around in the Copa del Rey. It went to penalties against Real Betis following a 1-1 draw after extra time but Betis came out on top. There was an option to buy in his loan deal but this was not activated come the end of the season.

So, Getafe then signed him on loan and he played 28 games in all competitions during this spell. His sole goal of the season allowed him to get some revenge on Real Betis, as his second half goal saw his side come away with all three points in May 2023. Unlike Valencia, Getafe did activate their option to buy when his loan spell reached its conclusion. Over the next two seasons, Omar made another 71 appearances for the Blue Ones prior to joining Sunderland.

The Paraguayan came to Wearside in August 2025 on a four-year deal. Alderete made his debut for the club four days after joining, replacing Jenson Seelt a few minutes into the second half against West Ham United due to an injury. Less than ten minutes later, he put the ball in for our first top flight goal in eight years, with Eliezer Mayenda heading home. His next major contribution was scoring a winning goal away to Nottingham Forest, capitalising from a Granit Xhaka free kick. So far (at the time of writing), he’s helped us keep clean sheets against West Ham, Crystal Palace, Forest, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United. In fact, all of our clean sheets so far this campaign have come when he’s been on the pitch. He’s been a key player for us and the relatively small fee we paid for him is looking like more and more of a bargain as time goes on.

25/12/2025

So this is Xmas 🎄

24/12/2025

RLB ON XMAS PREPERATIONS

Even though its Christmas the footballing world still operates as normal although you could say it goes into overdrive around this time! Regis has explained his Christmas plans and the only thing he wants from Santa Claus is one day of peace! The benefit of our festive game against Leeds being on the 28th means that he was able to let everyone have the day off to spend with their families as opposed to being stuck in training.

TIME OFF FOR PLAYERS
“They will have the opportunity to have Christmas day off this year, which is really positive for their families, I think. We had two days of full training sessions, then two days off, then we’ll go again for the preparation of Leeds.”

REST OVER XMAS DAY
"Yes probably. One day please!"

XMAS OFF
“It’s tough for a manager but I think if we say we can’t stay at home but here we enjoy the work, the atmosphere and the stadium, the atmosphere in the dressing room so it’s a good life.”

LADS AT DARTS POST BHA
“I think it’s important and its more organic, rather than something prepared by the club so when they came back at the Academy of Light they were in a good mood and fresh which is really positive so you can enjoy days together and go back to work with good energy and some ambition.”

24/12/2025

REGIS ROUNDS OFF 2025
2026 is right around the corner and the year 2025 is one of those that will be remembered for many years to come with the playoffs, Premier League, new players and of course the recent derby win. Here's what he had to say...

BEST MOMENT OF 2025
“2025! We still have one game to play, so we’ll see. I think the full year was really positive because we were consistent. We had good moments, but I think the main point is the ability to stay consistent, as a club, as a coaching staff, as a group and you can get results like that.”

GOOD START
“It’s really positive to get 27 points at this stage in the season. I chose the quality of the group once again because if you are not at this level in this league you can’t win points, maybe you can create an illusion at the beginning but that doesn’t last over half of the season.”

CONSISTENCY IS KEY
“I think it’s the way we work, we like working consistently so even if one or two or three players are not at their best for one game doesn’t mean that they can’t keep playing so we are working like that, and Arthur so far didn’t have this opportunity to stay consistent in the squad.”

HOW HAS IT WORKED SO WELL
“I think it starts with the quality of our players to be fair and if you think that every phase is important for the outcome of a game. Probably the confidence can be built through this defensive shape, and I repeat our forwards, our wingers, are really important in this part of the game. Even if they can often waste a bit of energy and maybe be a little less efficient offensively they are doing really well so far. Obviously, you need strong centre backs and a good keeper and so on but it’s a great team.”

GO INTO 2026 UNBEATEN AT HOME?
“Its fragile but it’s a good place to play because we feel our fans and probably the opponent now starts to feel this challenge as a well so I don’t know if it’s the fear of the place but at least they feel that we are strong and maybe they can manage a different plan to find a solution.”

24/12/2025

We’re open today until 5pm for last minute Xmas gifts and Everton bus bookings