IF a week is a long time in politics, then it can sometimes feel like an eternity in football. Seven days ago, Simon Grayson was preparing to take charge of his first press conference as Sunderland manager, and the general feeling was that he had walked into a club in a state of complete crisis. One week on, and while there are still plenty of problems requiring solutions, everything feels significantly more becalmed.

Feel that Sunderland supporters? It’s called optimism. It’s been practically non-existent on Wearside in the last year or so, but it should be the default setting for football fans, especially in the pre-season hiatus when anything is possible and dreams are still to be dashed.

Of all the criticisms that can be levelled at David Moyes during his disastrous ten-month tenure at the Stadium of Light, the dispassionate dismantling of any form of hope is surely the most damning.

Moyes didn’t just suck the life out of Sunderland, he deflated things to such an extent that following the Black Cats was like playing out the most depressing passages of a Dickensian novel. “Please sir, can I have some more?” “Well, I wouldn’t have thought so. And even if you got it, it wouldn’t do any good because you’ll still be relegated anyway.”

Whether through design or simply as a result of his personality, Grayson has adopted a different tack. “I want a happy working environment,” he said in his maiden press briefing. “There’s been a lot of negativity about the place, but that’s all in the past and it’s about what we do in the future. I tried to get a smile on their faces.”

It might be little more than semantics, a throwaway line with little in the way of substance to back it up, but in the footballing world, where every nuance is seized upon and magnified, it matters.

Whereas Moyes was dismissive of Sunderland’s young players, Grayson has described Josh Maja as “an exceptional talent” after watching him train in Austria. Whereas Moyes spoke unremittingly of relegation, Grayson describes promotion as a “realistic ambition”. And whereas the last Sunderland manager clearly felt hamstrung by the club’s financial position, the current one is more than happy to work with what he is given.

It all amounts to a profound change of mood, and while things would quickly change if Sunderland were to lose their opening two or three league games, there is a sense of trying to build something afresh rather than scrambling around attempting to maintain a fairly unedifying status quo.

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Ultimately, much of Sunderland’s fate next season will be determined by the quality of their transfer business, and again on that score, Grayson has made some decent early progress.

The targeting of Brendan Galloway and Ty Browning is a sensible use of resources, while Aiden McGeady proved himself in the Championship last season playing under Grayson.

The ongoing attempts to land Robert Snodgrass are much more ambitious, and while Sunderland are pushing hard for the West Ham midfielder, competing interest from Premier League clubs, most notably Brighton, could scupper their hopes. Nevertheless, it is surely a positive sign that the Black Cats are pitching for such a player. If nothing else, it suggests there is money to spend, regardless of what happens with Lamine Kone, Wahbi Khazri and Jeremain Lens before the transfer window closes.

Sunderland play their opening pre-season game at Bury tomorrow, before embarking on a three-game Scottish tour that will take them to Hibernian, Livingston and St Johnstone. The results of such matches are completely meaningless, but Sunderland’s general performance level will feed into the ongoing narrative.

Once fans see the likes of Bryan Oviedo, Lee Cattermole and Didier Ndong out on the field, I suspect yet more optimism will grow. Yes, the Championship is a demanding, unrelenting league. But as Grayson proved with Preston last season, you don’t have to have a world-class team to make a decent fist of competing in it.

Organisation, commitment and general positivity can go a long way. Grayson will have to face plenty more challenges yet, but he can be satisfied with the first seven days of his Sunderland reign.


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WHATEVER happens in the final Test between the British and Irish Lions and the All Blacks in the morning, the last six weeks in New Zealand have shown a number of things.

First, they have proved the all-conquering All Blacks are fallible. I’d still make them favourites to win tomorrow, but by edging a thrilling second Test in Wellington, the Lions demolished the notion that the reigning world champions are unbeatable.

In doing so, they provided a welcome shot in the arm for northern hemisphere rugby. The last World Cup suggested the balance of power had tilted emphatically towards the south, but the performance of the likes of Sean O’Brien, Talupe Faletau, Connor Murray and Owen Farrell in the last few weeks proves world-class talent does not solely preside outside Europe.

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More than anything though, the series has safeguarded the future of the British and Irish Lions, a concept that can often seem out of kilter with the prevailing direction of the modern sporting world.

Can you still throw together players from four different countries, take them to the other side of the world, and expect anyone to care less? As tomorrow’s adrenaline-fuelled encounter will prove, when it comes to the Lions, the answer is yes.


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IT has taken a while, but British tennis is finally proving it can stand on its own two feet without Andy Murray. Yes, Murray’s pursuit of a third Wimbledon title will be the headline-grabbing story at SW19 over the next nine days, but there have already been plenty of other British tales challenging for column inches.

What about Aljaz Bedene, who made the third round on Wednesday, or Kyle Edmund, who continues to rise up the world rankings at a pace? Johanna Konta was involved in a thriller in round two, but summoned up nerves of steel to beat Donna Vekic 10-8 in a deciding set. Heather Watson’s passage to round three was much more comfortable, with her 6-0, 6-4 thrashing of number 18 seed Anastasija Sevastova suggesting there could be much more to come.

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Murray has achieved so much during his career, but perhaps when he retires, his greatest triumph will be the way in which he has inspired a new generation to follow in his footsteps.