Right from when it came out, ‘Sunderland Til I Die’ has arguably been one of the most talked-about football documentaries ever to come out – certainly on Netflix.
Is Sunderland Til I Die Good?
Yes, it really is.
We mentioned this in our piece on 5 Football Docuseries Everyone Should Watch, and using that as a guide, Sunderland Til I Die possesses everything you want from a football documentary:
Insight, passion, emotion – and pretty much everything in between.
Intertwined in the broader trials and tribulations of Sunderland AFC, a number of funny, wholesome and downright hilarious stories emerge and are showcased well in this series.
As you would imagine, a huge SPOILER ALERT is in effect if you (somehow) haven’t managed to watch the docu-series at all yet, so approach the rest of this list with caution if this applies to you. If not, let’s kick things off with the most emotional moment of them all.
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Tribute to Louise Wanless
This one really got to me. But I’m glad that the club responded the way that it has.
In the earlier seasons, Louise Wanless was rightly presented as the affable, loving person she was and the unequivocal pride she had in her work in the press office for Sunderland.
She didn’t take up much screen time in the first season, but did improve on that in the second with a lot of the focus being on her and the rest of the marketing department at the club.
Louise sadly passed not long after this after a short battle with illness and was memorialised in a very touching tribute in season 3. With the team setting up a ‘Wanless’ shirt in the Sunderland dressing room as they reached (and eventually conquered) the League One Play-Off Final in 2022.
Charlie’s Pre-Game Party
Stewart McDonald and Charlie Methven took the reigns in Season 2.
With the latter controlling their marketing and communications department.
His no-nonsense style rubbed a lot of the team up in the wrong way, and that whole thing of trying to get a close-enough ticketing number for their New Years’ fixture at the Stadium of Light is pretty worthy of its own inclusion in this list.
But it would be remiss of me to talk about Sunderland Til I Die without referring to that hilarious sequence where he tried to change the pre-game music at the stadium.
Straight out of The Office, that was!
The Josh Maja Debacle
I could’ve easily gone for Jack Rodwell in Josh Maja’s place here.
The aforementioned ex-Manchester City man and Everton starlet was expected to be one of the key men when he joined for a decent amount of money a few years back.
Things clearly didn’t go as planned and there was a bit of a drama between him and then-Chief Executive Martin Bain who looked to ship him out the club in the January of the first season of Sunderland Til I Die. Only for him to stay and (presumably) worsen the financial situation.
Josh Maja was a bit different.
He was tearing things up under Jack Ross in Season 2 after a lot of faith was placed in him by the management team, and he appeared almost deliberately coy with the documentary team when asked about a potential transfer elsewhere in January.
Needless to say, he did make that move and it didn’t go down well at all with the Sunderland hierarchy and left them scratching their heads for a replacement… which was an interesting search.
Sunderland Return to the Championship
I was at this game, I’ll have you know.
But annoyingly, not in the right end.
Like everybody else who watched Sunderland Til I Die, I was enthralled by the relentless support of the Black Cats fans and wanted desperately to experience that atmosphere for myself.
With the upcoming 2022 League One Play-Off final on the horizon, I scoured Twitter for any sense of a ticket and managed to find one – from a very kind Wycombe fan who had a spare and a fair price.
I went and watched history unfold. I had a feeling Sunderland were going to win and had to do my best to hold in my happiness when they eventually did! But to see that fervour in the other end of the stadium, I at least got a glimpse and feel for what that crazy lot are made of.
Will Grigg’s on Fire
Easily one of the best player-related chants of all time.
‘Will Grigg’s on fire, your defence is terrified!’ And so on, and so forth.
His name appears in Sunderland Til I Die as a potential replacement for the outgoing Josh Maja in the January of Season Two, but it turned out to be an incredibly (and needlessly difficult) pursuit.
Not only did he cost an obscene amount of money for a League One side, but he found it difficult to adapt to the Sunderland system and it was a bit of a damp squib in the end.
But from a cinematic point of view, I adore just how open and revealing the documentary was about the trials and tribulation of signing a player like this on Deadline Day. All the moving parts, the ever-changing figures, the jubilation at the end, the reason behind it all. It’s just gold.
Summary
In short, Sunderland Til I Die is a wonderful documentary.
One that I must’ve watched about 4 times over.
And honestly, this whole article came about initially to express my disappointment at how rushed and thoughtless the third season felt – given that it’s less than half the length of the others!
But upon review, I really enjoyed watching it and can give them a bit of mercy with some of the upstairs issues at the club as a reason for not wanting to reveal as much as they have already.
I’m just happy we got to see what we did!
What’s your favourite part of the Sunderland Til I Die documentary?