The Milan metro carriage bound for San Siro was uncomfortably overcrowded and the handful of locals on board looked distinctly uncomfortable as visiting Newcastle fans chanted three words at full volume.
“We hate Sunderland,” they shouted in unison, with some emphasizing the point by banging empty beer bottles against the ceiling of the train. “Why?” a completely bewildered Italian finally asked.
The answer will become clear on Saturday afternoon at the Stadium of Light when the first Tyne-Wear derby since 2016 gets underway.
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A lot has changed in the intervening eight years, most notably the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle in 2021 and Sunderland’s jump to the third tier in 2018. The Wearsiders are now residents of the Championship, but while their current squad is roughly Cost £20 million to put together, more than £500 million has been spent on Newcastle’s.
It dictates that what was once a clash of near equals would normally seem an embarrassing mismatch in the third round of the FA Cup. But with Eddie Howe’s visitors on a run of seven defeats in eight games and having not beaten their local rivals since 2011, there is a palpable nervousness in the Tyneside air.
Four months after the Champions League draw in Milan and just over three weeks since the Serie A side ended Howe’s European return hopes, the rise in tension is almost palpable. Police believe the animosity between the clubs is so dangerously intense that the 6,000 traveling Newcastle fans are not allowed to use the local metro.
They must avoid all conventional forms of public and private transport and traverse the 23 kilometers between the cities in a convoy of free buses, flanked by heavy police escorts. No one gets a match ticket until they reach Wearside.
The idea is to prevent a repeat of the violence that led to a police horse being punched in the face by a Newcastle fan in 2013, after then Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio infuriated his hosts by to perform festive sidelines. knee slipped as the visitors won 3-0.
“The knee slip has been mentioned a few times,” says Michael Beale, Sunderland’s promotion-chasing manager, as he prepares for his fifth game since replacing Tony Mowbray. ‘But I can’t tell you what I would do if we won!
“The clubs are in completely different places than they were in 2016. We’ve been as far as League One and are now the youngest team in the Championship, possibly in the country. My players have big ambitions to play Premier League and Champions League football, but they have everything to prove against top opponents.”
The teams’ fortunes have certainly diverged since March 2016, when Rafael Benitez’s Championship-bound, Mike Ashley-owned Newcastle drew 1-1 at home to a Sunderland side led by future England manager Sam Allardyce.
But while the black and white banner that hung over a bridge in northern Italy in September reading “You will never see a Mackem in Milan” highlighted a growing divide on the pitch, a persistent sameness remained off it.
Regardless of the Saudi millions invested in refurbishing Newcastle’s training ground, Sunderland’s Academy of Light remains the superior facility, and the 49,000-capacity Stadium of Light is among the finest grounds in England. Moreover, Sunderland’s Swiss-French majority shareholder is a billionaire, even though Kyril Louis-Dreyfus can by no means match the wealth of the Saudis.
However, Louis-Dreyfus has struggled to win local hearts and minds. Fans were angered by Mowbray’s harsh dismissal, but they are also outraged by Sunderland’s initial decision – now reversed – to redecorate a club hotel suite in black and white with 700 Newcastle fans packing £ 600 per person for derby tickets.
Sunderland last month approved signage for a Newcastle-themed decoration of a bar at the Stadium of Light for Saturday’s FA Cup derby.
It is understood Newcastle were invited in December to submit designs for the Black Cats Bar, which will provide corporate hospitality to traveling fans for the third round, and have been signed by a senior employee of the Wearside club.
It is believed the move was intended to reduce the chance of the area, which normally bears Sunderland’s livery, being damaged by rival supporters.
Sunderland fans reacted furiously on Thursday when images of banners with the messages ‘Keep the Black and White Flying High’ and ‘We are United’ emerged on social media. Sunderland’s motto “Ha’way the lads” in red had also been replaced by the Geordie spelling “Howay” in black.
Sunderland quickly apologized for “a serious error of judgement” and announced an immediate review, and the chairman, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, said he was “disgusted and hurt” by the “inappropriate signals” which have been removed. PA media
One of Louis-Dreyfus’s predecessors, the businessman and philanthropist Sir Bob Murray, would not have made such a naive mistake. Much more importantly, Murray insists that, as owner of Sunderland, he would have rejected any attempt at a Saudi buyout due to the kingdom’s “human rights abuses”.
Beale takes a more diplomatic course. “There is a time and place to comment on the ownership of football clubs and what is right and wrong,” says the former Rangers manager. “Let’s focus on a very intriguing game. Financially, we are building something completely different here with young players. One club wants to reach the top quickly, the other tries to follow a development path. They are two different visions.”
Beale added that, apart from the money, there was no real difference in “size, support or status”, but Howe objects. “I’m not going to get into a war of words with any manager, but I don’t think it’s wise to make such comparisons or comments,” he says. “We know who we are and what we are.”
Gary Bennett, former Sunderland captain and co-commentator for local BBC radio, is looking forward to seeing if Beale’s coveted winger Jack Clarke, midfielder Dan Neil, striker Jobe Bellingham (Jude’s younger brother) and others can fulfill their potential on Saturday make it happen. “It’s a great stage for Sunderland’s players,” he said. “There’s nothing like a north-east derby – the sound will be a little different.”
Fortunately, that soundtrack has changed considerably since 1985, when Bennett was subjected to horrific racist abuse in Newcastle. It was the era when the National Front routinely recruited outside St James’, but more positively, this watershed incident acted as a catalyst for the creation of the transformational education organization Show Racism the Red Card.
“Off the field, the Northeast is now a much more diverse, understanding and educated place,” says Bennett. “And the clubs are incredibly diverse; There will be so many nationalities playing in this derby.”
The similarities between Newcastle’s green away strip and Saudi Arabia’s national flag lead to accusations of state annexation, but Bennett points out Howe’s team won nothing. “They are very, very rich now,” he says. “But they have to keep recruiting well. Finances alone don’t win trophies.”
Sunderlands club historian Rob Mason agrees with this point. “The early 1950s delivered Newcastle three FA Cups in five years, while Sunderland won nothing, despite being the moneybag team of the day, known as ‘the Bank of England club’,” he says. “That failure during their time as the country’s top-spending team serves as a warning to those who think silverware will automatically follow money. Newcastle are huge favourites, but this is the FA Cup and all of Wearside will be hoping this will spark one of the biggest derby wins of all.’
Jim Montgomery is optimistic Sunderland can win. The club’s former goalkeeper and hero of the 1973 FA Cup final against Leeds has invited Bob Moncur, who captained Newcastle to their last major trophy, the 1969 Fairs Cup, to sit next to him. “I’m sure we’ll have some laughs,” says Montgomery, highlighting the often humorous side of a rivalry that divides countless families in the Tyne-Wear conurbation. “Sunderland were underdogs in 1973, so we know what can happen.”
Montgomery was recently treated for prostate cancer at the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Center at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, funded by the late England coach’s charitable foundation.
As a former manager of Newcastle, Robson was proud that Sunderland and Middlesbrough suspended football hostilities to help fund the creation of a project that continues to save countless lives.
Despite widespread misgivings about the Saudi Arabian regime, there is a similar pan-regional consensus that Newcastle’s owners should be encouraged to help deliver the much-needed economic “levelling up” program that the British government has failed to deliver.
Visible improvements to infrastructure have yet to materialise, but the kingdom’s ambassador to Britain has dined with local business leaders in Durham, Saudi companies SABIC and Alfanar are investing billions in developing green fuels on Teesside and national airline Saudia is planning to launch direct flights to the Gulf from Newcastle Airport.
At the moment, however, football is mainly responsible for putting an overlooked region back on the map. “This game is not just about the North East,” says Beale. “It’s the draw of the round. The whole country is looking forward to it.”