Sunderland’s slump down the divisions created plenty of notorious villains, all of whom contributed to the financial struggles they found themselves in.
However, across their Premier League stay they did also create one or two heroes who will likely go down in Black Cats folklore.
One such name is Sebastian Larsson, who was brought in for free all the way back in 2011.
He had featured 205 times for Birmingham City, and yet nearly repeated that feat on Wearside, where he played 203 times.
The Swedish gem quickly established himself as a fine Premier League midfielder with a wand of a left foot, the likes of which were best expressed over a dead ball. He scored 11 free kicks whilst playing in England’s top flight.
His emergence and subsequent reliability across many seasons at the Stadium of Light made him something of a “hero”, as journalist Ross Gregory labelled him following his goal in Sunderland’s win over Manchester United in 2014.
Steve Bruce struck gold with this unassuming deal, with his qualities seen in the 14 goals and 23 assists he made whilst at the club.
His performances earned him the affectionate title of “Super Seb Larsson”, who James Dodd lauded halfway through his first season in Red and White.
In his final season for the club, where they were unfortunately relegated, he still maintained a SofaScore rating of 6.71.
He averaged 1.1 key passes per game during the year, and whilst surrounded by little quality, only managed one assist.
Despite his abundance of creativity, he also maintained 1.8 tackles and 1.5 clearances per game, outlining him as the quintessential all-around midfielder for Sunderland at the time.
Larsson will likely be remembered with great fondness despite being a huge part of the side that suffered that first relegation, due to his reliability and relentlessness in midfield.
In 2019 he came out full of praise for the north-east and how he enjoyed his time there, admitting: “So it was special not just for football reasons but it was a big part of my life. I enjoyed my time there. There was disappointment but there were some real highs during my time there as well.”
To see that he too thinks back fondly of the club lends to this shared love between the player and fans, and further outlines how good a deal this turned out to be.