Life after Jobe: Black Cats prepare for top-flight return

After the success of last year’s kit launch, the big question is what Sunderland AFC has up its long and short sleeves this summer?

It is the time of the year for speculation and rumour, though it’s not all new signings, new managers and unexpected exits.

The design of your club’s home shirt, the colour schemes and look of the two away shirts (one is no longer enough, apparently) have become an integral part of the English close season.

The big question at Sunderland is what the new kits will look like as they look forward to their return to the Premier League after an eight-year absence.

Last year, under the direction of chief marketing officer David Bruce – a Mackem once employed by the MLS – Sunderland pulled off a masterstroke when they hired the services of Hummel, whose iconic kit designs are as much a part of the club’s history as 1973.

More than a year in the planning, and with intricate inclusions on their final designs, Sunderland launched three kits with the Danish firm last season after a 30-year hiatus.

And supporters queued round the Stadium of Light to get their hands on them.

It was the start of a reconnection with fans, which went all the way, right 'Til The End' of a successful season.

Last season's second strip was a nod to the kit worn in the 1992 FA Cup Final, which they lost to Liverpool.

It was perhaps fitting Regis Le Bris’ team wore the retro outfit in their Championship play-off win over Sheffield United because it helped bury that Wembley hoodoo nonsense once and for all.

Thin red and white stripes, thick ones, long ones, partially completed ones, the home shirt matters; it’s the uniform for the whole of the season, and while the majority of supporters will wear the shirt no matter what, it has to look good.

And the away shirt matters too.

Hummel and the club pitched it perfectly a year ago – it is hard to imagine they will look beyond the dark blue away shirt from the early 90s as they prepare to welcome the crowds back to the stadium, long before a Premier League ball is kicked.

And when the kits are launched, no doubt the club's marketing, social media and merchandise departments – which certainly didn't exist in 1992 – will go into overdrive.

One man who will not be wearing any red, white or dark blue Sunderland shirt for a while, if again, though, is young midfielder Jobe Bellingham, whose move to Borussia Dortmund was completed in early June.

The younger brother of England star Jude has chosen the German club –  Jude's former employer – for the next phase of his journey, an interesting choice given their preoccupation with keeping their identities apart in the media.

Undoubtedly an extremely talented footballer – the comparisons with his brother are inevitable but unfair – Bellingham Jr more than played his part in Sunderland's long-awaited return to the top flight.

They did well to sign him, mainly thanks to director of football Kristjaan Speakman, and keep him and his family happy for two years.

He will be missed as a player and a personality.

But as the reaction to Thomas Tuchel's 'repulsive' comments has demonstrated, the Bellinghams have become big, headline-making news.

There was always a danger that Jobe’s development at Sunderland could become a distraction, especially in the Premier League, where every cough and sneeze, mislaid pass and narky reaction is analysed again and again.

His £25 million-plus fee, even with the payments to his former club Birmingham City, will fund the signing of Enzo Le Fée – a player who can set the Premier League alight in Sunderland colours. 

And it will enable Sunderland to concentrate on the additions they need throughout the squad – particularly in strengthening the defence and bringing in some experience – with the whole summer ahead of them.

What's just as interesting is what those new kits will look like...

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