Roker Report Book Club: “Sunderland AFC: The Definitive History” by Rob Mason

Régis Le Bris’s Sunderland chapter will pick up speed on 19 July when his new side face their first league opponents of the pre-season in a friendly against Nottingham Forest in Murcia.

His job is to help bring this institution back to the top of football. Once one of the leading clubs in the country, SAFC can be proud of a track record and status that will be outlined in a new book due to be released the day before the match. The date is apt as it takes us through more than a century of history and up to the point when Le Bris was due to be appointed.

Perfect reading for anyone who is at the beach this summer, maybe even if you are out and about in Alicante following the boys, Sunderland AFC: The definitive story is Rob Mason’s latest work. Rob, the club’s official historian, is the most knowledgeable of fans and no one has tackled such a project better than him, and the title allows him to delve into the subject matter in a fascinating way.

Those who have previously seen Rob’s mammoth album *Absolute Record* and its accompanying Absolute record: The players You will know that they contain the statistics and individual biographies of every player known to have worn the shirt for Sunderland in a competitive first-team match. The final story Now the context of these details is added, a biography of sorts of the club itself and its 145-year evolution from a burgeoning interest in football to a dominant local club and then an early pacesetter of the sport at national level.

A four-page bibliography at the end of the book gives a sense of the amount of research that went into his work. Indeed, Rob’s pre-existing encyclopaedic expertise on Sunderland means that this was going to be more than just a series of regurgitated tropes from the outset. Rather, it is the culmination of the numerous books, publications and articles he has written about Sunderland over five different decades – and can now be used as the ultimate reference point for the future.

Backed by proud and passionate supporters since the early days, the choice of image for the hardback cover – a packed new-era Roker End performing a flag parade – is the perfect nod to a common thread running through Sunderland’s history. Captured by photographer Ian Horrocks, who himself has done so much to document the club over time, the support is of course acknowledged by the book’s poignant closing words:

When the Stadium of Light recreates the world-famous Roker Roar, fans are doing what generations of their ancestors have done before them: helping their team in red and white reach new heights. It really is something very special.

Thankfully, the paragraphs before that can also be mostly positive, such as Sunderland’s recent return from the nadir of the last seven years or so, which included two devastating relegations and a painfully long stay in the third tier. Hopefully, it’s a club that, under Le Bris, is on the verge of moving forward and regaining some of the past glories so lovingly described in the book.

The Definitive History by Rob Mason, published by Icon Books, Sunderland AFC, is available to pre-order now and is available through our good friends at A Love Supreme – click here!