Luke O'Nien reveals Sunderland debut impact and explains new Black Cats role
Luke O’Nien has discussed his development during his time with Sunderland.
Luke O’Nien has relived the journey he has taken from a challenging Sunderland debut to preparing to represent the Black Cats in only the second European campaign in their entire history.
The former Wycombe Wanderers man joined Sunderland during the summer of 2018 as they prepared for life in League One after suffering back-to-back relegations over the previous two seasons. Then-Black Cats boss Jack Ross named O’Nien in his starting line-up for the season opener against Charlton Athletic - but he was replaced at half-time after a poor display in the opening 45 minutes.
Sunderland went on to win the game thanks to a late strike from Lynden Gooch and O’Nien’s career on Wearside has gone from strength-to-strength - but the defender admitted his introduction to life at the Stadium of Light stayed with him for a number of years.
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When asked how long it took him to get over his difficult debut, he told The High Performance Podcast: “Three years. Maybe not completely healed as well. I think scars are left and they’re there for a reason. It’s helped me navigate my way and I don’t think you can ever completely heal scars. That’s the point of them, aren’t they? They’re always there as a reminder. So there’s a scar there - but the scar was still pretty open three years later and I carry that into every game.”
‘Emotion is high’
O’Nien’s journey since that difficult introduction to life on Wearside has led him to becoming something of a cult hero with Sunderland supporters. The 31-year-old has made over 330 appearances for the Black Cats and has been a consistent presence throughout their rise from League One promotion candidates to competing alongside the likes of AC Milan, Juventus and Marseille in the Europa League.
His role within the Sunderland squad has changed significantly since those early days at the Stadium of Light and he gave an intriguing insight into how his relationship with his team-mates has changed over the last eight years.
He said: “My job now is just to make sure that people are in their best playing state, whatever that looks like. I don’t know what that looks like for next season because I don’t know how people are. I may need to rely on other people. It’s trying to see where they are at, trying to see what they need and then build relationships and see if we can help one another. I did that with some of my team, and that’s where you build, that’s when players leave, you build that relationship because when you do that on the stage, when the emotion is high, the moments you remember in games is when you lean on someone and you change each other’s state based on those conversations you have on away trips. But I never used to be on away trips and talk this stuff with players. In the last three or four years, we go on an away trip, we sometimes sit there until 10, 11 at night, talking about this stuff.”
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