Sunderland man Dan Neil details classy Luke O'Nien move after Régis Le Bris' captaincy shuffle

Dan Neil has detailed how Luke O’Nien has been helping him with the captaincy at Sunderland after last summer’s leadership reshuffle.

Corry Evans was captain last season but with the midfielder ruled out for the majority of the season, the armband fell to Luke O’Nien under Tony Mowbray, Michael Beale and Mike Doods as Sunderland finished 16th in the Championship.

Following Evans’ departure after the end of his contract last summer, many had expected O’Nien to wear the armband once again this campaign. However, head coach Régis Le Bris opted to shuffle his pack, naming Neil as his team captain for the 2024-25 season.

O’Nien, though, was named as part of Sunderland’s leadership group alongside Alan Browne and Jobe Bellingham and performs the role of club captain. That means that although he doesn’t wear the armband on the field but off the field, the defender is still influential.

Captaincy matters and changes have been known to destabilise some teams and cause issues when there are changes. At Sunderland, however, Neil has revealed that O’Nien has been supportive of his new role and has moved to help the 22-year-old whichever way he can.

“It's a massive honour and I don't take it lightly,” Neil said when asked about how it feels to captain his boyhood club by The Echo. “Whenever I'm walking the lads out on a match day, speaking in the huddle before the game, speaking after the game.

“Like I said, it's a massive honour and it's something that I dreamed of for a long time growing up and there's still loads of stuff I need to learn about the captaincy. Luke O'Nien has been brilliant with me, especially off the pitch.

“I think on the pitch in terms of being vocal and organising and the tactical side of things, I feel like that's one of my strengths anyway but off the pitch stuff, I'm just going to grow into that role and I need people to help us along with that.

“So the coaching staff and Luke and the experienced boys, they're not just leaving everything up to me because I'm wearing the armband. We've got a really good leadership group within the squad and everyone's doing their bit.”