This might surprise a few Sunderland supporters, but if the club are not promoted this season it wouldn't be the end of the world.

League One football is the lowest Sunderland have ever had to play and if they're not promoted this season, it will mark their worst ever campaign. When you consider that they’ve been to Wembley, as well as challenged at the top of the table, it’s not been a terrible season.

Of course, they don’t want to be travelling to places such as Accrington and Lincoln next season, they’re a Premier League team in waiting and have the fan base to prove it, but a failure to achieve promotion isn’t the end of the world.

For a start, they’re competing at the top of the table and would be again. The crowds have gone up, the positivity is all around the place. After so many seasons of struggle, it’s nice for the fans to see winning football once more.

If they were to remain in the third-tier, they’re surely going to be favourites to lift the title next season. It might not be the sort of silverware they covet in the long term, but it makes a new generation of winners.

Some of their young players might break through as well, developing into fine footballers as Josh Maja did. Those same players might struggle in the Championship, but another season in League One would afford them time and space to keep growing and get some first-team football.

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There’s no denying the fact it would be disappointing for the club not to go back up, but the progress this season, on and off the field, has been exciting. Is there a reliance on the ageing midfield of Cattermole and Leadbitter though?

Do they need another year of growing, bringing through the new era of players that will carry them forward?

An extended spell in League One didn’t do Sheffield United any harm, nor Southampton and perhaps it might be the ultimate making of the new Sunderland era.