Former Sunderland defender Tom Flanagan has claimed that Black Cats stalwart Luke O’Nien has proved his critics “wrong”, and has backed the 30-year-old to do well in the Premier League next season.
O’Nien played alongside Flanagan at the Stadium of Light during Sunderland’s stint in League One, and was part of the squad who sealed a long-awaited promotion back to the Premier League last weekend with a 2-1 victory over Sheffield United at Wembley.
But despite his importance to Regis Le Bris’ side, O’Nien has occasionally come in for heightened scrutiny from some observers during his stint on Wearside – and Flanagan is of the belief that his ex-teammate’s step up to the top flight represents vindication in the face of that criticism.
What has Tom Flanagan said about Luke O’Nien?
Speaking on the WTF Sunderland podcast, the Colchester United defender said: “All Luke will do is just work harder, and that is unbelievable. He is the epitome of 10,000 hours – that’s what Luke is.
“I played with a player who played with him at Watford when he was a kid and this lad was a first team regular. And he always asked me about Luke. Like, ‘How’s he getting on? I’m so surprised that he’s doing that’. I bet there’s loads of people who say that about Luke, but all the critics have been proved wrong. Luke is undoubtedly going to play a part in the Premier League, and I personally think that he’ll do well.”
What else did Tom Flanagan say about his time at Sunderland?
Flanagan also opened up on his departure from the Stadium of Light in 2022, suggesting that he was disappointed with the manner in which it came about. He said: “I have one massive regret, but other than that, I have no regrets from ever being at Sunderland or in Sunderland – it was great.”
When asked what his regret was, Flanagan continued: “Leaving, the way that I left… I look back on that and it’s a real, real sore spot for me, really. It’s not a blame game or anything like that, and it’s not a sob story. If you were to bump into people I’ve played with, I’m very open and honest about it, that I didn’t want to leave and I wasn’t happy about leaving. The decision I made to leave was kind of forced upon me and it was a terrible decision.
“Ultimately, like, no one packed my bags for me and took me away and said, ‘You’re done’ and ripped up my contract. I had to sign on the dotted line. That’s just football though, you know? And yeah, it is football, but we are all humans and we are all people. We’re not cattle at a cattle market who you just sell and cut up and eat alive, you know? There’s got to be some sort of holistic approach to it, thinking of the players and things like that. But at that time, I’d say it was a factory. It was a pretty ruthless business, which is fair enough.”
