Lunchtime has arrived and Sunderland’s training ground canteen is alive with laughter. Animated chatter fills the air as players from the men’s and women’s teams share a series of tables and booths spread around the sort of light, bright, open-plan space adored by interior designers.
With the walls adorned by a mix of modern art and flat-screen televisions, and the coffee machines suitably complicated, it could almost be part of an international big tech company campus; only the club tracksuits give the game away.
