Sunderland are currently in their fourth successive season of League One football following their relegation from the Championship in 2018.
The Black Cats suffered back-to-back demotions between 2017 and 2018 after being in the top flight for a number of years, having made a number of poor transfer decisions whilst playing in the Premier League leading up to the 2016/17 campaign.
Nightmare
One of those was the signing of Jack Rodwell from Manchester City, who Gus Poyet snapped up for a fee of £10m in 2014.
He had only played 25 times for City after joining them from Everton two years prior, but his move to Wearside ended up being one big nightmare.
In four years at Sunderland, he played 76 times and failed to win any of his first 37 Premier League matches at the club – setting a league record as he started 39 top-flight games in total without picking up a win before a 4-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace in February 2017.
Former Black Cats boss Chris Coleman previously ripped into the player whilst the club were in the Championship, saying: “He trains with the U23’s every morning, in that nice, safe umbrella, he’s not in the spotlight or the firing line with the rest of us, which he chose.
“When I say don’t know where he is I mean physically and mentally, and there’s no interest [from me] because he’s not the answer for us.
“He’s got one more year on his contract and he doesn’t want to play for us, so fine, go and play for somebody else, but the stumbling block is the contract.”
Rodwell eventually left in the summer of 2018 on a free transfer as he signed for Championship side Blackburn Rovers upon Sunderland’s relegation to League One, finally ending his Stadium of Light nightmare.
This means that the Wearsiders paid £10m for him to go practically an entire Premier League season without picking up a win for the Black Cats, before deciding that he did not want to play in the second tier whilst still being paid each week. They also failed to recoup any money for him as he was allowed to leave on a free transfer.
It was a dreadful piece of business and a nightmare that the club will surely be desperately trying to avoid repeating if they ever make their way back to the top flight…
AND in other news, Left for £0, value soared 14900%: SAFC fumbled gem with a “wand of a left foot”…