DURING Julio Arca's first 36 months on Wearside, a career high suddenly descended into his biggest low and only now does the Sunderland winger feel he can finally make amends, writes Scott Wilson.

In Arca's first season in English football - after Peter Reid paid £3.5m to Argentinos Juniors for him in July 2000 - he helped the Black Cats to their highest Premiership placing, seventh.

Surprised with how quickly he adapted to life in England, the South American fondly recalls the joy he felt in his first year and was warmed by the way the Sunderland fans took him to their hearts.

But the excitement he felt that year gradually diminished over the succeeding two years.

First Sunderland narrowly avoided relegation by finishing fourth bottom in the Premiership and, in his third season at the club, they suffered the embarrassment of relegation to the Football League with an all-time top-flight low of just 19 points.

That year Sunderland scored just 21 league goals in a 38-game season, Reid was sacked, as was his successor Howard Wilkinson, and Arca failed to reproduce the emphatic form he enjoyed on his first 12 months at the club.

"In the beginning it was one of the best times of my career. We finished seventh and it was fantastic, everything seemed to be just on the up and the club was going forward," said Arca, who scored on his debut in English football against West Ham in a 1-1 draw in September 2000.

"Then the next two seasons were poor. I don't know what went wrong but we battled against relegation and we were relegated. I can say that that was the worst time of my career.

"So it went from the best time to the worst time of my career. To go down with just 19 points that year was terrible and it is not something that I like to remember but I do.

"That's in the past and we just have to look forward. It's a whole new squad, a new manager and we are all looking forward to making the return to the Premiership."

Born in Capital Federal, in Argentina, the move to England was always going to be a difficult one but he adapted to life in the North-East quickly and he is keen to make a success of another crack at the Premiership.

The two-year deal he signed in November means he will be going nowhere this summer and, ahead of tomorrow's final Championship game against Stoke, he said: "Coming here was not what I was expecting when I first came. I thought it was going to be much harder to settle in because I was away from my family and friends.

"But it was made easy for me to settle in because of the fantastic place that I was playing my football in. But we were doing well and we were above Newcastle and Middlebsrough, that helped.

"Next season will be a lot different. You can see by what's happened to West Brom, Crystal Palace and Norwich just how difficult it's going to be.

"New players need to come in but it's difficult to say how many because no-one really knows how this team will do in the Premier League next season."

* Sunderland have produced a commemorative programme to celebrate their Championship win that will be on sale outside the Stadium Of Light tomorrow.

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