Sunderland's 2021-22 season in review

Even by Sunderland’s consistently chaotic standards, this has been a remarkable season, and the hope is that when it reaches a climax at Wembley tomorrow afternoon, it will deliver a successful end. After four long years in League One, it is surely time for the Black Cats to say their goodbyes to the third tier.

Johnson has already said his farewells of course, with his departure one of a number of pivotal moments during what has proved to be an extremely topsy-turvy campaign.

Having missed out on promotion last season when they lost to Lincoln City in the play-off semi-finals, Sunderland embarked on a radical summer overhaul that saw a host of key players depart, to be replaced by a raft of new names.

The likes of Grant Leadbitter, Max Power, Chris Maguire and Charlie Wyke headed through the exit door, despite having been pivotal performers last term, with Johnson enacting a policy, derived and supported by co-owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman, of driving down the age profile of the squad.

Sunderland prioritised youth and potential in their summer transfer business, recruiting Dennis Cirkin and Niall Huggins on a permanent basis and also bringing in the likes of Thorben Hoffmann, Leon Dajaku, Callum Doyle and Nathan Broadhead on loan.

The intention, according to Johnson, was to add some much-needed energy and vibrancy to the squad, even if meant having to rely on an inexperienced core. Dan Neil and Elliot Embleton were installed as key members of the first team, and initially, the new approach worked.

Sunderland started strongly, beating Wigan and MK Dons in their opening two league games, and at the end of August, a home win over Wycombe took them to the top of the table for the first time during their stay in League One.

With Ross Stewart impressing as he led the line and Alex Pritchard slotting into a play-making role, the Black Cats returned to the top of the table when they beat Accrington in early September and were still in the top two after they thrashed Cheltenham 5-0 at the end of the month, with Stewart scoring twice.

The following weekend, however, they found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-0 hammering at Portsmouth, and while Johnson could attribute the defeat at Fratton Park to the monsoon-like conditions in which the game was played, it would gradually become clear that the capitulation was not an aberration.

For all that Sunderland played some attractive front-foot football under Johnson – the five-goal home victories over Morecambe and Sheffield Wednesday are games that immediately stand out – they also had an alarmingly soft underbelly.

November’s 3-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough was another game that set the alarm bells ringing, and when Johnson’s side were annihilated 6-0 at Bolton at the end of January, Louis-Dreyfus and Speakman felt compelled to act. What followed next, however, was a two-week spell that threatened to completely unravel Sunderland’s season.

As soon as Johnson’s departure was announced, former boss Roy Keane was immediately linked with a possible return to the Stadium of Light. The Sunderland hierarchy did nothing to dispel the speculation, indeed for a period, they actively encouraged it, but while he might have been delivering a couple of knowing glances during his TV appearances as the courtship continued, privately Keane was expressing reservations about rejoining the Black Cats.

The recruitment process became a farce, which was hardly helped by results on the field as Sunderland lost to Doncaster and Cheltenham, with two key off-field developments further fuelling the sense of a club spiralling out of control.

As well as the Bolton defeat, one of the catalysts for Johnson’s departure was his reluctance to re-sign Jermain Defoe during the January window. On deadline day, just 24 hours after Johnson’s dismissal, the 39-year-old returned to the Academy of Light to sign up for a second spell. It was to prove a disastrous move for all parties.

Understandably rusty after playing just nine minutes of football in the whole of the first half of the season, Defoe was a pale shadow of the player who had become a fans’ favourite during his first stint on Wearside. After failing to score in two starts and five substitute appearances, he called it a day. In the eyes of many supporters, his reputation had been badly tainted.

At the same time as Defoe was returning, one of Sunderland’s former directors, Charlie Methven, was also reappearing on the scene.

Despite having been an integral part of the Madrox era that was supposedly in the past, Methven was spotted in the directors’ box at a number of Sunderland matches and was known to be playing a role in the process of appointing Johnson’s successor.

As supporters became understandably concerned at just what was going on, Sunderland were forced to issue a statement confirming that chairman Louis-Dreyfus owns just 41 per cent of the club, with the Madrox group of Stewart Donald, Juan Sartori and Methven continuing to hold a majority shareholding.

Donald and Methven insisted they were willing to sell their shares, but with the caveat that it would only be at the “same level (they) had already accepted initially”. Clearly, that level does not satisfy Louis-Dreyfus’ demands, and the situation has remained at an impasse ever since. At some stage in the future, it will need to be resolved.

While the off-field saga was playing out, the hierarchy at least managed to reach an agreement about a new head coach. Alex Neil was appointed the day before February’s trip to AFC Wimbledon, and while confirmation of his arrival did not arrive until long after he had been spotted waiting for the train to London in his club tracksuit, he immediately set about trying to improve things at Plough Lane.

While his first match as Sunderland manager, a 1-1 draw, was fairly unremarkable in terms of the events on the pitch, his post-match comments were incendiary as he bemoaned the lack of balance within the squad. Neil felt he had inherited a squad made up of ‘kids who have already played far too much football this season’ and ‘new signings who haven’t kicked a ball and are not up to speed’. It was to become an assessment he repeated on a number of occasions in the next couple of months.

One of Neil’s first acts was to remove a couple of the ‘kids’ from the team, with Dan Neil dropping out of the starting side after the Scotsman’s second game in charge, a defeat to MK Dons, and Doyle leaving the starting ranks after the following match, a home draw with Burton. Both have only made one start since.

Defoe’s departure removed him from the equation, but Neil stuck with Sunderland’s other two January additions, Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts, and gradually got them to a level where he felt comfortable playing them every week. It is to Neil’s credit that both became crucial performers in the last couple of months of the campaign.

Anthony Patterson replaced Hoffmann in goal, while Danny Batth was introduced alongside Bailey Wright at the heart of the back four. Having leaked goals left, right and centre under Johnson, Sunderland were suddenly a much more defensively-resilient proposition under Neil.

They had to be because after dropping out of the top six at the start of March, the Black Cats found themselves with precious little room for error as they battled to try to make the play-offs.

Remaining unbeaten for the final 13 games of the regular League One season was a remarkable feat, but with MK Dons, Wycombe, Sheffield Wednesday, Plymouth and Oxford also stringing together similarly impressive sequences, Sunderland still went into the final day of the campaign not knowing whether they would finish in the top six.

A 1-0 win at Morecambe settled things, setting up a two-legged play-off semi-final with Sheffield Wednesday. Stewart’s 25th goal of the season gave Sunderland a priceless first-led advantage, and while Lee Gregory levelled things up at Hillsborough, Roberts struck in stoppage time to send the Black Cats back to Wembley for the fourth time in four seasons.

Wycombe will provide stiff competition this afternoon, but having broken their Wembley hoodoo last season when they beat Tranmere Rovers in the Papa John’s Trophy final, albeit behind closed doors, Sunderland head to the arch with nothing to fear.

They have overcome a number of notable hurdles just to make it to Wembley – their task tomorrow is to ensure the final twist in the tale is a happy one.