FIRST, they lost their manager because he thought he had a better offer from elsewhere. Then, they lost their leading scorer to injury and the only player who could really replace him because his parent club opted to cut short his loan. Then they lost their captain. Then both centre-halves, as well as the one full-back who looked a natural fit to slot in at the heart of the back four instead. For Sunderland, it is safe to say this has been a challenging season.
Yet it has also been a brilliant one, and as the dust settles on Tuesday’s bitterly disappointing play-off defeat at Luton Town, it is important not to lose sight of just how far the Black Cats have come since this time last year, when it was them rather than Sheffield Wednesday winning a dramatic play-off semi-final at Hillsborough. Back then, getting out of League One felt like a massive task. Actually, it was only the beginning of the adventure.
The joy of winning promotion was still intact when the current campaign began at home to Coventry, but behind the scenes, it was apparent that the relationship between Alex Neil and the Sunderland hierarchy had become strained. Neil wanted a greater say in the recruitment process, and warned repeatedly of the risk of not signing an experienced centre-forward as back-up to Ross Stewart.
In fairness, his predictions of a potential lack of attacking depth proved prophetic, but it would not be him who had to deal with the fallout. Stoke City offered Neil a hefty wage hike as well as a greater degree of control over recruitment issues, and the Scot jumped ship for the bet365 Stadium. Perhaps, in the long term, it will prove a wise move. At the moment, with Stoke having just finished the season in 16th position, it looks an ill-advised decision.
Whereas Neil’s appointment the previous spring had come at the end of a tortuous recruitment process that exposed boardroom splits that were eventually resolved when Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Juan Sartori increased their respective shareholdings, freezing out Charlie Methven for good, this time around, Sunderland’s ownership group had a plan in place. Tony Mowbray was appointed within a couple of days of Neil’s departure, and watched his new side thrash Rotherham 3-0 in his first game in charge, a result that lifted them to the fringe of the play-off places.
The following week’s trip to Teesside to take on Middlesbrough was supposed to provide an early reflection of exactly where Sunderland stood in the Championship pecking order, but instead it kickstarted the injury narrative that would come to dominate much of the rest of the season. Stewart suffered a thigh injury in the warm-up at the Riverside, a problem that would keep him on the sidelines for the next three-and-a-half months. He returned either side of Christmas, but when his Achilles went in an FA Cup fourth-round game at Craven Cottage, his season was over.
Stewart scored ten goals in 13 Championship outings, a better ratio than any other player in the league who reached double figures in appearances, and it is impossible not to wonder how Sunderland might have fared had he been available for the whole of the campaign. Of all the absences that crippled the Black Cats this term, the loss of Stewart was undoubtedly the most damaging.
In his absence, Mowbray had to come up with an alternative way of creating an attacking threat. Ellis Simms helped plug the gap in the autumn, scoring seven goals in 17 appearances, but Everton’s struggles meant he was recalled to Merseyside in January. Joe Gelhardt came in on loan from Leeds for the second half of the season, but was always regarded as a supplementary striker rather than a leader of the line.
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- Sunderland boss reacts to play-off defeat - and reflects on season
Mowbray needed to think outside the box in order to ensure his side was not impotent in the penalty area. In Amad Diallo, Patrick Roberts, Jack Clarke and Alex Pritchard, the Sunderland boss could call on a quartet of creative, inventive and technically-gifted attacking-midfielders. None were strikers as such, but all could carry a goal threat provided they could be persuaded to shoot on sight and force their way into the final third.
It took a while to perfect, but it is to Mowbray’s huge credit that he not only managed to create a functioning attack from his striker-less side, he fashioned a team that was free-flowing and exhilarating to watch. From Clarke rounding off a Barcelona-esque passing move at Reading to Amad curling home spectacularly in the first leg of the play-off semi-final, Sunderland have scored some fantastic goals this season, with their 68 goals from 46 matches making them the joint-fourth highest-scoring side in the division. Quite an achievement given the obstacles that were placed in their way.
Mowbray’s other major achievement this season was the successful way in which he nurtured and developed a batch of youngsters who had little or no experience of life in the Championship prior to working under him. Amad is the most obvious example of a young player who flourished under Mowbray, with the 20-year-old putting the bad memories of an unsuccessful loan spell at Rangers behind him to develop into a player who could easily find himself in Manchester United’s first-team squad next season, but there are plenty of others.
Trai Hume has gone from a 21-year-old novice who was failing to get into the matchday squad under Neil into a proven Championship performer, adept at playing at either full-back or centre-half. Dan Neil has developed into one of the best central midfielders outside the Premier League. Edouard Michut purred following his loan move from Paris St Germain. Aji Alese, Dennis Cirkin and Abdoullah Ba all improved after working under Mowbray, and then there was Pierre Ekwah, plucked from West Ham’s academy in January before being gradually introduced into Sunderland’s first team and exploding into life in the final month of the season.
Mowbray’s reputation for being able to develop young talent has been a common theme of his managerial career, most notably at Blackburn Rovers, where he nurtured a number of players who have gone on to establish themselves in the Premier League, but few could have predicted the successes he has had this season. Whereas others might have seen the need to blood so many unproven youngsters as a negative, Sunderland’s avuncular head coach viewed it as an opportunity. Everyone benefited as a result.
There were inevitable ups and downs along the way, and while the Black Cats might have been fifth at the turn of the year, their promotion hopes looked to have been extinguished when they dropped to 12th after losing at home to Sheffield United in mid-March.
April’s chaotic 4-4 draw with Hull felt like a huge opportunity missed, a sentiment that could also have described the 1-1 home draw with Huddersfield that appeared to have put the final nail in the promotion coffin. This was a Sunderland side that did not know when it was beat though, and after Cirkin’s match-winning double at West Brom was followed by Roberts’ stoppage-time equaliser against Watford, the Black Cats headed to Preston on the final day with a chance of making the top six. Their 3-0 win at Deepdale, with other results going in their favour, came on quite some afternoon.
The home play-off win over Luton was another seasonal highlight, but the away leg at Kenilworth Road proved a bridge too far, with Luton’s superior physicality ultimately proving decisive. Mowbray’s post-match comments about his future provided a disappointingly downbeat postscript.
Surely, Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman cannot be seriously contemplating changing head coach? Mowbray clearly wants some assurances given the speculation that has refused to go away in the last few weeks, and given everything he has done in the last nine months, that is the very least he deserves.
Under Mowbray, Sunderland have overachieved spectacularly. Yes, reinforcements are required, but the Teessider has established an extremely strong foundation to build on next season. The fans appreciate his talents, the players clearly love working under him and he has made it quite clear that he wants to stay. For once, it would be nice if those in charge at the Stadium of Light didn’t shoot themselves in the foot and toss all of that away.
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