PHIL SMITH: INSIDE SUNDERLAND'S 'ROLLERCOASTER' CAMPAIGN, WHAT WENT WRONG AND WHAT MUST HAPPEN NOW
Sunderland’s season started brightly but ended in disappointment
There was an irony to Sunderland’s season in that even as they doubled down on their distinct approach, they seemed at the same time to lose their way.
It was a campaign in which their commitment to youth accelerated, the departures of experienced figures such as Lynden Gooch, Danny Batth and eventually Alex Pritchard leading them at one stage to leading the youngest side in modern Championship history. And yet the turbulence that engulfed the club over the course of the season meant that the fearless, front-foot brand of football which had so captured the imagination all but evaporated. By the end of the campaign they were limping towards the finish line with no discernible style of play, often yielding the initiative to their opposition and creating precious little in the final third. Where 2022/23 was extended to a play-off campaign in a wave of excitement, the overriding emotion at the end of 2023/24 was relief.
Some at the club believe the seeds of this season’s unravelling had been sown even as that second leg at Luton Town came to a close, much damage already done by the leaks week previous that made clear Tony Mowbray’s position was in question. Sunderland’s ownership were weighing up the merits of a change, and that they eventually decided against it did little to undo the friction the reports had created. It was now essentially an open secret that the ownership wanted a change of approach, hankering for the ‘high-performance culture’ they believed an ambitious new hire could bring.
As the festive period approached a switch became inevitable, Mowbray feeling his position was being increasingly undermined and the club’s ownership increasingly frustrated with how publicly he was laying bare his frustration. In making the decision midway through the campaign, though, Sunderland got the worst of both worlds. They lost Mowbray’s steady leadership of a young and inexperienced dressing room, as well as his clearly-defined tactical approach. They then faced the notoriously difficult task of finding a high-calibre replacement in the middle of the campaign; the pool of candidates now narrowed significantly.
Though Michael Beale would later point out that Sunderland never dropped lower than tenth in his time at the club, his appointment was a flawed decision. Beale began to undo the blueprint Mowbray had established to disastrous effect, Sunderland losing much of their attacking verve and finding little in the way of defensive stability to offset it. The fit was even poorer off the pitch, with the new head coach unable to connect with the club’s support in the way that Mowbray had found so easy. In late January Sunderland secured a 3-1 win over Stoke City but their campaign was beginning to descend into chaos, Beale hitting out at ‘negativity’ from supporters in an extraordinary press conference days previous. The growing feeling behind the scenes that the damage had been done beyond repair was now almost irreversible. Nothing about this new version of Sunderland was high performance, leaving the credibility of those involved in those decisions significantly damaged.
Ultimately this was a season of two fairly distinct halves. Sunderland in the first half campaign were by just about any performance metric a play-off contender. They dominated games consistently, their achilles heel being a chronic inability to convert the chances they created. In the second half of the season they became a shadow of that side, their relegation form underpinned by their performance level. The common denominator of both of these versions of Sunderland was their ongoing struggle in the opposition box, all three head coaches unable to find a solution from those recruited the previous summer. There was some nervousness in the aftermath of that Luton defeat of a future that would likely feature neither Amad nor Ross Stewart, without whom thoughts of promotion could never have been realistically entertained. Though the task in replacing them was a challenging one and particularly given Sunderland’s prudent budgeting, their replacements simply never got going. Jack Clarke was left to carry the bulk of Sunderland’s attacking threat and everyone’s worst fears were realised when he suffered an ankle injury towards the end of the campaign. While Mike Dodds conceded in recent weeks that more experience was needed to help the club maintain a promotion push, his strongest message was that more depth in key positions should be the main focus. Not enough of those recruited in the summer were able to establish themselves consistently in the starting XI, and the January window was a missed opportunity to correct that.
Sunderland’s FA Cup defeat to Newcastle United continued to cast a long shadow over the campaign, and most particularly the debacle which led to the Black Cats Bar being redecorated in Newcastle United colours and with accompanying slogans. That as much as any footballing decision left supporters questioning the club’s ownership and their priorities. Announcements of a new kit partner, a new retail operation and significant investment in the Stadium of Light over recent weeks have led to hope of positive change, but there are clearly wounds that are yet to heal.
If you want to look for positives as Sunderland head into the summer then you genuinely do not have to look far. It remains a squad packed with young talent, the core of which have another campaign of Championship experience under the belt. This ultimately bruising campaign will stand them in even better stead moving forward, and after a rest and reset there is a nucleus of a side that can compete for the play-offs next season. All are under long-term contracts, which means if top-tier clubs come knocking this summer then they will have to pay the kind of premium that could open up previously unattainable targets. There is more young talent starting to break through, Chris Rigg excellent in the final weeks and Jobe Bellingham an impressively consistent performer from day one even if towards the end of the campaign he looked to be one of many in need of a break.
With a strong head coach appointment and the recruitment of some more firepower in the final third, Sunderland most definitely have the capacity to be contenders next time out. The concern for most supporters is that this season’s experience leaves them feeling that neither is a given. For so long a laughing stock in football, one of the new regime’s biggest achievements was to change the perception of the club. Even if there were some significant bumps along the way, Sunderland went from derided to admired and whatever you made of the strategy, undeniable was that they were a club with a clear vision. Yet in the upheaval and turmoil that eventually engulfed this campaign, it was hard not to see an impulsiveness that had come to trump the evidence-based approach that had been so heavily trailed.
Sunderland are a club heading into the summer in need of a reset. The expectation next season will be to compete for promotion and to do that a balance needs to be found between the pragmatism that can create a squad capable of managing the rigours of a Championship campaign, and the idealism that can create a team with the belief and quality to impose its identity on any opponent.
Poor decisions and instability have knocked Sunderland considerably off course, and it’s imperative that is corrected over the coming weeks.
2024-05-05T06:03:31Z dg43tfdfdgfd