Jason Steele has admitted his time at Sunderland was ‘horrible’.
Speaking on BBC Sport’s Football Focus, the goalkeeper suggested he had jumped at the chance of leaving Wearside five years ago.
Jason Steele joined Sunderland from Blackburn Rovers following their relegation to the Championship, originally arriving as the number one.
The Middlesbrough academy graduate endured a horrific year on Wearside, making a number of mistakes and consistently being criticised by supporters.
Steele managed one clean sheet in all competitions before a humiliating red card against QPR pretty much ended his spell with the club, making only a further three appearances before the Black Cats were relegated.
Steele went onto make the shock move to Brighton in the Premier League and has moved up the pecking order in recent seasons, starting nine games in all competitions this term.
The 33-year-old was originally a back-up following his move to the south coast, but Steele has admitted he was still happy because it meant leaving Sunderland.
While speaking to Glenn Murray on Football Focus, Steele said: “”I think it was more from where I had come from, in terms of being at Sunderland for a year.
“I’ve never watched the [Sunderland Til I Die] documentary and I don’t think I ever will. Because it’s a period in your life that you’ve moved on from now. By the end, I was thinking, I’m not sure this is for me anymore.
“I had three young kids, married, I lived in the area, and there were times when I didn’t even want to take the kids to school. That’s how horrible it was up there. Getting beat every week and you don’t want to look at your phone, you don’t want to leave the house.
“The opportunity came to come down here [to Brighton] and I don’t think I even asked how much I was getting paid. I was just like, yeah! It was a case of falling in love with football again, basically.”
How did Jason Steele become a Premier League goalkeeper?
Jason Steele was quite possibly one of the worst goalkeepers I have ever seen during his one year stint on Wearside.
But it wasn’t just him either. The goalie joined the club at the same time as Lee Camp and Robbin Ruiter, with the former taking the crown for the worst ‘keeper I have ever seen.
All three of them were terrible and it was quite hard to see Steele move onto bigger things after playing so badly for us, but I think we all want to forget such a horrible time just as much as he does.