Although his time at Sunderland was fairly disastrous, Lee Johnson does believe he did one very special thing, by transforming the career of one player.
Lee Johnson spent just under two years on Wearside as Sunderland manager, but by and large, most Black Cats fans would probably say he was there too long.
Something didn’t quite click between Johnson and the Sunderland fanbase. The team did fairly well under Johnson, though, and were third in the table at the time of his surprise sacking in January of 2022.
The Mackems would eventually push on and make it to the play-offs, where they achieved promotion from League One.
However, there’s plenty that Johnson can be proud of, and the development of one man in the Sunderland squad is something he remembers fondly.
Johnson transformed Alex Pritchard at Sunderland
In an in-depth discussion on the Business of Sport podcast recently, Johnson explained his process of working with the players at the time, and how Alex Pritchard in particular was a player he loved.
Johnson said: “I like more trust to be built up, I like to trust my players and I like to feel trusted as well, and obviously to do that you need to build rapport. You want good people, I want to go sleep at night knowing that they’re fighting for me as much as I’m fighting for them.
“An example is when when I took Alex Pritchard at Sunderland. I loved Pritchard as a player — fantastic, little magician, really great weight to pass. But he lost his way a bit at Huddersfield. It was a big move that didn’t really work… he lost his confidence, he wanted to find that love of the game.
“He came to Sunderland and he was brilliant and part of that was giving him that love, giving him that belief that he can be the best player in the division.”
Pritchard did indeed excel under Johnson during his time at the Stadium of Light, and the former manager suggests it’s all down to making the player feel important.
“Every every morning I would explain to him why we’re doing the session, why he’s important to the session, and how that transcends to him starting in the game on Saturday and him influencing the game,” Johnson added.
How does Lee Johnson compare to other recent Sunderland managers?
If you look at pure points-per-game (PPG) and win percentage data, Lee Johnson is actually slightly better than Regis Le Bris at Sunderland — with the caveat that Le Bris is, of course, working at a higher level right now.
Johnson achieved a 51% win rate at Sunderland across his 78 matches, with an average points-per-game return of 1.83. Le Bris currently holds a 49% win rate, and has racked up 1.77 points-per-game.
Both are far superior to Michael Beale, whose disastrous spell at Sunderland saw him win four out of 12 matches (33%) and get a 1.17 points-per-game average.
| Manager | Games | Wins | Win % | PPG |
| Lee Johnson | 78 | 42 | 51 | 1.83 |
| Regis Le Bris | 35 | 71 | 49 | 1.77 |
| Michael Beale | 12 | 4 | 33 | 1.17 |
| Mike Dodds | 15 | 3 | 20 | 0.80 |
| Tony Mowbray | 65 | 26 | 40 | 1.46 |
In his two spells as caretaker manager, Mike Dodds won three out of 15 games (20%), drawing three more to achieve a points-per-game average of 0.8 — though there are mitigating factors to his tenure, of course.
Thankfully, he’s doing better at Wycombe Wanderers now as head coach there, and looks destined to achieve promotion from League One this season.
Even the great Tony Mowbray, whom many would suggest is the most popular Sunderland boss of the 2020s, has an inferior record to Johnson. Mowbray registered a win rate of 40% across his 65 games in charge, with a PPG average of 1.46.