Sunderland legend Kevin Phillips has explained why he thinks the club are still a way of challenging for promotion to the Premier League.
Sunderland came close to securing a second-successive promotion last season.
They reached the play-offs under Tony Mowbray but were beaten at the semi-final stage by eventual winners Luton Town.
It would’ve capped an incredible rise under owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, but now, the Black Cats seem to have moved backwards, and in a very short space of time too.
Michael Beale‘s short tenure seems to have done a lot of damage to Sunderland’s trajectory.
Fans have rapidly grown unhappy with the current management and the recent performances, with the idea of Sunderland now achieving a top six finish looking like a far-fetched one.
But Phillips believes that Sunderland’s recent struggles is side-effect of the club’s ‘vision’.
Sunderland vision isn’t promotion-worthy, suggests Kevin Phillips
Sunderland have a very clear vision; bring in younger players, then develop them into sellable assets.
Jack Clarke is the perfect example of this working, but so many players joined and have failed to make an impact; Nazariy Rusyn, Luis Hemir, Eliezer Mayenda, and Adil Aouchiche to name a few of last summer’s examples.
The Black Cats almost refuse to sign players over a certain age and it’s this lack of experience and balance that Phillips thinks is the main reason behind Sunderland’s gradual downfall this season.
Speaking to We Are Sunderland, he said:
“If that’s the model they want to go down, signing those types of players – no players over the age of 24 – for me, you’re not going to challenge. You might have the odd season where you’re skirting around the play-offs but if you’re really serious about getting to the Premier League, you need experience in there.”
Alex Pritchard proves Phillips’ point
Alex Pritchard perfectly sums up the points that Phillips is making.
But Sunderland appear to have been actively trying to offload Pritchard over the past year, despite his experience and his recent run of form in the side, and now he’s been tipped to move on before February 1st.
And Pritchard’s potential exit would really rub salt in the wounds.
Whilst Sunderland’s hierarchy deserves praise for having a vision and working hard to implement it, they seem to be making too may poor decisions, with most of them coming in the transfer market.
Pritchard has proved to the club that they need his kind of experience in the side; it compliments the younger players around him and adds some much-needed balance to the side.
Beale will surely be frustrated if Sunderland sell Pritchard and replace him with an unknown quantity from Europe; he needs all the quality he can get right now.
The Black Cats return to action vs Stoke City in the Championship this weekend.