Alex Pritchard joined Sunderland two years ago as a player who has overpriced, always injured and had ‘fallen off’.
A lot of fans wrote him off straight away because of his poor record since joining Huddersfield Town for a whopping £11 million. Pritchard hadn’t scored a goal in 789 days before he arrived on Wearside.
However, the midfielder was quick to prove the doubters wrong and that is all he seems to have done since joining Sunderland.
Pritchard netted four goals and provided nine assists in a brilliant first campaign for the club, playing a key role in their promotion to the Championship.
Many predicted Pritchard to struggle in the second tier and, despite making more cameo appearances from the bench, still claimed eleven goal contributions.
It was clear that the 30-year-old was declining towards the end of the season though and many fans were under the assumption that he would leave the club, however an impressive start to the new term changed plenty of minds.
Pritchard failed to make a single start in the new Championship campaign before yesterday, however his exceptional displays from the bench left supporters frustrated that the club continued their pursuit of selling him.
The Black Cats earned themselves some luck though, with Pritchard remaining at the club beyond deadline day. It wasn’t until both Bradley Dack and Pierre Ekwah were sidelined that he was handed his first start against Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday.
The former Norwich City man struggled in the first half just like the rest of the squad, but he proved exactly why we were right to keep him in the second.
While it is Jack Clarke that gets all the plaudits for his brace and Patrick Roberts certainly turned heads once he came on the pitch, Pritchard put on another impressive performance and picked up the assist for Sunderland’s third goal.
Watching Alex Pritchard play football is a real pleasure
Pritchard seems to be ageing like fine wine and what makes his football even more enjoyable to watch is how clear his determination and love for the club is when he plays. The midfielder always puts absolutely everything into playing for Sunderland and we get to reap the rewards of it.
So while Kristjaan Speakman seemed so desperate to get rid of him last month, he should now be encouraged to do a complete U-turn and offer Pritchard a new contract.
We can certainly get another couple of years out of his talent and we would be mistaken to move him on this season. Granted, he won’t be playing week in week out, but he is definitely a more important player than what has been made out this summer.