Football Season Guide

Sunderland were one of the standout stories of the last season as they pulled off a barely believable escape having been dead and buried with a month of the season left. Gus Poyet and the players deserve a lot of credit for that show of strength and fortitude and the Black Cats will feel that they were worthy of staying up, courtesy of some remarkable results against the top sides in this final months of the season. But the euphoria of that achievement has died down over the summer and the realisation has come that they are set for another season of struggle has started to settle in. Poyet has not been able to strengthen his side as he would have liked to so far in the summer and in facet some pretty big players over the close season. Jack Colback left on a free transfer and, to add salt to the wounds, joined Newcastle in what is a painful move to take for the Black Cats given that the midfielder was one of their most promising and well-liked players in the past year or two. Moreover, impressive loanees like Fabio Borini, Ki Sung-Young and Marcos Alonso have not been retained and will be missed in the coming season. Some of the deadwood in the squad has not been shifted yet and the hands of the manager has been pretty much tied down in terms of newcomers. That said, Sunderland completed a deal to sign Jack Rodwell from Manchester City but a £10m outlay on the talented but perennially injured midfielder does look like a pretty big gamble. Rodwell is a fine player on his day and was regarded as a real talent only a couple of years ago. However, he has not played regularly for a long time now and struggles to stay fit for an extended period. He will add real touch of quality and bite to the midfield if he settles in nicely while Connor Wickham will be expected to continue his form from the end of the last season when he suddenly burst into the scene. Yet, there is lack of pace and quality at the back and not enough depth to last the distance. It will be a tough old season again at the Stadium of Light but there are still likely to be at least three worse teams than the Black Cats at the end.