City Wembley heroes search for new clubs
WILLIS AND BURGE WILL LEAVE PROMOTED BLACK CATS NEXT MONTH
TWO of Coventry City’s double Wembley heroes and Academy graduates are looking for new clubs this summer after being released by their newly-promoted club.
Jordan Willis and Lee Burge – who helped the Sky Blues win both the Checkatrade Trophy and gain promotion via the League Two play-off final – have both been let go by Sunderland following their promotion back to the Championship. They beat Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 in the League One play-off final at Wembley Stadium.
Neither of the former Sky Blues featured in the victory which will see the Black Cats resume hostilities with City in the second tier next season – a fixture where there is no love lost between both sets of fans.
The pair are among five out-ofcontract first teamers, including Aiden Mcgeady and Will Grigg, to be released by the Black Cats this week.
Willis and Burge will leave when their respective contracts expire on June 30 2022.
Former City skipper Willis scored the opening goal for the Sky Blues in the 3-1 win against Exeter City in the League Two play-off final in 2018.
But he left his home-town club Coventry in the summer of 2019 after turning down a new and improved
contract, expressing a desire to play Championship football. Although Sunderland were in League One at the time, the perception was that the club was better equipped to make a swift return after dropping out of the division in 2018.
Robins confirmed at the time: “We offered him a contract and he turned that down. I left the door open for him in case he wanted to do something but, really, we had to move on because we couldn’t wait for him.”
Robins drafted in long-term target Kyle Mcfadzean from Burton Albion as a ready-made replacement, having already secured the services of
Michael Rose from Ayr United.
Willis, now 27, has not played since suffering a ruptured patella tendon in February 2021 in an injury-dogged spell at the Stadium of Light where he was limited to just 50 league appearances in three seasons, and 60 in all competitions.
Goalkeeper Burge, meanwhile, was released by Robins in the summer of 2019 after coming up through the Academy with the likes of Callum Wilson and Gael Bigirimana. He joined Sunderland where he was first-choice goalkeeper the season before last, but ended up as third pick last term behind academy product
Anthony Patterson and on-loan Bayern Munich man Thorben Hoffmann.
Although born in Hereford, Burge joined the Sky Blues Academy as a boy and was, as the song goes, ‘one of our own’ having spent his formative years under the guidance of coach and legendary keeper Steve Ogrizovic.
He was first handed the No.1 shirt in 2014 following Joe Murphy’s departure but it wasn’t until the last few years that he really established himself at the club’s first-choice stopper, making 160 appearances (140 in the league) overall.
He played a key role in two Wembley finals, notably pulling off a brilliant late save to deny his former Academy team-mate Josh Ruffels an equaliser for Oxford United as City secured a 2-1 victory to lift the Checkatrade Trophy in front of 43,000 ecstatic Sky Blues fans in 2017.
He also featured 12 months later as Robins’ men gained promotion from League Two at the first attempt, playing his part in the play-off campaign that climaxed with a thrilling 3-1 victory over Exeter in the final.
While it’s easy to remember the goals in the sensational 4-1 semi-final second leg at Notts County, Burge pulled off a superb save at full stretch to his right to keep out Jon Stead when City were winning 2-1 just after the hour mark.