ROWELL: WE DESERVED TO BE RELEGATED
Sunderland’s 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth confirmed what we’ve all been dreading, but anticipating for weeks, relegation after 10 fruitless years.
Will the Premier League miss Sunderland next season? I doubt it.
’m not sure they’ll even know we’re missing, such has been the minimal impact Sunderland have made in the last decade.
It just seems to have been a 10 year battle against the drop, a constant struggle with the exception of one season when we finished 10th.
Even then, we somehow moved up four places on the last day.
So because of all this a lot of fans and pundits have understandably been saying it has been coming and that it was inevitable that we’d go down, as we’ve been playing with fire for too long.
However, I don’t see it quite like that, relegation wasn’t inevitable this season.
In fact of all the last 10 seasons, I’ve never been more optimistic about the club’s future than I was at the end of last season.
Just think back 12 months to the second last home game of last season, a thrilling 3-2 victory over Chelsea, in front of a vibrant crowd who produced an unbelievable atmosphere.
Then come to the second last home game of this season, yet another defeat to a limited Bournemouth team where we couldn’t score again and played out in front of a disillusioned fanbase.
The decline has been astonishing and it can’t all be blamed on Sam Allardyce’s departure as virtually every decision the club has made this season has gone wrong.
As for the Bournemouth game itself, it was an improvement on the Middlesbrough horror show, but even when Sunderland put in a relatively decent performance, they still find a way to lose and that’s why we’re the worst team in the Premier League.
Bottom of the table is exactly where we deserve to be.