From loan stars to Burnley best: your questions are answered...
dominant early on, but Sunderland dug in and in the end absolutely overran a Premier League team.
George Dobson and Luke O’Nien were terrific, so energetic and a treat to watch.
After a rocky start to the season, that was the fifth win on the spin and it felt like a corner well and truly turned.
It didn’t quite last, as we know, but for me, that was a nightthatshowedwhySunderlandcouldhavehadanexciting future under Jack Ross.
Stadium of Light.
Agoodcharacterandanabsolute bargain addition.
He should be something of a model for the club when it comes to signings through the next few windows.
JonnyEvanswasexceptional in both his loan spells and one of the players I’ve most enjoyed watching at the Stadium of Light.
IsupposeManchesterUnited were never likely to sell a player of such promise, but it was frustrating to see him never quite get the credit he deserved there in the following years.
It’s no surprise to see him doing so well with Leicester City this season and it’s absolutely baffling a team like Arsenal hasn’t picked him up somewhere along the line.
The one that frustrates me more than any other would have to be Marcos Alonso.
Of course, Patrick Van Aanholt had some good days and eventually landed the club a healthyprofit,soit’shardtoarguethiswasascostlyamistake as,say,notsigningYannM’Vila and bringing in Didier Ndong.
But Alonso was just a cut above and it seems such a waste that the side who did so well for Gus Poyet was broken up so quickly.
Sunderlandfanswereprobably just about the only people in the UK who didn’t sneer when he moved to Chelsea for a massive fee a couple of years down the line.
I remember going to Stamford Bridge on the last day of that season and he was outstanding in Antonio Conte’s side.
A class player, and it’s been nice to see subsequently that he still recalls his time in the North East so fondly.
Thomas Sorensen was my boyhood hero so for this one I’m going to give a bit of a shout-out for a couple of other goalkeepers that I thought was massively underrated.
I vaguely remember Jurgen Macho putting in an unbelievable performance away atLiverpool,andIalsothought ThomasMyhrewasareallyunderrated keeper.
Losing him and bringing in Kelvin Davis was a massive error. Hard to see anyway in which Sunderland could have survived that season but that certainly didn’t help.
SteveBouldwasridiculouslygood,butIthinkweprobably did know that at the time.
OverratedistrickyasIthink those worthy of the hype have generally stood out significantly.
I always found Patrick Van Aanholt to be an immensely frustrating player, very effective at times and absent at others.
I remember a defeat to West Brom in the Premier League era where he played near George Honeyman and thecontrastwasunbelievable.
Fair play, though, he’s done superbly under a defensively strict manager at Crystal Palace.
One more shout for an underrated player.
Anthony Reveillere. Total and utter class.
It’stooearlytotellatthemoment, with football rightly taking a back seat.
For what it’s worth, the commitment from the EFL to finish the current season remains absolute.
So,Ithinkit’sfairtosurmise that they will wait until the last possible moment to see how possible that is.
Though clubs and players were initially against it, this meansthepossibilityofplaying behind closed doors is growing. The prospect of a null and void decision also remains.
No one knows what toll this isgoingtotakeandfortheforeseeablefuture,footballisgoing to feel fairly irrelevant.