It is nearly two months since Sunderland’s season lurched to the nadir of exiting the FA Cup to fourth-tier opposition in front of a meagre crowd at the Stadium of Light.
Off the back of three straight defeats in the league, the die seemed cast for another campaign of frustration. Falling away from the promotion pace, manager Lee Johnson looked on rocky ground.
A club that used to be synonymous with hiring and firing managers in the winter stuck by their man and their principles and have reaped the rewards. An unbeaten run and a superb Christmas – which peaked with a 5-0 defeat of Sheffield Wednesday to send the team top of League One – sees “momentum” return ahead of a trip to fellow promotion candidates Wycombe on Saturday.
“Momentum is the strangest thing in football. It is such a powerful factor in the game,” he said.
More from Football
“To disrupt bad momentum is one of the hardest things to do. I think it comes from making the right decisions, getting the ‘process’ right as a club, working extremely hard, having a plan and sticking to the plan and when it gets a bit rocky trust that process.
“It’s been a nice month but we’re not going to relax because we’ve had some tough periods we’ve had to navigate already.”
Johnson likes to talk of the club’s “growth mentality”. It is a nice counterpoint to the boom-and-bust cycle which saw the club tumble two divisions in two seasons and then diminished by owners who sold their majority stake to French-Swiss businessman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus a year ago.
A complete overhaul of club operations has taken a year to complete but there’s a feeling that the foundations are in place to make 2022 a positive year on Wearside.
The signing of 19-year-old right-back Trai Hume from Linfield is typical of the club’s new recruitment model, led by sporting director Kristjaan Speakman, the academy director of Birmingham when Jude Bellingham emerged.
The highly-regarded Hume will slot into a squad centred around youth, which includes homegrown Dan Neil – one of the division’s most accomplished midfielders. Pride is returning in this group of “young, hungry” players.
“I said from day one I know how powerful this club can be when it’s aligned and in the right direction,” he said.
“The fanbase is the biggest part of that and I think we’ve got them on board at the moment and they’re behind us at the moment. It’s a nice place to be.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3G16yao
Post a Comment