, one thing came to visit me that I don’t suppose I’d beforehand thought-about with regards to Sunderland’s stint within the third tier.
Chris requested Carl if he was proud to have performed his half in Sunderland’s ascent again to the highest, and naturally, he admitted that he was immensely happy to have been on that journey with us.
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Winchester, by his personal admission, felt like he’d received the lottery when the chance to go away Forest Inexperienced Rovers and be part of Sunderland arose in 2021, and he did the whole lot inside his energy to make it possible for his membership performed ball as a way to facilitate the switch.
It was good listening to him discuss how privileged it felt to come back to Wearside at a stage in his profession when he most likely by no means felt he’d get that kind of alternative, and I don’t suppose that there might be any doubting that he totally deserved his probability, after which grabbed it with each palms. He could not have been probably the most glamorous participant that we signed in that interval, however he was bloody efficient, and he gave completely the whole lot that he probably might have in a Sunderland shirt.
As somebody on Twitter wrote to Roker Report this week — Winchester couldn’t have joined Sunderland at a worse time. I can say this gorgeous confidently wanting again proper now, however there’s no doubting that the interval by which Carl signed for us got here simply after the worst ever interval in our historical past, the place we suffered from not with the ability to go to video games as a result of pandemic, within the third tier of English soccer, with the dour and uninspiring Phil Parkinson in cost as we scrapped for mid-table mediocrity.
SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 24: Sunderland supervisor Phil Parkinson through the Sky Guess League One match between Sunderland and Portsmouth at Stadium of Mild on October 24, 2020 in Sunderland, England. (Photograph by Ian Horrocks/Getty Photographs)
When the slightly-mad-yet-far-more-enthusiastic Lee Johnson arrived, Winchester was his first acquisition, and was the primary signing of this ‘new period’ underneath the management of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman. I don’t suppose many people had even heard of him, however he was given a good probability, and he did very effectively for Sunderland.
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But Winchester, in contrast to lots of the gamers who got here earlier than him and signed for the membership in League One, realised the chance earlier than him. Sunderland had turn out to be an almighty embarrassment, and to suppose that there have been gamers who turned us down at that degree to maneuver elsewhere is appalling, actually. The circumstances behind every case had been distinctive, however we’d seen the likes of Lyle Taylor go away Wimbledon and switch us down, as an illustration. We’d signed gamers like Will Grigg, who felt pressured into making the transfer, refusing to dwell within the space and as an alternative commuting from one other a part of the nation. We’d seen our greatest academy merchandise pilaged by golf equipment larger up the meals chain. We’d lowered ourselves to hiring folks like Phil Parkinson as supervisor.
While sure, the expertise of being within the third tier was, on the entire, the worst time this membership has ever been by way of, gamers like Carl Winchester got the chance of a lifetime that they in any other case would by no means have gotten. My thoughts wanders to Chris Maguire, who was signed on a free from Bury after a nightmare spell there, and Luke O’Nien — and also you don’t want me to remind you of his story, however he might hardly consider his luck that he’d managed to finish up taking part in at Sunderland.
SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND – MAY 11: Head coach Lee Johnson chats with Chris Maguire throughout a SAFC coaching session at The Academy of Mild on Might 11, 2021 in Sunderland, England. (Photograph by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC by way of Getty Photographs)
These folks would by no means have gotten an opportunity like that had Sunderland not ended up within the doldrums, so though I’d by no means want for us to ever find yourself there once more, it does provide me some gentle consolation that some genuinely good folks acquired to dwell out their goals in a Sunderland shirt.
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Luke O’Nien, actually, is the very best instance of what unfolded. Had he not been injured, he would have most actually began at the least the primary two video games of this season when Jenson Seelt was thrust in, however I’m fairly positive that we’ll very quickly get to see Mr Sunderland play for this membership within the Premier League.
What a journey, man. I’m so glad that I acquired to be there for all of it, watching Luke typically drag this soccer membership by way of some fairly torrid instances.
League One was shit, however with out it we’d have by no means encountered Luke O’Nien, or Carl Winchester… we could not have ever acquired to see Dan Neil, Anthony Patterson or Tommy Watson both.
So, I suppose in some methods I’m grateful for the journey we’ve been on and the truth that we’ve come out of the opposite facet in such incredible form – and we should always remember a few of these, like Winchester and Maguire, who we’ve misplaced alongside the way in which however nearly actually couldn’t have gotten there with out.