And so, Jordan Willis, Arbenit Xhemajli, Aiden McGeady, Lee Burge and Will Grigg are the contracted, senior players that have made way in the inevitable restructuring process.
On the whole, these are casualties in two senses, in one, they are likely not good enough for the Championship, and in the other sense, they have been hampered with injuries; Willis has never donned the home or away shirt of the 2021/22 campaign, McGeady has been ruled out since November, Burge has had a heart scare that ruled him out of contention (though he was behind both Hoffman and latterly, Patterson) and Xhemajli was been sidelined for the vast majority of his Sunderland career, restricted to only a handful of starts.
Four of these are relatively sentimental departures, ones who no doubt Sunderland supporters across the country wish well. Willis looked an excellent player before injury and one who could have, if it were not for injury, made the step up to the second tier with us. However, the centre half might never actually play again, such is the severity of his injury. Jordan seems like a genuinely great person as well as a good influence in the dressing room and was back training on grass only recently. Fingers crossed for him that he can restart his career elsewhere. It must have been difficult for Willis, seemingly a key figure in the dressing room, to be around the periphery, tasked with what you feel are largely token roles, scouting, tactical analysis and the like, part of the squad but also peculiarly absent. He came on to the pitch to join in the celebrations on Saturday and I hope he enjoyed his night, even if he could only be involved nominally in the Lads success, he has shown in glimpses that he can be an excellent centre half.
Another centre half beset by injury woes is Arbenit Xhemajli. Like Willis, you feel he would’ve sat pitch side, gazing at the field in distress in some of our many tankings this season, feeling like he could’ve made a difference. Xhemajli (strangely, as he’s leaving I’ve finally mastered how to spell his name) was drafted in to shore up the defence against Wigan and played a blinder. Making his League One debut, he looked assured as we triumphed 3-0. After the match, he made his way over to the crowd and looked absolutely delighted. After having his debut delayed for so long, the relief at being able to put in a great performance was reflected in the way he applauded the fans and gave his shirt to a young lad at the front of the crowd. It meant the world to him to finally play for Sunderland in the league. It looked as if we had unearthed a gem, but in the next home game, Arby lacked the composure he had demonstrated at Wigan and was swiftly taken out of the side towards the end of the season. His appearance belies the fact that Arby is actually still very young, though that beard and hairline give you doubts and he will probably go on to have a decent career, whether in England or abroad. You feel as if this move could’ve panned out differently, if our first ever Kosovan centre half remained injury free, however, this chapter in his career has been brought to a close.
The higher ups at the club deemed Arby not good enough for a Championship campaign and we will have to draft in a few more defenders, our retained list looking fairly sparse. One player who you cannot question the quality of is Aiden McGeady. Though injury also hampered our tricky winger, age is the deciding factor in this decision. McGeady, desperately short of match time, is probably too old to have any significant influence in a Championship campaign. Accordingly, it is only right that he goes to, perhaps, a willing League One club. He will be flushed with options, one of which might be with Lee Johnson in his native Scotland. A reunion with the manager who brought him back into the fold after his isolation by Parkinson would be a fitting end to his career and he could easily move into Scottish punditry from there, a move we all know he’s going to make. You can just picture him complimenting a Sky Sports Scottish League game, a perfect foil to one of the numerous ex-Rangers players in the Old Firm coverage. For now, I just hope he can reproduce the magic he has, at times, produced for us, somewhere else and bring excitement and joy to another fanbase for 'one last dance'. For more written pieces heavy with McGeady sentiment, Sobs’ tender farewell piece is available here.
Lastly, Lee Burge. Burge was ultimately average – a good League One keeper, but prone to too many errors to be considered anything above middling. That notwithstanding, he has been elite from the penalty spot. He saved TWO penalties at the SoL against Doncaster, in the same game. His saves in the QPR penalty shoot-out ensured we progressed to the next round against Arsenal. His penalty save in the ill fated play-off semi final against Lincoln extended us a lifeline. He had what he described as a ‘scary’ bout of Covid, through which previously unseen heart problems were detected and therefore, he hasn’t played for a long time. Hopefully he secures a League One move where he can play week in week out, rather than being far down the pecking order for us in the Championship. We have had some dross in goal in recent years and Burge, in my mind, is not in the company of Lee Camp, Jason Steele or Remi Matthews. I don't shudder at the utterance of Burge's name.
Ultimately, we are left with one senior goalkeeper... and that senior goalkeeper is young Anthony Patterson. We have two senior defenders in Danny Batth and Bailey Wright as Callum Doyle has returned to City. We have Ross Stewart and though some would argue, he’s just what we need and he’ll take Sunderland to the Premier League, I for one would like to see other options drafted in before the season commences. With our loaned players returning to their parent clubs, our squad at the moment looks threadbare. Expect us to be linked with just about every out of contract player, from high League One to low Premier League, in the coming weeks as we look to bolster the squad before the first Championship game at the end of July.
In the meantime, thank you to all of the released players who have played their part over the last few largely awful years – none of these players we can say underperformed, or were egregiously bad. All tried their hardest, whether that was in a limited capacity like Arby, or playing week in, week out at times like the driven McGeady, who was willing to take a pay cut in order to try and take us up. These players all played their part, thank you.
That is, thank you to everyone except Will Grigg. Will Grigg can do one.
