Born on this day in 1991 in Southport is Jack Rodwell; Sunderland's pantomime villain. He joined the club on August 5 2014 for a fee of £10 million, coming in alongside the likes of Costel Pantilimon and Patrick Van Aanholt.
Rodwell began his career at his boyhood club Everton; living the dream to be signed on by the team he watched and adored growing up. In their academy he was thought to become a centre back until he was moved into the defensive midfielder role once he made his way into the senior team.
He made his first ever appearance in the Premier League as a substitute in the last minute of a game against the Mags in a 3-1 home win. His only other appearance that season was actually against us where he played three minutes. Naturally, our bogey team won 1-0.
At the beginning of the 2009/10 season, Rodwell started the first eleven matches for Everton until he missed one game due to illness. After that match he was back in the lineup against Stoke. He managed to get through the full game but it was later found out that he had suffered a minor muscle injury which sidelined him for two more matches. Once again, after his return he was soon back in the medical room, this time more serious than the last as he injured his hamstring which left him out for two months. It was here when we first got a sign of things to come, with the young midfielder missing so many matches due to injuries.
The following two seasons were similar in regards to his season being interrupted with injuries, something we know too well. He was rotated in and out of the starting eleven and had multiple rumours linking him to other clubs in the Premier League.
In August 2012 Jack secured a deal to move to Manchester City for £12 million. It only took one month before he started getting used to the Manchester City medical staff after he picked up an injury that left him out for about three months. By the end of the season he had only made 15 appearances in total.
The next season wasn’t too great for him either, after notching even less appearances and worrying constantly about when the next injury will come. Despite only making five league appearances he was eligible for a Premier League medal.
In the summer of 2014 we decided to splash £10 million on the Premier League winner, with the hopes that we could figure out the injury problems and bag ourselves a decent footballer. Alas, as everyone knows, that was not the case.
In his first few months in red and white Rodwell actually managed to have a run of starting games. That was of course until the inevitable happened and he missed one game for a calf injury. After this he spent the remainder of the season alternating between a starting role and the bench.
His next two seasons for us were more of the same. Inconsistent starts followed by a set of injuries. During the 16/17 season he managed to put an unfortunate record to rest, as he finally won a Premier League game with us in which he started. The winless run lasted 39 games spanning over 1,370 days, until we eventually put Big Sam’s Crystal Palace to the sword in a 4-0 win. After we got relegated Rodwell kindly decided not to take a pay cut regardless of the ongoing situation, including getting paid for being on the sidelines 90% of the time.
Even in a lower division Rodwell never really impressed in the games that he did play in. It was no secret that we were wanting to sell but we just couldn’t find a buyer. Who would want to buy a player with a poor attitude and limited footballing abilities? As a result of this he had fallen out of favour with the majority of the club, whether that was us fans or the club staff.
After falling into League One we finally decided to cut our losses and terminate his contract, making him a free agent. From here he has since been involved with several clubs such as Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield United and Western Sydney Warriors. In his time on Wearside,
despite his high opinion of himself (remember when he talked of getting back into the England squad) he was a terrible footballer with an even worse attitude.
Sunderland Till I Die exposed the man as a fraud and a waster, content to pick up his exorbitant wage and sit idly by. He was symptomatic of our poor recruitment policy and our rapid decline. How he got a second chance in football after us is just an aberration, frankly.
