Born on this day is Dutch left back and former Sunderland player Patrick Van Aanholt. The attack-minded fullback played for the lads from 2014 to 2017, making over 80 appearances.
Van Aanholt was an unknown quantity when he signed, despite having spent five years at Chelsea. He had constantly been loaned out, including a brief spell at Newcastle United. He’d never stood out during any of his five loan stints, which is why eyebrows were raised when he arrived on Wearside permanently in 2014.
The previous season, Marcos Alonso had been deployed at left back. Because the Spaniard was on loan, it freed up a space for PVA to slot straight in on the left-hand side. He was clearly a similar mould to Alonso, an attacking wingback but his weakness was defending. He got an assist on his debut, in a 2-2 draw with West Brom at the Hawthorns. Van Aanholt pulled the ball back from the by line to Seb Larsson, who finished the move in the 85th minute for a late equaliser. The game was overshadowed by a Lee Cattermole screamer earlier on.
In a 3-1 win over Crystal Palace, Van Aanholt assisted Steven Fletcher, who headed home the Dutchman’s cross. However, he was stretchered off in the first half with a shoulder injury which kept him out of action for a number of months. He made his return to the squad in January, for a cup tie with Leeds United. He scored his first Sunderland goal, and the only goal of the game, as the lads progressed to the next round of the FA Cup, winning 1-0.
Van Aanholt’s most memorable moment came towards the end of the season, where he scored the first goal of a 3-0 win at home to Everton. His free kick wrong-footed Joel Robles from the edge of the box. Although the goal itself wasn’t anything special, it kicked off an iconic win for Big Sam’s men and sent the Mags down!
He was always pretty consistent for Sunderland, but also split opinion. When Sunderland sold Van Aanholt to Palace in January under David Moyes, he was just the fourth player in recent years where Sunderland actually turned a profit. The others were James McClean, Darren Bent and Simon Mignolet. Many fans were dubious over selling one of our biggest assets to a relegation rival, especially when they’d just appointed Sam Allardyce to keep them in the league.
Selling Van Aanholt turned out to be one of many mistakes that season, as we were relegated with a whimper. His replacement, Bryan Oviedo, looked tidy and did a decent enough job, but couldn’t replace the attacking output of PVA. He impressed at Selhurst Park, and has recently moved to Turkey with Galatasaray to wind down his career.
