Ex-Sunderland midfielder Jack Rodwell makes new ‘scapegoat’ claim
Jack Rodwell has claimed that he was treated as a “scapegoat” during his time at Sunderland.
When it comes to ex-Sunderland players, very few are as unpopular as Rodwell and much of that is down to the midfielder’s performances and behaviour during the season in which the Black Cats succumbed to Premier League relegation.
Rodwell was accused by many as only being in it for the money and his refusal to play for the club that was screened on the Sunderland ’till I Die Netflix series played its part.
However, the former Manchester City man has denied that to be the case and claimed he was a scapegoat at the club.
In an interview with Optus Sport (5 November), he said: “The thing that bugs me about it, especially afterwards is ‘For Jack it was just the money.’ If it was just the money, I would have stayed at Man City.
“So I went from winning the Premier League to pretty much, the bottom of the league, Sunderland. They’d just survived relegation that year. So I went from top to bottom purely because I wanted to play and I didn’t want to just sit there and take money. That’s not the player I am.
“I was forced to see out the season with the reserves, which, you know, it is what it is. But it’s just the fact that they sort of made it out that I was the scapegoat.”
Long gone are the days of mercenaries at Sunderland
Rodwell wasn’t the only unpopular figure at Sunderland during their Premier League days. The list would be too long. Lamine Kone, Didier Ndong, Darron Gibson. The list goes on, and on.
Players often saw Sunderland as a place they could go and receive a pay packet with little or no interest in helping the club achieve their goals. I suppose, in some aspects, that worked. The club avoided relegation for several years but when they succumbed to relegation, it had a rotten effect on the future of the Black Cats.
Mismanagement at the top and mercenary players led the club to back-to-back relegations and a near financial crisis with players still on Premier League wages in League One.
In some ways, you can’t blame the players entirely. Who wouldn’t want £30,000 a week to play against Burton Albion and the like?
Sunderland are a far different prospect to what they were back then. From players like Rodwell and Gibson to Luke O’Nien and Dan Neil who would die giving their all for the club.
Being a local boy himself, Neil knows what the club means to the fanbase and his appointment as captain has embodied the passion that he has for the Black Cats.
In other Sunderland news, United States international DeAndre Yedlin has opened up on his time on Wearside, reflecting on it as “one of the most important chapters” of his life.
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