David Moyes is reunited with his former Everton centre-back at Sunderland. But a lot has happened since they last worked together.
In normal circumstances, clubs struggling against the tide of relegation would give anything to welcome a two-time Premier League champion and a 26-time England international midway through the season, as reported by the BBC. But perhaps not that two-time Premier League champion and 26-time England international.
After all, it’s less than a year since Joleon Lescott single-handedly made himself the epitome of the apparently indifferent modern footballer. On balance, maybe Tweeting a nicely framed photo of your new £100,000 sports car hours after a 6-0 home tonking by Liverpool wasn’t the right thing to do.
Nor was admitting that Aston Villa’s inevitable relegation, their first since 1987, was a weight off the player’s shoulders.
Therefore, you could forgive Sunderland fans for not over-hyping their chances of another Houdini-esque feat of escapism when the 34-year-old centre-back rocked up at the Stadium of Light after a disastrous, and short-lived, exile with AEK Athens.
He may have been out of the English game for eight months but it will take a lot more than that for Lescott to banish the memories of one of the worst individual campaigns in recent seasons. A few solid performances at the heart of a flapping Sunderland backline would be a good place to start.
Though, for the most part, it’s safe to say Villa fans are making a mental note of the quickest route to the Stadium of Light. It could come in handy next season.
The fact that Joleon Lescott is in the Premier League and we’re not makes me sick. #avfc
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