Jeremain Lens admits he made a mistake joining Sunderland in an £8 million deal from Dynamo Kiev two years before the Black Cats were relegated from the Premier League.
Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat to Luton Town in the Championship play-offs will smart, but it is nothing compared to the dagger-through-the-heart pain of relegation.
Lens was contracted to a Sunderland side who finished a distant 20th in England’s top flight during a traumatic 2016/17 season under David Moyes. By that point, the then-Netherlands international had already fallen out of favour at the Stadium of Light, spending his second and final season out on loon at Fenerbahce.
And, in hindsight, Lens accepts that a Sunderland side eternally circling the plughole during an era few will look back on with any fondness was probably not the right choice. He was, at the time, a Ukrainian Premier League champion and a regular in the Dutch squad, after all.
Sunderland paid £8m to sign Jeremain Lens
“Perhaps it was not my best choice,” Lens explains, via FanDay. “After Dynamo, I moved to Sunderland, who had been fighting for the last three years to retain a place in the Premier League.”
Lens scored just twice in 22 top-flight games in Sunderland colours before joining Besiktas for a knock-down fee in 2017.
Fortunately, the days of Sunderland splashing big sums on overpaid, seemingly uninterested players appears to have been consigned to the distant past, Tony Mowbray’s team of budding up-and-comers proving that the kids are indeed ‘alright’ as the Black Cats secured a play-off spot against all odds.
A top-six finish may not be enough to keep Mowbray in a job, however.
Is Tony Mowbray heading for the sack?
According to talkSPORT, the perennially-underrated, always-understated Mowbray is ‘fighting to save his job’; Sunderland scouring the market for a younger alternative. Red Bull Salzburg boss Matthias Jaissle and 34-year-old Francesco Farioli are in contention.
Mowbray’s departure would not go down particularly well with large sections of the Sunderland support. But Jaissle, Farioli or former Barnsley boss Gerhard Struber look well-suited to build on the foundations he laid down given their penchant for exciting, attacking, possession-based football.
“I see many of the same characteristics at Arsenal compared with that of my own team,” Farioli told Sky Sports.
He was in charge of Alanyaspor at the time, averaging the greatest possession figures in the Turkish Super Lig.
“I will also mention Marcelo Bielsa,” Farioli adds.
“It’s important to build a team of players with passion for what they do. They must enjoy the ball, approach the game in a brave and proactive way. They need to show ambition because our demands are very high.
“I was really taken by Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona team. I loved that style of play.”
Luton will now face Middlesbrough or Coventry City in the play-off final at Wembley.
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