‘Going nowhere’; £3m star explains why he rejected a contract at Sunderland

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Sunderland tried and failed to keep Conor Hourihane at the Stadium of Night – now he is a Premier League player with Dean Smith’s Aston Villa.

Aston Villa Conor Hourihane believes he had no choice but to leave Sunderland at the start of his career, telling the Going Up, Going Down podcast that he was ‘going nowhere’ at the Stadium of Light.

While the Black Cats are toiling in League One, a number of ex-Wearside starlets are proving themselves in the top flight. Jordan Pickford is still Everton and England’s number one and John Egan is now one of the star players in a Sheffield United side dreaming of European football for the first time ever at Bramall Lane.

£3 million Ireland international Hourihane, meanwhile, has produced three goals and two assists for an Aston Villa side who are desperate to pull clear of the relegation zone when or if the 2019/20 campaign resumes.

So, if Sunderland could turn back the clock, you would think that they would do more to tie Hourihane down to a long-term deal before the now-29-year-old left on a free a decade ago. In the end, however, he felt he had no choice but to turn down the chance to sign fresh terms in the North East.

“I felt like I was kind of going down a cul-de-sac at Sunderland really, going nowhere,” said Hourihane, who would then be lured away by ‘childhood hero’ Roy Keane at Ipswich Town.

“I tried to go out on loan a couple of times and there was interest from a couple of teams, but it never really came off, it always fell through for whatever reason.

“I was searching for that break of first-team football and I thought for some reason that it would happen at Ipswich when they came along, with Roy being an influence again. A few Sunderland players had made that switch and I thought, ‘let’s have a go’.”

As it transpires, Hourihane made exactly as many first team appearances at Ipswich as he did for Sunderland – zero.

But, after belatedly establishing himself as one of the lower league’s most influential performers at Plymouth Argyle and Barnsley, Hourihane found himself flying back up the ladder.