Sunderland’s Jason Steele reveals that he snubbed a January exit.
Jason Steele has told The Sunderland Echo that he had offers to quit the relegation-threatened Black Cats in January but chose to fight for his place on Wearside.
The former Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper joined Sunderland in a £500,000 switch last summer but hasn’t been a huge success.
The 27-year-old has only managed 10 Championship appearances which, considering he was competing with a keeper as disastrous as Robbin Ruiter for much of the season, speaks volumes in a bad way.
But Chris Coleman recalled Steele to his first XI in Saturday’s trip to Millwall and justified his selection over Lee Camp, who has endured a tough first month or so as a Sunderland player following his loan from Derby.
Considering his errors, Steele isn’t a hugely popular figure at The Stadium of Light, but the resurgent keeper wants people to know that he is fully committed to the cause of helping the North-East side – who are rooted to the foot of the Championship – stay in the division after revealing that he rejected a chance to quit.
He told The Sunderland Echo: “It is nice to be back playing, I have worked hard. I have only played nine league games this season, it is not great, I would rather have played a lot more.
“It was a case of knuckling down over the last few weeks, trying to get to the point where the manager has to pick me. I could have left and chose not to, I chose to stay and fight it on face to face.
“Hopefully, people can see that and understand I didn’t take the easy option out and that I want to be part of this club.”
Steele is likely to keep his place for tonight’s visit of Aston Villa, but it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he takes a backwards step after his much-improved showing this past weekend.
Poor goalkeeping has very much been a theme for Sunderland this season and few would be shocked if there was another reminder of that this evening.
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