Vincent Kompany has been speaking about his targets at Burnley for this season, where he made an interesting comment about Sunderland.
Kompany using Sunderland as an example
Well, despite the fact his side are currently sat top of the Championship, the Belgian reiterated that his goal for the 2022/23 campaign was simply to avoid doing “a Sunderland” and suffer back-to-back relegations.
As quoted by Football Daily, Kompany said: “We were just looking to avoid the worst case scenario. We were looking to avoid a Sunderland.”
Of course, there is still plenty of football left to play, although it seems as if the 36-year-old no longer has to worry about seeing the Clarets drop down into League One.
Burnley have lost just one of their 17 Championship games so far this season, winning eight while conceding just 15 goals – only Preston have a better defensive record with 14 concessions to their name.
In contrast, Sunderland learned things the hard way after dropping into the Championship back in 2017, before finishing bottom of the second tier in 2018.
Amazingly, the Black Cats only won seven Championship games that season, one less than Burnley have so far this term after just 17 games.
Sunderland on the way up
Despite a turbulent few years on Wearside, Sunderland actually seem to be quite stable nowadays.
The Black Cats are just six points away from the play-off positions under Tony Mowbray, and have some fantastic talents who can push them into the top six, such as Amad Diallo, Jack Clarke, Dennis Cirkin and Ellis Simms.
Of course, most of those are loanees, and will return to the Premier League at the end of the season, which should give Mowbray urgency to make use of them while they are at the Stadium of Light.
Hopefully, the Black Cats can embark on a strong run, and return to the Premier League in 2023.
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