As I was sat listening to Carl Winchester’s chat with Chris on Haway The Podcast this week, something came over me that I don’t think I’d previously considered when it comes to Sunderland’s stint in the third tier.
Chris asked Carl if he was proud to have played his part in Sunderland’s ascent back to the top, and of course, he admitted that he was immensely pleased to have been on that journey with us.
Winchester, by his own admission, felt like he’d won the lottery when the opportunity to leave Forest
Green Rovers and join Sunderland arose in 2021, and he did everything within his power to make sure that his club played ball in order to facilitate the transfer.
It was nice hearing him talk about how privileged it felt to come to Wearside at a stage in his career when he probably never felt he’d get that sort of opportunity, and I don’t think that there can be any doubting that he fully deserved his chance, and then grabbed it with both hands. He may not have been the most glamorous player that we signed in that period, but he was bloody effective, and he gave absolutely everything that he possibly could have in a Sunderland shirt.
As someone on Twitter wrote to Roker Report this week — Winchester couldn’t have joined Sunderland at a worse time. I can say this pretty confidently looking back right now, but there’s no doubting that the period in which Carl signed for us came just after the worst ever period in our history, where we suffered from not being able to go to games due to the pandemic, in the third tier of English football, with the dour and uninspiring Phil Parkinson in charge as we scrapped for mid-table mediocrity.
When the slightly-mad-yet-far-more-enthusiastic Lee Johnson arrived, Winchester was his first acquisition, and was the first signing of this ‘new era’ under the leadership of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman. I don’t think many of us had even heard of him, but he was given a fair chance, and he did very well for Sunderland.
Yet Winchester, unlike many of the players who came before him and signed for the club in League One, realised the opportunity before him. Sunderland had become an almighty embarrassment, and to think that there were players who turned us down at that level to move elsewhere is appalling, really. The circumstances behind each case were unique, but we’d seen the likes of Lyle Taylor leave Wimbledon and turn us down, for instance. We’d signed players like Will Grigg, who felt pressured into making the move, refusing to live in the area and instead commuting from another part of the country. We’d seen our best academy products pilaged by clubs higher up the food chain. We’d lowered ourselves to hiring people like Phil Parkinson as manager.
Whilst yes, the experience of being in the third tier was, on the whole, the worst time this club has ever been through, players like Carl Winchester were given the opportunity of a lifetime that they otherwise would never have gotten. My mind wanders to Chris Maguire, who was signed on a free from Bury after a nightmare spell there, and Luke O’Nien — and you don’t need me to remind you of his story, but he could hardly believe his luck that he’d managed to end up playing at Sunderland.
These people would never have gotten a chance like that had Sunderland not ended up in the doldrums, so even though I’d never wish for us to ever end up there again, it does offer me some mild comfort that some genuinely brilliant people got to live out their dreams in a Sunderland shirt.
Luke O’Nien, really, is the best example of what unfolded. Had he not been injured, he would have most certainly started at least the first two games of this season when Jenson Seelt was thrust in, but I’m pretty sure that we’ll very soon get to see Mr Sunderland play for this club in the Premier League.
What a journey, man. I’m so glad that I got to be there for all of it, watching Luke sometimes drag this football club through some pretty torrid times.
League One was shit, but without it we’d have never encountered Luke O’Nien, or Carl Winchester… we may not have ever got to see Dan Neil, Anthony Patterson or Tommy Watson either.
So, I suppose in some ways I’m grateful for the journey we’ve been on and the fact that we’ve come out of the other side in such fantastic shape – and we must never forget some of those, like Winchester and Maguire, who we’ve lost along the way but almost certainly could not have gotten there without.
