Sunderland struck gold with Lee Cattermole

Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman has constructed an thrilling squad on the Stadium of Gentle, one which is now competing for promotion to the Premier League.

Tony Mowbray‘s facet misplaced to Coventry on the weekend however are solely four factors off the play-offs within the Championship and have a possibility to push for a top-six end within the coming weeks.

Speakman has pieced collectively a squad of excellent younger gamers with potential to go together with a mixture of skilled heads, with stalwarts equivalent to Danny Batth and Corry Evans complementing the likes of children Daniel Ballard and Amad Diallo.

It is a throwback to the superb recruitment work which noticed Sunderland safe their Premier League standing regularly within the not-too-distant previous.

One distinctive younger signing the membership made was Lee Cattermole, who joined as a proficient midfielder with potential and went on to grow to be an exceptional participant on Wearside.

How did Lee Cattermole carry out at Sunderland?

The Black Cats introduced him in from Wigan Athletic in the summertime of 2009 for a reported payment of £6m. On the time of the transfer, then-Sunderland supervisor Steve Bruce said: “Lee has all the pieces that I like in a participant so I’m delighted to have introduced him to Sunderland. He’s a terrific footballer. He’s younger, sturdy and has an actual ardour for the sport that I’m certain our supporters will love.

“As a north-east lad, he understands what it means to signify a membership on this area and can carry some actual chunk to our facet. Lee is a superb addition and can strengthen us by way of the backbone of the group whereas creating actual competitors throughout midfield.”

Cattermole joined on the age of 21 and Sunderland ended up placing gold with the English enforcer, who turned a staple of the membership’s midfield for a few years.

The warrior, who journalist Luke Edwards as soon as hailed as “harmful” and “combative”, turned a daily fixture within the group and performed 22 Premier League matches in his debut marketing campaign on Wearside, establishing three targets from midfield.

He averaged an attention grabbing 5.5 tackles and interceptions per recreation in 2009/10 and at the very least 6.9 tackles and interceptions per match in every of his subsequent two seasons on the membership, which exhibits that he was a real enforcer within the holding midfield place.

Has Kristjaan Speakman completed a great job?

Cattermole went on to play in eight top-flight seasons for Sunderland and likewise featured within the Championship and League One earlier than his departure in the summertime of 2019.

In whole, the Englishman performed 262 matches in all competitions for the Black Cats and chipped in with ten targets and 11 assists from the center of the park.

Due to this fact, Sunderland and Bruce struck gold with the signing of Cattermole in 2009, because the midfielder went on to grow to be an iconic determine in that period on the Stadium of Gentle over the course of quite a few seasons.