This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
FLW’s Sunderland fan pundit Jack Austwicke believes it is still too early to judge the team’s expectations for the season ahead.
The Black Cats have returned to the Championship following a four campaign stint in the third division.
Alex Neil’s side earned their place in the second tier with a play-off final victory over Wycombe Wanderers at Wembley Stadium.
But with three weeks still remaining before the games get underway, Austwicke is uncertain that the club can be as competitive in the league as some have suggested.
A lack of new signings has been highlighted as a key cause for concern, with the fan pundit claiming avoiding relegation should still be the main target for the club.
The Sunderland supporter believes the current squad isn’t quite capable of competing in the top half of the table, but is also willing to give the club the chance to get some signings into the club before making any definitive predictions on the club’s chances this campaign.
“It’s hard to make a prediction on where Sunderland will finish next season due to the season still being three weeks away,” Austwicke told Football League World.
“To be fair, we have only made one new signing at this stage but I’d still expect, with the squad that we’ve got and the players we’ve retained, I do think that’s good enough to stay in the Championship.
“I don’t think any Sunderland fans are expecting more than that.
“There are a lot of people putting us in the play-offs, I can’t see where the logic is there.
“As someone who watched us all last season, I think I would be happy staying up. I think we could probably get up to 18th, 19th place finish next season.
“Just because, it is a hard league to jump straight up to and push on and with the business we’ve done so far, unless it speeds up, I wouldn’t expect any more than that.”
Neil joined the club midway through last season, replacing Lee Johnson, leading the club to a play-off place.
The club finished 5th in the League One table before dispatching Sheffield Wednesday and Wycombe on their route back to the second division.
The Verdict
Keeping expectations low will probably be the smartest move for Sunderland supporters this season.
It has been a difficult few years for the club so, while promotion was a great achievement, it is still too soon to get too optimistic.
Neil has proven a good appointment and has plenty of experience at this level so knows what it takes to be competitive.
But the squad does need additions to really think about climbing higher than the bottom half of the table.