Joel Lynch has given his views on his time at Sunderland under his former manager Jack Ross, during an exclusive interview with Football League World.   

The central defender was originally signed by the Scotsman during the summer of 2019 following his release by Queens Park Rangers at the end of the 2018/19 season.

However their relationship was quickly cut short by the Black Cats after just two months as Ross was given the sack by the Sunderland hierarchy as their bid to get promoted back to the Championship didn't get off to the best of starts.

FLW journalist Chris Thorpe recently spoke to Lynch about his relationship with Ross, with the centre back heaping praise on  the shoulders of the man who took him to the North East outfit in the first place.

“He was just a good guy, you know from the moment I met him I was impressed, the training was good, he worked us really hard, it was intense.

“I was really surprised at the intensity when I first went there. He had good intentions; he was trying his absolute best.

“But again, the pressure on him to succeed was immense and if you actually look at his record at Sunderland, it was actually really good, they hardly lost any games.

“There’s no way he should have been sacked at that time, but the club just wanted to push on and maybe they felt the only way they could do that was to bring someone new in, but as we know that didn’t really work for them.”

Ross was replaced by Phil Parkinson at the Sky Bet League One outfit, however the former Bradford City boss didn't fair any better at the helm of the Black Cats and was sacked in November of last year after failing to turn around the club's fortunes with expectations being as high as ever.