Sunderland defender Tom Flanagan says a number of the Black Cats squad owe something to manager Jack Ross, for failing to get the results in the early part of the season that might have kept him at the club.

Flanagan joined Sunderland back in June 2018, just over a month after Ross had arrived at the club, with the Northern Ireland international one of a number of the club's current first-team players to have been brought to Sunderland by Ross.

However, Ross' time at the Stadium of Light was brought to an end back in October, when he was sacked with the club sixth in the League One table, and it seems Flanagan believes the squad still have to make up for that dismissal of their former manager.

Speaking about Ross' departure from Sunderland to The Chronicle, the defender said: "I don't need to tell you that Jack Ross knew that it was a results thing. It didn't quite work for him at that time.

But I think that the players who are playing at the moment still owe him something.

"And I feel that the manager now [Parkinson] would definitely say that as well because a lot of the players were players that he [Ross] has recruited."

Since his sacking by Sunderland, Ross has returned to his native Scotland to take charge of Hibernian, who are currently sixth in the Scottish Premiership.

Sunderland meanwhile are seventh in the League One table, outside the play-off places on goal difference, and three points adrift of the automatic promotion places.

The Verdict

This is good to see from Flanagan.

It is often the case that managers are the one who pay with their jobs, as happened with Ross at Sunderland, when things are not going right on the pitch, which may not always be down to the man in the dugout.

That does however give players someone to turn the attention towards should they want to, although Flanagan's comments here look to have done the opposite of that, showing he is willing to front up to criticism when the time comes.

Indeed, with Sunderland's position failing to really improve since Ross' departure, the pressure may soon be on Flanagan and co. to avoid a similar situation with current boss Phil Parkinson.