Lee Johnson has reflected on his time as Sunderland manager, claiming that he ‘absolutely loved’ his time on Wearside. He was relieved of his duties at the end of January on the back of the 6-0 thrashing by Bolton Wanderers, a result which saw the club drop out of the automatic promotion places.
Since Johnson’s departure, there have been just three wins in 10 games with his successor Alex Neil overseeing eight of those matches. They are, however, now unbeaten in six games and are occupying the final play-off place in the third tier.
Appearing on the BBC’s Football Daily 72+ podcast, he was asked whether the sacking came as a surprise, to which he replied: “No, I don’t think it was a shock, if I’m honest. First and foremost, I absolutely loved my time there, brilliant, brilliant club.
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"I’m privileged to have managed such an iconic club, I felt I connected with the fans right from the start, understood what they wanted, we really tried to implement that and I think we generally did. We had a stellar home record in my time there and a big part of that was definitely down to the fans, their passion, intimidation and everything that goes with 34,000 plus [fans] in League One on a regular basis.
“Did I see it coming? Listen, there’s always bits and bobs behind the scenes that are not quite right. A football manager and a club is a bit like a marriage and, as much as I loved the club and the people there, we were sort of moving in slightly different directions in terms of principles and decision making on how we saw the way forward.”
The heavy defeat against Bolton left the Sunderland hierarchy feeling as though they had no other choice but to sack Johnson. It was during that game where the only regret of his time in charge came.
“My only regret from my whole time there is the fact that I was still trying to win the game at 3-0 down at Bolton away,” he said. “That final result doesn’t sit well with me because the lads didn’t deserve it.
“They’d performed really well, it was our second loss in, I think, 15 [games], we had the top points-per-game ratio of all the clubs in the 72 so the journey we were on was a really progressive one with a lot of new players coming in. We’d just made three really good signings in the last week of the [transfer] window and that bit’s really disappointing, not being able to see the challenge through.”
Despite still being left disappointed by the way his time at the Stadium of Light came to an end, Johnson has nothing but good things to say about the club. Under his successor, he believes the club still have a great chance of securing their return to the Championship at the end of this season.
“I won’t cry because I got sacked, I’ll smile because I really enjoyed my time there and hopefully, in the future, I’ll be able to go back there and hold my head high from the good job that myself and the staff did,” he added. “They’ve got a good manager in Alex Neil, it’s a good squad and, with the fans behind them, I truly believe that club can get promoted this year and I genuinely hope they do.”
