We'll never quite know what would have happened had Alex Neil remained in charge at the Stadium of Light last season, but the former Sunderland head coach has revealed he was keen to stay on Wearside only for a 'difference of opinion' that would eventually lead to the 42-year-old walking out on the club to join Stoke City just three months after winning promotion back to the Championship.
Neil's reputation among Sunderland supporters has undoubtedly been tarnished over the course of the last 18-months, despite the Scotsman being the man to finally lift the club out of the doldrums of League One two years ago when securing promotion in the play-off final against Wycombe Wanderers. That day at Wembley will live long in the memory for most on Wearside, but just 98 days later and Neil's legacy lay very much differently after walking out on the club.
Sunderland had barely walked off the pitch following a tremendously spirited, but ultimately unsuccessful, display against Norwich City in a 1-0 defeat when Neil was taking his seat at Ewood Park to scout out his soon-to-be new squad of players against Blackburn Rovers. To say it was a sour parting of ways was an understatement.
It was a move which might have threatened to completely derail Sunderland's return to the Championship and hijack the feel-good factor which was at last harvesting in this part of the region following Wembley success. That performance against Norwich left plenty to be encouraged by before Tony Mowbray took over the reins and went on to produce one of the finer campaigns in Sunderland's recent history, culminating in another play-off run.
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Their pathway to the play-offs was far from smooth, however, as it included a severe bump in the road against Neil and his Stoke side - the Scotsman bearing the brunt of a hostile Stadium of Light reunion only to see his new team trump his former team in every department with a resounding 5-1 success.
Neil, steadfast in his response, palmed away any hint of becoming embroiled in the whys and wherefores of his decision to leave earlier in the season.
“I loved it when I was here, I’ve got absolutely nothing but good things to say about Sunderland,” he said. “What’s been disappointing and frustrating is that I’ve been painted as a villain. There’s been a lot of untrue things said.
“The reason I enjoyed winning was for the people who really don’t understand all the dynamics of what happened and labelled me as the bad guy. That’s not right.”
That came little over a year ago. A result which did little for Stoke and Neil other than denting Sunderland's play-off hopes, all the while, perhaps, sending a message to his former employers Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman.
Fast-forward a year, though, and Neil is no longer with Stoke having been sacked in December with the club 20th in the Championship. That decision came a week after his predecessor at the Stadium of Light, Mowbray, was also shown the door.
And in an interview with the EFL Debate, Neil has now taken some solace in opening up further on his Sunderland exit and why he remains keen to absolve himself of the 'villain' tag after revealing his desire to continue as head coach.
"There’s been a lot said about it and the last thing I ever wanted to do was throw fuel onto the fire," he explained. "I think a lot of people have said things about me which are completely untrue.
"The biggest thing at that point was we’d just been promoted, so the best example I can give is; you sign a striker and he signs a contract, the striker then goes and scores 20 goals and he taps on the door and says ‘I want a new contract, I’ve just scored 20 goals for you.’ You’d do your best to try and satisfy his needs, wouldn’t you?
"So we’d just been promoted after years of trying and anybody questioning my dedication at that point for Sunderland was crazy because I wanted to be at Sunderland.
"As soon as we got promoted I wanted to open discussions to extend my stay and to get a better deal and be part of what the club was going to be moving forward because that’s where I saw my future. But the fact was, as far as they were concerned, I’d signed my deal and that was the deal I was on which to me, at that point, didn’t show me any faith or any security in terms of ‘we want you to be the guy who is going to take us forward for the next few years.’
"That was really the key component that drove everything after that."
Neil's desire for an improved contract also played out alongside his request for the club's recruitment model to amend by bringing in further experienced players to complement the youthful, vibrant players at his disposal.
"The one thing I’ll say about Sunderland is when you work in the building they don’t make any promises that they’re going to sign this 30-year-old or that 32-year-old at any point," said Neil. "So there was never any misconception that when I walked in, they look to invest in youth players.
"There were some discussion points around the fact that for youth players to progress and to flourish, they do need good, experienced players around them. That was probably a healthy discussion point quite regularly.
"I think if you look at them now, my view is they’re light on experience. They’re very, very young, but extremely talented young players. But I do believe you need a couple of dots of experience in and around that.
"I thought the balance of the team that I picked up when I went to Sunderland was perfect. We had Dennis Cirkin, we had Dan Neil, we had Jack Clarke, Patrick Roberts, we signed Dan Ballard in the summer – so you certainly wouldn’t accuse that team of not having a lot of young players. Equally, Luke O’Nien, Corry Evans, Alex Pritchard, Ross Stewart were equally as important as the other players.
"The balance of the team was perfect. The attitude in terms of their appetite to win and the quality we had, it just all aligned itself and we deserved to go up."
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Neil's frustrations, in that sense, are feelings shared by Mowbray, Michael Beale and Mike Dodds this season as Sunderland's inexperience finally appears to be showing as they slide down the Championship table, a repeat of last season's play-off heroics a distant hope.
With Neil failing to agree with the club's policy over recruitment, as well as being unable to improve his own deal off the back of promotion, it left the door open for potential suitors, with Stoke a club who had already shown their interest in the 42-year-old previously.
For all the success and memories Neil and Sunderland shared in their brief time together, the Scotsman felt he was wanted more by Stoke as he took the decision to walk out of the Academy of Light.
"I think I felt really wanted by Stoke. They’d already made an attempt to get me when I was at Preston, which was really close but I backed out at the last minute," said Neil.
"That was probably a big factor. People say about geographically because I’m in the west in terms of where I live, but when we’d been promoted I had nothing in my mind other than furthering that team and furthering that club and trying to achieve what we possibly could.
"But there was a difference of opinion on what that looked like for me and for the club, which is fine. The Stoke opportunity arose, and I think we’d just beaten Stoke 1-0 at Stoke – that was the last game in terms of taking the team and I felt as though Stoke really wanted me."
Neil and Sunderland felt like a match made in heaven, particularly after that promotion, so much so the former head coach had recently been linked with a sensational return to the Stadium of Light following Beale's dismissal. The manner of Neil's exit, however, is a wound which will never likely heal for some supporters. And with Sunderland having just fielded the youngest team ever to feature in the Championship era in their 4-2 defeat at Southampton, Neil's desires for 'dots of experience' seem just as far away now as they were then.
*Watch the full Alex Neil interview with the EFL Debate HERE
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