'Otherwise...' - Fabio Borini issues verdict on Sunderland survival hopes in Sam Allardyce conversation
Sunderland are hoping to stay in the Premier League this season
Former Sunderland attacker Fabio Borini has backed the Black Cats to avoid relegation from the Premier League this season.
Regis Le Bris’ men have made a positive start to their long-awaited return to the top flight, taking seven points from their first four outings. At the time of writing, they sit seventh in the table, with an intriguing clash against Aston Villa next up on Sunday afternoon.
But while there is still a long way to go this term, Borini is of the opinion that his old club have recruited well enough to ensure that they beat the drop over the coming months.
What has Fabio Borini said about Sunderland’s survival hopes?
Speaking with ex-Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce on Footy Accumulators’ No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, in partnership with BoyleSports, when asked if the Black Cats could stay up, the Italian said: “Yes. They’ve got [Granit] Xhaka, who’s a good leader and a good captain, who can lead the direction to where the club wants to be; you can see that from the outside. You can see that from when he walks on the pitch, the way he carries the team, he’s one of those guys that you want.
“Looking at the squad they had last year, they had to do something, because otherwise relegation is guaranteed. But they did that early, and that’s important to the manager, especially, because you want all the players there in the first couple of weeks of pre-season.
“They did it well. They recruited personality, not just players. It seems to fit well, they’ve built the right things. I think they managed to send a message to the club above on what Sunderland is for those players.
“It’s different, and you really need to understand what the people from Sunderland want, and what they want to see from the players. If you don’t give that, you will never have that special connection with them. I can see that when they play.”
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For his part, Allardyce reflected on his time at the Stadium of Light with Borini as his player, and revealed how he got the team to stay up in the Premier League at the back end of the 2015/16 season.
He said: “When you’re in a complicated situation like Sunderland was, and the predicament they were in, clear instructions and clear ways of training and playing gives a player more clarity when they’re going out and playing on the pitch. It was very difficult; there were three points after eight or nine games when I joined, and it was a tremendous effort to get out of trouble.
“But it was a great end to the season, people talk about wanting to win things, but the relief after we beat Everton 3-0, which was the last but one game of the season, the stadium just erupted with joy, 48 thousand of them. That was a relief. And the lads enjoyed it under pressure; we lost one game in the last 11.”
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