The Black Cats had a fantastic run in the latter stages of 2022-23 to make it to the second tier play-offs, but they were defeated by Luton Town over two legs to cut short their campaign.
Not resting upon their laurels however, Tony Mowbray’s side have had a fantastic start to the 2023-24 campaign, and ahead of the Tees-Wear clash with Middlesbrough they had won five of their previous six league matches to take them into fourth position in the table.
Despite not having the riches of the Premier League sides that dropped down into the Championship over the summer, the Wearsiders’ young squad are flying high and could potentially be challenging for the top two in the latter stages of the season in 2024.
They weren’t among the leading contenders in pre-season with the three relegated sides being backed for favouritism, but Sunderland deserve to be talked about in the race for the top two and promotion to the Premier League, says FLW’s Black Cats fan pundit Jack Austwicke.
“I think Sunderland are definitely automatic promotion contenders,” Jack told Football League World, speaking before Sunderland’s clash with Boro on Saturday.
“I mean, I don’t see why we don’t have as much chance as anyone else barring Leicester, as I think they’re everyone’s runaway team and could probably go down as the best team this league has ever seen.
“As far as everyone else though, I think it’s wide open – you see Ipswich doing well at the moment but that doesn’t mean we can’t catch them up.
“If they do manage to keep this form up all this season then fair play, they deserve to go up, but we’re definitely going to be in contention I believe.
“We’re only six points off them now but 36 games to go – I don’t see why we aren’t, I’d definitely back us for automatic promotion the way we’re playing at the minute.”
In the early stages of the 2023-24 season, Sunderland are looking dangerous and exciting, and there has been a clear push to build a squad that has plenty of energy but also sell-on value.
That comes with a potential downside though and that is a lack of experience within the team – just Luke O’Nien, Bradley Dack, Corry Evans, Patrick Roberts and Alex Pritchard are over the age of 25 and come the latter stages of the campaign, the youthfulness of the squad may not be a positive thing.
Talent can sometimes override experience in the long run though, and it is clear to see that among Mowbray’s squad are some of the most talented players in England outside of the Premier League, so there’s no reason as to why come May 2024, Sunderland cannot be up there with the likes of Leeds, Southampton, Ipswich and Leicester.
