Kevin Phillips has been discussing Sunderland’s promotion back to the Premier League
Sunderland legend Kevin Phillips has suggested that the club must invest wisely this summer to avoid a “struggle” in the Premier League next season.
The Black Cats ended an eight-year absence from the top flight with a stunning comeback victory over Sheffield United at Wembley on Saturday afternoon, and will now receive a sizeable financial windfall for their efforts.
But despite their success in the play-offs, Phillips is of the belief that his former club must recruit well over the coming months if they are to avoid an immediate return to the Championship.
What has Kevin Phillips said about Sunderland’s Premier League hopes?
Speaking on talkSPORT, the ex-striker said: “You know, I think if this team went into the Premier League, and this is no disrespect to them, I think they'd really struggle. Let's be honest about it, you'd love to give them an opportunity, but I think, the Premier League is such a big gulf between them and the Championship. I think they'd really struggle.
“I was working with Niall Quinn yesterday and him having been the chairman, the obvious question to him was, how does this affect them moving forward? And he said it causes all sorts of problems. It's a good problem to have the £210 million that they're going to get, but they have to invest it wisely.
“We've seen over the years where clubs go out and buy eight, nine, ten players without really doing their due diligence, without analysing what they need. They need to be really clever in the transfer market. They need to bring in four or five, of course, to strengthen that squad. Otherwise, they'll really struggle. But it's a great headache to have, and it'll be really interesting now over the summer to see who Regis tries to recruit. I'm pretty sure the club would have had a have a list of players. I'm sure, now that they'll be working on ASAP because they've lost two weeks, obviously, with the season finishing. They've got a lot of hard work to do, that's for sure.”
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What else did Kevin Phillips say about Sunderland’s performance at Wembley?
Phillips also reserved praise for Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson, who produced two superb saves at crucial junctures in the contest to keep his side’s promotion dreams alive.
He added: “He [Patterson] has been excellent for Sunderland throughout the whole season. And, you know, when you want your goalkeeper to really step up in a hugely important game like yesterday, he did.
“The save in the first half, I thought it was in, you know, from where I start - I thought that's a goal. And when he scoops it out, I thought that was a world class save. If anyone in the Premier League or someone playing for Arsenal whoever it was [had made it], we would be saying that’s the best save we’ve ever seen. It was world class.”
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