Previous season has been a true rollercoaster ride for Sunderland, who only managed to ensure survival in the last Premiership round. The fans had high hopes before the start of the season since boss Roy Keane had spent a lot of money on new signings but things did not turn out the way he expected. It was not surprising to see the team struggle in the opening stages of the league campaign since it takes some time for new signings to gel but the problem was that we couldn’t see any improvement in team’s performance. Keane decided to step down from the post after guiding the team into the relegation zone, with Ricky Sbragia being appointed as caretaker manager.

It seems that the change had a positive effect on the players as the results started improving but Black Cats failed to escape the dangerous zone and their fans had to worry until the last day. Sunderland managed to avoid the drop despite losing to Chelsea in the last round of the Premier League. Ricky Sbragia surprisingly decided to leave the managerial post after the final game of the season and the club management soon found a replacement as they brought Steve Bruce from Wigan, who will lead the team in the new season.

Steve Bruce is a very good manager, who usually does well with smaller teams and he will now have the full backing of the club board and chairman Niall Quinn to try and take this club even further. He is determined to avoid the relegation struggle next term and will be looking to ‘pull off a Wigan’ here. He had a big success with the Latics in the past two years and will try to do something similar at Sunderland. His first task is to keep the team together and it seems that he will succeed, since apart from Djibril Cisse, who returned to Marseille, there will be no notable departures. On the other hand, Bruce will be looking to reinforce his team and several players are being mentioned as possible target. Stephane M’Bia (Rennes), Darren Bent (Tottenham) and Luis Jimenez (Inter) could all join Black Cats and it seems that Bruce is on the way to create a very good squad indeed.

We believe that Sunderland will avoid the relegation struggle next season and top table finish is realistic possibility for the Stadium of Light outfit. Online bookmakers expect Sunderland to finish in the bottom part of the table, therefore betting odds on Black Cats to achieve a top table finish could be worth taking, especially if you take advantage of betting bonuses the bookies are offering for new customers.