Alan Smith

You've got a situation where the centre-back you brought in last year did a great job for you.

It looks like he doesn't want to play for the club.

How you deal with that situation is not easy.

You've just sold Younes Cabal to Watford, who I thought did well last week.

I know he's got a mistake in him, but he's still a player that was important for them last season.

David Moyes is going to have to use all of his experience to keep this team in the league this year.

I mean, I said it earlier on, every year you can't keep getting 38, 39 points and then just stay up and get lucky, sack a manager after Christmas and then things work out.

It doesn't work like that.

I don't care, you can have Pep Guardiola, Mourinho, anyone managing that club, you're going to have problems.

And I think it's going to go all the way to the wire again for them.

I don't look at it as a squad that looks like it's going to get any higher than third or fourth.

The whole Sam Allardyce thing obviously hasn't helped, has it?

You know, the uncertainty.

Is he going to stay?

Is he going to go?

So they couldn't really do their planning.

They couldn't get players in.

And they lost a couple of weeks, at least a couple of weeks, I think.

And

Historically, it's been hard to attract players, hasn't it, to clubs like Sunderland.