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Former Championship star Sam Parkin feels that challenging for the title will be difficult for Sunderland this season and added that he would be surprised if the Black Cats get automatic promotion.
Sunderland began this season in brilliant fashion, making them early contenders for automatic promotion, but with several key players being injured, their form has taken a hit.
Regis Le Bris’ side have now drawn six straight games in the league and sit in fourth place, two points adrift of league leaders Leeds United.
Parkin is of the view that it will be a difficult task for Sunderland to be title challengers this season and stated that the Black Cats would surprise him if they can achieve automatic promotion.
He admitted though that he is not completely ruling out Sunderland’s automatic promotion chances as he thinks that a good January transfer window could change their situation.
“My gut would say that it would be difficult to see Sunderland being title challengers”, Parkin said on the Championship Check-In podcast.
“I’ll go that strong.
“Automatic promotion, I would be surprised, but I am not going to totally rule it out because there have been some circumstances that have gone against them and if they can bolster in the window, I don’t know if that is a reality or if that is just a cliché that people wheel out as we are getting towards the window opening, I am not so sure.
“But I think that the start to the season was phenomenal, but it was not going to be sustained across the season; otherwise, we’d have talking about one of the stories to go up there with some of the most incredible feats we have seen in the second tier.”
Sunderland are set to play second placed Sheffield United on Friday night and it remains to be seen whether Le Bris’ side can bounce back to winning ways against the Blades.
