Alex Neil opens up on Sunderland's 'tough season' ahead and why he's optimistic about a big step into the unknown

He wondered about Dwight Gayle, a striker with proven pedigree at Championship level and who had recently joined Stoke City. Were Sunderland not looking at players of that ilk as they look to make a mark in their first season back?

Neil clearly would not talk about specific players or cases but it was a good moment for him to make a point.

Sunderland, he stressed, are ‘nowhere near’ that level.

Both Neil and those who hired him have genuine Premier League ambitions in the medium to long term but they are not deviating from the model of investing in young players to get there.

It means it will take time and particularly this season, it means that there will be significant bumps in the road.

Since Sunderland were last in this division the gap between the have [parachute payments] and have nots has only grown. It’s not a gulf overcome overnight.

Neil is ready to be judged, but he wants it the context to be fully understood.

“What we need to understand is, where we've been for the last four seasons,” Neil reiterated on Thursday morning.

“There's got to be a realism about where we currently are. If you're going to pitch us against teams that have come down from the Premier League and have got parachute payments.. we're not at that level just now.

“The expectancy has got to be a fair one, we're not at that stage.

“What I did do from the get go when I arrived here, was to say in front of all of you and put pressure on myself by saying not getting out of League One wasn't going to be acceptable,” he added.

“I didn't shy away from that, we discussed that openly.

“I'm a realist, I would never shy away from expectation. But I'm also a realist in the sense that we're moving up to a really difficult level and we haven't been there for a long time.

“I'm very hopeful but equally I know how difficult it is, some of the finances involved and how some of these teams have been building for a number of years. I'm not naive, thinking we're just going to rock up and start scootin' teams. That's not going to happen.

“This is going to be a tough season.”

It could be an exciting one, though.

Neil takes a deep breath when asked if simply staying up would represent a successful campaign. It probably would in a way, but the head coach aspires for more than that.

He thinks that’s achievable as well, if the squad is strengthened between now and the end of the window and if the young players stepping up for the first time settle.

And this really is the thing. The talent is there in this Sunderland squad, but the experience is not.

It makes predicting how this season will go a fool’s game.

“I'm not quite sure [what to expect this season], if I'm being honest,” Neil said.

“I think that we've got a team who are an unknown quantity in the Championship. Naturally, we've come off a high last season in winning promotion and we have got good players, but it's going to be a learning curve for a lot of them. I'd say that three quarters of the squad haven't played at the level, and the season we did spend at this level we fell right through it.

“It's quite a bizarre scenario but we're looking forward to it, we are optimistic and we have got confidence that we can go and have a good season.

“We finished last season well, and we've got an incredible fanbase that will hopefully support us and edge the lads on, and even allow them to probably outperform where they currently are in their development.

“It's hard to say what a successful season is for us, in terms of a target.

“I don't want to say just staying up is, because if you do really well then you've set your bar low and I've not set my bar anywhere.

“I just think we're going in with optimism, knowing it's going to be tough.

“We might look back at the end of the season and think yeah that's the case [staying up a success], or we might feel we could have been considerably better.

“I don't quite know what success is, I don't know how the lads will react. If you've got past experiences of what we've done, you can make a good guess at what will happen.

“We don’t really have that right now.”

Coventry City pose a stern test to begin the season and Neil is keen to make sure everyone knows it.

There is a gap, he stresses, between teams like Coventry and Luton Town who may not have major budgetary advantages but have had time to build their squads.

And he also references the first time his Preston North End side faced the Sky Blues following their own promotion from League One.

Coventry played well, impressed, and looked for the most part comfortable at the level. Preston won 2-0.

Knowhow and an understanding of where you win and lose at this level is hard-earned.

Neil is releasing leading Sunderland back into the second tier, in front of 40,000 fans and with a squad he forged a close bond with last season.

There are, he cannot stress enough, lots of reasons to be optimistic.

Just judge fairly, is his message.