'How horrible it was': Ex-Sunderland keeper opens up on terrible 2017/18 season before Premier League chance

Former Sunderland goalkeeper Jason Steele admits he doubted whether he would carry on playing football after the club’s relegation from the Championship in 2018.

The 33-year-old made 15 league appearances for the Black Cats during their chastening 2017/18 campaign, while failures both on and off the pitch were publicised on Netflix’s documentary Sunderland 'Til I Die.

Steele has been able to revive his career at Brighton, the club he joined as a second-choice goalkeeper in 2019 but has made 23 Premier League appearances for - including seven this season.

When discussing his move to the south coast during an interview on Football Focus, Steele said: “I think it was more where I had come from in terms of being at Sunderland for a year. I’ve never watched the documentary and don’t think I ever will because it’s a period in your life that you’ve moved on from now. By the end I was thinking ‘I’m not sure this is for me anymore.’ 

“I had three young kids, married, lived in the area and there were times when I didn’t even want to take the kids to school. That’s how horrible it was up there. Getting beat every week and you don’t want to look at your phone, you don’t want to leave the house.

“The opportunity came to come down here and I don’t think I even asked how much I was getting paid. I was just like ‘yeah!’ It was a case of falling in love with football again basically."