'They were using me' - £10m flop slams Sunderland's treatment of him and claims he did everything he could

The central midfielder was a major signing for the club in the summer of 2014 but struggled to make a consistent impact and as the club dropped into the Championship, he was the only player in the squad not to have a wage reduction written into his contract.

It became a source of major contention when he made few appearances in the following campaign as the club were again relegated.

Rodwell made just six appearances, three of which were in the EFL trophy.

The impasse reached a crescendo in the latter stages of the season when Coleman said Rodwell, then training with the U23s, was ‘not the answer’ and that he had ‘no idea’ where the midfielder was mentally.

His last appearance came in that competition in November 2017.

Sunderland offered Rodwell the chance to walk away from his contract the following January, but it was not until the following summer that he reached an agreement with Stewart Donald to end his contract early, subsequently joining Blackburn Rovers and later Sheffield United before moving to Australia.

The drama was captured by Fullwell 73’s cameras and broadcast to a global audience on Netflix.

Rodwell told The Athletic:“The cameras became normal,” he explains. “But it was a bad time for me. I was in the process of getting thrown under the bus for being in the building. Everyone inside the club will tell you I wasn’t a bad lad. I did everything that was asked of me and more whereas other players wouldn’t have.

“I just felt like they were using me. I haven’t spoken about it too much, to be honest, because it’s not something I like to waste my energy on. I know what I’m like as a person and my family and friends do. That’s the important thing.

“I used to walk in there and they’d say to me, ‘You’re not training today’,” he says. “They’d make me come in three times a day every day and couldn’t train with the lads. I was just on my own doing fitness stuff. They moved me out of the dressing room.

“It wasn’t through anything I’d done and it was a difficult period. I’ve heard of it happening to other players but we had the cameras there too. For me, it was being able to look myself in the mirror and say ‘I’m doing everything they ask of me’.

“I turned up on time. I took it. I wasn’t sacking it off or anything like that. I just haven’t got that in me to do that, sometimes I wish I had. I was always respectful in the building and went along with it but I feel like they did wrong by me. I had the support of my family around me which was the most important thing.

“My missus was pregnant so my focus was on that a lot. I just decided not to bring it home with me. There are more important things in life and that’s what I did, I just changed my focus.”

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