Sunderland legend reveals ‘big wide door open’ for 492-game former Liverpool man to re-join
Sunderland legend Niall Quinn has revealed there is a “big wide door open” for a Liverpool icon to join the Black Cats after their promotion to the Premier League.
Sunderland have made their way back to the Premier League for the first time since 2016/17 for next season. They’ve spent some time in the wilderness, as they immediately dropped below the Championship after their first year there, before spending four years in League One.
After three seasons back in the second tier, they made their way back to the top flight when they beat Sheffield United in this season’s Championship playoff final.
The Black Cats’ squad is a very young one, and though it’s exciting, some experience at the top level couldn’t go amiss.
Sunderland are ready to welcome home a former star, Jordan Henderson, if he wants the move, according to legend Quinn.
“From the day Jordan left, and Liverpool paid £20million, there was a big wide door open for him anytime he wanted to come back,” Quinn said on talkSPORT.
“Wouldn’t it be something else. I think he’s been a credit to the game with his hard work and his team play, he’s a real driver. I’ve stood back and admired his career.”
Henderson achieved huge things after Sunderland
Boyhood Sunderland player Henderson was brought into professional football by the club, for whom he played 79 games, scored five goals and assisted 10 from midfield.
He played two full Premier League seasons before he was sold to Liverpool.
There, he lifted both the Premier League and Champions League trophies as captain. Henderson played 492 games for the Reds, becoming an icon of the club, while scoring 33 goals and assisting 58.
At 34, his career may not have an awful long time left, and though he is now playing for Ajax, who reached the last 16 of the Europa League this season, a return to Sunderland would be fitting, to help his boyhood club and their young stars to potentially stay afloat upon their spectacular return to the Premier League.
If Henderson is going to return to Sunderland, now seems the perfect time for it to happen.
Sunderland round-up: Bellingham talks held
TEAMtalk is aware that a delegation from Borussia Dortmund recently flew over to have talks with Sunderland midfielder Jobe Bellingham.
They are confident in their abilities to land him due to their good relationship with the family, given his older brother Jude previously played for the Bundesliga club.
But it has since been reported that Bellingham has himself travelled to Germany, but for talks with another Bundesliga club, Eintracht Frankfurt.
They will be able to offer Champions League football next season, and a lot of the clubs who want the Sunderland man have that sort of draw, which the Black Cats themselves do not.
