Sunderland had £16k-a-week star to thank for rare highlight in drab 17/18 season: View | OneFootball

Sunderland have had many players come and go from the football club over the years, but not many like winger Aiden McGeady will have split the fanbase in terms of popularity.

The Irishman started his career with Scottish giants Celtic, where he was constantly getting on the scoresheet or setting up his teammates.

But his decision to leave Celtic saw him bounce around a few clubs in the next few seasons until he arrived at the Stadium of Light in 2017 from Everton.

McGeady would go on to spend five years at the football club - a period that was very testing for the club and, in some respect, campaigns that fans will want to forget, especially the 2017-18 season, where Sunderland suffered more disappointment.

On a personal level though, McGeady really excelled in what was a season of misery for the Wearsiders.

In the 2017/18 campaign, Sunderland found themselves back in the Championship for the first time since 2006 - this was because the Black Cats suffered relegation from the Premier League after a dire campaign.

However, this season in the Championship wasn’t going to be much better, but that was unbeknown at the start of the campaign when Sunderland appointed Preston North End boss Simon Grayson to replace David Moyes.

The former Leeds United manager didn’t last very long though, as he was sacked towards the end of October after just one win in 15 league matches.

That run of form saw the Black Cats sit at the bottom of the Championship, and the club turned to Chris Coleman to get them out of the situation they faced.

But the former Wales manager was unable to improve things, as the club’s relegation to League One was confirmed in April, meaning it was back-to-back relegations and a first time in the third tier of English football for the Black Cats in nearly 30 years.

The whole 2017/18 season was dire for Sunderland Football Club, and one that will not be looked back upon by the fans in any sense of the word.

But while the team disappointed, for Aiden McGeady, it wasn’t a bad campaign, as he finished it with 12 goal involvements for a very poor Championship team.

Aiden McGeady was a rare positive for Sunderland in the 2017/18 season

As mentioned, this season is one that Sunderland and its supporters will not want to look back on, as it was just as disappointing as the relegation from the Premier League.

The Black Cats were unable to win enough games of football, and that resulted in their relegation, and their squad was full of players on the books who were on big wages and didn’t look to have the desire to change the situation.

Aiden McGeady was one of the players who would have likely been on big wages (Capology estimate around the £16,000 a week mark), but he was one of very few who were considered to be a rare positive for the club in that campaign.

That season, McGeady finished it with seven goals and five assists, making him the club’s most dangerous player that campaign.

In 2017/18, as well as the goals, McGeady finished the campaign with some impressive stats.

He averaged 2.2 shots per game, with 1.3 coming outside the penalty box - from those shots, he was averaging 0.2 goals per game, as per WhoScored.com.

But as well as his goals, the Irishman was also impressive with his ability to take players on and create chances for his teammates.

McGeady completed 2.3 dribbles per game this season out of a possible 3.1 per match attempted. His final ball was also key, as he averaged 1.6 key passes per game, which helped him when it came to his assists. The winger finished that season with a WhoScored.com overall rating of 6.95.

No Sunderland fan will look back on this season with pride or fondness, but when it is looked at a little closer, it is clear to see that McGeady was the club’s rare positive, as he was key for them in terms of the games they did win, and it will make supporters wonder if they had more players like McGeady and whether they could have stayed up in that 2017/18 season.

The former Celtic man will have split opinions from his time at the Stadium of Light, but it can’t be taken away that the player tried his upmost to help the club beat the drop that season but was let down by his teammates.