Jack Rodwell’s disastrous Sunderland spell is finally over after four terrible years with the news that the club and player had come to terms over releasing the 27-year-old from his contract.

With Sunderland being relegated to League One, his wage was always going to be unsustainable despite him taking a wage cut of 40% - a move which had been put off by a year due to a clause in his contract after our relegation from the Premier League. That 40% decrease in wage from his original wage of £70,000 per week would still see the midfielder earn over £40,000 each week, far in excess of the average wage in League One of around £2,000 per week.

Signed for a fee of £10m by Gus Poyet back in 2014, Rodwell played 76 games in all competitions over his four year career at the Stadium of Light. A paltry total considering the vast sums the club invested in his services and due to how often he was either a substitute or failed to finish a game he only played 4,875 minutes for the club, which works out at 54 full games over four seasons.

Rodwell has been linked with a move to Aris Thessaloniki and a move to Major League Soccer and as no club were ever going to offer the club a transfer fee for his services, we may now see the player make a move which will see him get playing time but his Sunderland spell will go down as one of the worst transfers in the club’s history.