Former Sunderland manager Gus Poyet has reflected on his time at the Stadium of Light in a revealing interview.
Poyet reminisced about Sunderland's run to the League Cup final as well as their great escape from relegation trouble in the 2013/14 campaign.
The Uruguayan also had a dig at Newcastle as he reflected on his three wins over the Black Cats' great rivals.
Ultimately, though, his time on Wearside ended in disappointment when he was sacked in 2015 and he has revealed the one regret he still has about his time at the Stadium of Light.
"After that relationship (at Brighton) ended, I started preparing for the big one. To get to the top level. The Premier League. Luckily, that happened with Sunderland," Poyet told the Coaches Voice.
"The club was in the relegation zone and it was difficult to take off, but we had a great surge in January. Then, after we qualified for the League Cup final, we had a very bad period.
"It’s incredible, isn’t it? The cup… I have no doubt that that whole six-week period, the quarter-final against Chelsea and the semi-final against Manchester United, helped us massively because it gave us confidence. It gave us momentum.
"The final was going like a dream until half-time. We were ahead, but Manchester City were the opponents and they were tough. We lost 3-1, and it hit us hard. Boom. Total collapse. Our form crumbled.
"Then, when everything seemed to be finished and we looked doomed to relegation, the miracle happened. We started to get the results, and we avoided relegation with one game to spare. It was one of the best things that has happened to me as a manager.
"The next season, people got excited. They wanted a top-10 finish, but you just can’t change that quickly. There’s a process. The year I arrived, the club had signed 17 players. Large-scale replacement was needed and, well, unfortunately it just couldn’t be."
Poyet continued: "I was taken to Sunderland to avoid relegation and to beat Newcastle. Those were the objectives. We avoided relegation, and we beat Newcastle every time we played them.
"In the end, we were left wishing we could have made the team play a bit better than in reality we could."
