Former Sunderland midfielder Jack Rodwell has admitted that he 'tried to leave' the club before he ended up joining Blackburn Rovers at the end of the 2017/18 season.
The 30-year-old initially made the move to the Black Cats in a reported £10m deal from Manchester City in August 2014, but didn't make more than 26 appearances during a single campaign.
Although Rodwell suffered a number of injuries throughout his time on Wearside, he struggled for regular game time even when fit and ended up falling out of favour upon Sunderland's relegation to the Championship.
In the meantime, Netflix recorded a the first series of the infamous documentary 'Sunderland 'Til I Die', which received positive reviews from critics and fans.
Rodwell was a major figure in the film and there was an episode that featured his near-departure when he almost joined Eredivisie side Vitesse Arnhem in January 2018.
However, the supporters seemed to stick with Rodwell despite all the rumours and he has opened up about his relationship with the Black Cats faithful.
"I had a good relationship with the supporters," he told The Athletic.
"There had been no problem at all until that point when there was a narrative spun about it.
"But if you are a supporter and don’t quite know the ins and outs it’s difficult. I understand that."
Rodwell made just one Championship start during his final season at the club as he played the full 90 minutes in a 2-1 defeat against Sheffield United back in September 2017.
In actual fact, the now Adelaide United man wasn't named in the matchday squad for the final 27 second tier games of the campaign and was forced to feature for the Under 23s in the EFL Trophy.
It was a frustrating year for Rodwell, but did he ever sit down and watch the documentary in its entirety when it was released in December 2018?
"I lived it, I didn’t need to watch it. I was just shown clips. I knew how they’d paint me.
"It doesn't bother me now. When I think about it I was just doing my job and trying to block out the stories being told about me."
“I tried to go," he added. "Listen, I was open to leaving. I wanted to leave just as much as the club wanted me to.
"We were trying our best to get something sorted in the January and Vitesse came up but all of a sudden it wasn’t there. I was ready to go but it came and went and I’m still not sure what happened."
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