1,370 days without winning a Premier League game…
On 5th July 2020, Sheffield United and Burnley would play out a 1-1 draw as part of the abridged second half of the COVID-19 affected 2019-20 Premier League season. In the 75th minute, Sheffield United would make their 4th substitute, a unique feature of the revived Premier League to help with player fatigue. This 4th substitute would see defender Chris Basham replaced by a Premier League forgotten man in the form of Jack Rodwell. Coming off the bench, Rodwell would make his first Premier League appearance since starting in a 5-1 defeat against champions Chelsea on 21st May 2017, a match known for being the final Premier League match for John Terry. Terry would be substituted after 26 minutes (his shirt number) and would be given a mini guard of honour by his teammates while already-relegated Sunderland could only stand and watch this ridiculous event. One thousand one hundred forty-one days later, Rodwell would make his Premier League return in the lowest-key way possible, serving as something for bored Premier League commentators to point out during an underwhelming, COVID-affected match. One thousand one hundred forty-one days between Premier League appearances isn’t anything to shout about, but it isn’t the worst number associated with Jack Rodwell’s 12-year footballing career. That title would belong to 1,357, the number of days between Premier League matches involving Jack Rodwell on the winning side.
From May 2013 to February 2017, Rodwell would start 39 Premier League matches and never be on the winning side. This statistic is different to the Gareth Bale situation talked about in a previous article. Between August 2007 and September 2009, Tottenham Hotspur would fail to win 24 Premier League matches in which Gareth Bale had an involvement, either as a starter or as a substitute. Between 2013 and 2017, Jack Rodwell would participate in Premier League victories with Manchester City and Sunderland, but he would appear as a substitute in all of these victories. In the 38 consecutive Premier League in which he started, Rodwell would never appear on the winning side, a statistic that played a significant role in halting the once-promising career of Jack Rodwell. This article will delve into this murky four-year period.
The Beginning of the Streak
On 12th August 2012, Premier League champions Manchester City would sign Jack Rodwell from boyhood club Everton for £15 million. At the time of his signing, the 21-year-old Rodwell had 85 Premier League appearances and two England caps to his name, and many predicted a bright future for the boy from Southport. Rodwell would make his Manchester City debut against Southampton on 19th August 2012. He would start alongside Yaya Touré in defensive midfield and play the full 90 minutes in a 3-2 Manchester City victory.
After a substitute appearance against Liverpool, Jack Rodwell would play another 90 minutes in a 3-1 win over Queens Park Rangers on 1st September. However, he would quickly fall down the pecking order of Man City’s defensive midfielders behind Gareth Barry and fellow new signing Javi Garcia. A hamstring injury suffered in late October would also hinder Rodwell’s chances of success on the blue half of Manchester, putting him out of action until the end of January. He would make his Premier League return off the bench in a 0-0 draw with QPR on 29th January 2013. His next start would not arrive until 24th February, where he would play 54 minutes in City’s 2-0 home victory over Chelsea. However, another injury Rodwell suffered 25 minutes into a match with Aston Villa the next week would keep him out until the last month of the season.
After returning as a late substitute in City’s 0-0 draw with Swansea on 4th May, Jack Rodwell would start two more league matches for Manchester City before the season’s conclusion beginning with a 1-0 win over West Brom on 7th May. By this point, Jack Rodwell had started in five Premier League matches for Manchester City and had ended up on the winning side in all five. Two weeks after the West Brom win, Rodwell’s winning streak would end, and another less satisfying run would begin.
Two weeks after the West Brom victory, Jack Rodwell would start in Manchester City final match of the 2012-13 season, a home match against Norwich City against bottom-half Norwich City on 19th May. After Norwich took a 26th-minute lead through Anthony Pilkington, Manchester City would equalise three minutes later. At the end of an underwhelming first season at the Etihad Stadium, Jack Rodwell would score his first Premier League goal for Manchester City in front of a raucous home crowd. In the 54th minute, striker Grant Holt would silence the home crowd by putting Norwich ahead once more. Five minutes later, Jack Rodwell would score his second Manchester City goal to level the match at 2-2 with half an hour remaining. However, Jonny Howson would fire home Norwich City’s third goal less than ten minutes later to put the Canaries 3-2 up against Manchester City on the day they were about to relinquish their Premier League title to cross-city rivals Manchester United.
Soon after the Norwich goal, caretaker manager Brian Kidd would replace Jack Rodwell with David Silva, ending the young midfielder’s chance to score a rare hat-trick. Despite the changes and Rodwell’s efforts, Norwich would end their first Premier League season in eight years by defeating the previous season’s champions 3-2 in their backyard.
The Streak
2013-14 season
After earning his third England cap during a friendly with Brazil during the summer, Jack Rodwell would start his second season with Manchester City under a new manager. The club sacked Roberto Mancini at the end of the previous season, and now Manuel Pellegrini would sit in the home dugout. One of Pellegrini’s first actions would be to sign Fernandinho from Shakhtar Donetsk for £30 million, another player in Jack Rodwell’s position. After a promising end to the previous season, Rodwell would have to wait until the fourth match of the season to make his first appearance. He would start and play the full 90 minutes in Man City’s game away at Stoke on 14th September. The game would end in a goalless draw. This Stoke match would serve as Jack Rodwell’s only Premier League start for Manchester City during the 2013/14 season.
The form of Fernandinho, Yaya Touré and Javi Garcia plus personal injury problems would delay Rodwell’s next Premier League appearance until 4th December. On this day, he would come on as an 88th-minute substitute for Yaya Touré in a 3-2 City win over West Brom. An 89th-minute appearance would follow six matches later on New Year’s Day 2014 in another 3-2 win, this time over Swansea. Appearance number four would arrive two months later in a 5-0 win over Fulham, Rodwell coming on for hat-trick hero Touré after 67 minutes. Lastly, Jack Rodwell would make his final Premier League appearance of the season in a 2-2 draw with Sunderland on 16th April, replacing Fernandinho in the 87th minute.
During the 2013/14 season, Jack Rodwell would make five Premier League appearances for Manchester, with only one of these coming as a starter. Three of these appearances would come in Manchester City victories. However, Rodwell’s only start would end in a draw. Despite his inconspicuous season, Rodwell’s five appearances were enough to earn a Premier League winner’s medal at the end of the season. However, seven starts in two seasons were not enough for the 23-year-old defensive midfielder, and he would look to move away from the Etihad Stadium in the summer transfer window.
2014/15 season
After 16 Premier League appearances (7 starts) in two seasons, Jack Rodwell would leave Manchester City in the summer of 2014. On 5th August, Rodwell would join relegation favourites Sunderland for £12.5 million. He would make his full debut in the Black Cats’ opening Premier League match against West Brom. Rodwell would play 68 minutes in a 2-2 draw. The following week, he would score his first goal for the club against Manchester United at the Stadium of Light. After Juan Mata had given United the lead after 17 minutes, Rodwell would head home an equaliser from Sebastian Larsson’s corner just past the half-hour mark. The match would end 1-1, and Sunderland would claim a famous result against the 13-time Premier League champions. However, Jack Rodwell had now started four Premier League matches without ending on the winning side. He would go on to start Sunderland’s next four league matches, with these matches producing three draws and one defeat, extending his unfortunate run to eight games.
After starting Sunderland’s first six Premier League matches of the 2014/15 season, Jack Rodwell’s would spend the next two weeks as a used substitute. He would replace Seb Larsson after 71 minutes in a 3-1 win over Stoke and would also come off the bench in an 8-0 defeat to Southampton a week later. After such a heavy defeat, Gus Poyet would restore Jack Rodwell to the starting line-up for a home match against Arsenal on 25th October. His influence would not stop Arsenal from beating Sunderland 2-0 after an Alexis Sanchez double. After this loss, Rodwell’s next start would not come for another five weeks. This start would come in a 0-0 draw with league leaders Chelsea, which took Rodwell’s winless streak into double figures. The following week, he would play the full 90 minutes against his former club Manchester City, as the reigning champions would come from behind to win 4-1 at the Stadium of Light.
Jack Rodwell would not begin a Premier League game for Sunderland for the rest of 2014. His return to the starting XI would coincidentally come in the reverse fixture against Manchester City on New Year’s Day 2015. Rodwell would complete his third 90 minutes of the season and score his second Sunderland goal as Man City would successfully do the double over the Black Cats with a 3-2 win. Two weeks later, Rodwell would complete another 90 minutes in a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham. He would pick up one yellow card too many during this match, leading to a one-week suspension. After missing the next five weeks of action with a groin injury, Jack Rodwell would return with a goal against Hull City on 3rd March. After a Dame N’Doye goal gave Hull a half-time lead, Rodwell would head home a 77th-minute equaliser from Patrick van Aanholt’s cross into the penalty area. However, the match would end as a draw. Sunderland’s next two games would end in defeats to Aston Villa (0-4) and West Ham (1-0), with Rodwell lasting the entirety. His winless record now stood at 16 consecutive match starts.
Rodwell would miss Sunderland’s crucial 1-0 win over Newcastle in the Tyne-Wear derby on 5th April. After this, he would start in a 4-1 defeat to Crystal Palace (11th April) and a 1-1 draw (25th April) with Stoke before coming on as a late substitute in the Black Cats’ 2-1 win over Southampton as Sunderland edged toward Premier League survival. Sunderland would exit the relegation zone the following week with a 2-0 win away at Everton, where Jack Rodwell would not even feature in the matchday squad. After missing Sunderland’s draw with Leicester City with a hamstring injury and returning as a half-time substitute against Arsenal, he would start the last game of the season against newly-crowned Premier League champions Chelsea. Sunderland would threaten to spoil Chelsea’s title celebration when striker Steven Fletcher opened the scoring after 26 minutes. However, a Diego Costa penalty and a double from Loic Remy would see Jose Mourinho’s team end the season in style.
During the 2014-15 Premier League season, Jack Rodwell would make 23 appearances, including 17 starts. These 17 starts would end in nine draws and eight defeats. Sunderland would win seven matches during this Premier League campaign. In none of these matches would Jack Rodwell feature in the starting XI. Combining his results from the previous two seasons plus his appearances with Sunderland in this particular season, Jack Rodwell had now gone two years without starting in a Premier League victory, with a winless record standing at 19 consecutive match starts. This record would get worse.
2015/16 season
Beginning his second season on Wearside, Jack Rodwell would start in three of Sunderland’s first four Premier League matches, lasting the full 90 minutes in three. Sunderland would begin the 2015-16 season with a 4-2 defeat to Leicester City. After Rodwell sat out a 3-1 loss to Norwich the following week, he would return to begin draws with Swansea (1-1) and Aston Villa (2-2), taking his winless run up to 22 matches. After continuing to unintentionally serve as Sunderland’s ‘bad luck charm’ when he started, manager Dick Advocaat would only use Jack Rodwell three times as a substitute before the club’s board sacked the Dutchman as manager on 4th October 2015.
New Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce would leave Jack Rodwell out of his first two matchday squads. The now 24-year-old midfielder would make his first appearance as a first-half substitute for the injured Lee Cattermole during a 6-2 defeat away at Everton on 1st November. After two further appearances from the bench in games against Southampton (7th November), Arsenal (5th December) and Watford (12th December), Jack Rodwell would make his first start under Sam Allardyce in a match away to Chelsea on 19th December. In his first league start since 29th August, Rodwell would play the full 90 minutes against the reigning Premier League champions. However, goals from Branislav Ivanovic, Pedro and Oscar would consign Sunderland to a 3-1 defeat and leave them 19th in the league standings over Christmas. Missing the Boxing Day defeat to Manchester City, Rodwell would start against Liverpool on 30th December only to come off with a hamstring injury after 30 minutes. Sunderland would lose the match 1-0.
Jack Rodwell would return from injury as a substitute in Sunderland’s 4-2 win over Swansea on 13th January 2016. However, he would have to wait until March to receive his next start. After five substitute appearances in seven matches, Jack Rodwell would make only his seventh start of the Premier League season in a home game with Crystal Palace on 1st March. Dame N’Doye would give the Black Cats a 1-0 half-time lead, but two Connor Wickham goals in six second-half minutes just after the hour mark would turn the tides in Crystal Palace’s favour. Fabio Borini’s last-minute goal would end the match honours even at 2-2. With Rodwell remaining in the starting line-up for the next two weeks, Sunderland’s next two league games would end in 1-1 draws with Southampton and Newcastle. The draw in the Tyne-Wear derby would drop Sunderland back into the Premier League relegation zone with eight matches remaining and extend Jack Rodwell’s winless run to 27 games.
After appearing as a 68th-minute substitute in Sunderland’s 2-0 defeat to surprise Premier League leaders Leicester City on 10th April, Jack Rodwell would not make another appearance until the season’s final match. In the meantime, Sunderland would secure their Premier League safety for another season by defeating Chelsea (3-2) and Everton (3-0) in back-to-back matches in May. Sam Allardyce would recall Jack Rodwell to the starting XI for the season-ending encounter with Watford on 15th May with survival secured. Rodwell would reward the manager’s faith by opening the scoring six minutes before half-time at Vicarage Road. Sebastien Prodl would score Watford’s equaliser in the 48th minute, but Jeremain Lens would re-establish Sunderland’s lead three minutes later. However, Watford would earn a 61st-minute penalty after a foul on José Manuel Jurado. Captain Troy Deeney would convert from the spot for the Hornets’ second equaliser, ending the match in a 2-2 draw. Sunderland would finish the Premier League season in 17th place, finishing two points ahead of relegated arch-rivals Newcastle United.
Sunderland would end the 2015-16 season with an overall record of nine wins, twelve draws, and seventeen losses. Jack Rodwell would make 22 Premier League appearances for Sunderland during the 2015-16 season, starting nine games. These nine matches would end in six draws and three defeats. Rodwell’s winless streak when beginning a Premier League match now stood at 28 consecutive matches.
2016-17 season
Now 26 years old, Jack Rodwell would begin his third season at the Stadium of Light. Three years had passed since his last England cap, and Rodwell was now a long way away from earning another. However, he could be hopeful about his first-team chances, considering that David Moyes, the man who gave him his professional debut at Everton, was now in charge of Sunderland. In an interview with Sunderland newspaper The Chronicle on 27th July 2016, Rodwell would proclaim that the arrival of his former manager would help him to rediscover his best form, saying that: “For me, he [Moyes] knows my game more than anyone. It’s just a case of being physically right and then mentally I know I can produce my best stuff.” Under Moyes, Jack Rodwell would start Sunderland’s first four matches of the season, his longest run of starts since leaving Everton in 2012. After three straight seasons battling relegation, the Black Cats would hope for better things in this particular Premier League season.
The team would get off to a poor start against Manchester City, now managed by former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola. After four minutes, Sergio Aguero would score from the penalty spot after a foul on Raheem Sterling. Sunderland would equalise in the 71st minute as Jack Rodwell’s pass found Jermain Defoe, and the veteran striker would finish with aplomb. However, the game would end with Sunderland shooting themselves in the foot as replacement centre-back Paddy McNair would score an own goal and gift Man City the opening-day victory. Following this, the next three games would see the Black Cats continue their lousy start to the season by losing to Everton (0-3) and newly-promoted Middlesbrough (1-2) and drawing with Southampton. Jack Rodwell would play every minute of these three matches, beginning the 2016-17 season by increasing his winless streak to 32 consecutive starts.
After missing defeats to Tottenham (1-0) and Crystal Palace (2-3) and appearing as a substitute in a 1-1 draw with West Brom on 1st October, Jack Rodwell would return to the Sunderland starting line-up for consecutive matches against Stoke, West Ham and Arsenal to end October. All three games would end in defeat for David Moyes’ side, leaving them with two points from their first ten Premier League matches. If this weren’t bad enough for Jack Rodwell, he would soon suffer a hamstring injury which would put him out of action for the rest of 2016, leaving his winless streak at 35 starts. He would return in Sunderland’s first match of 2017, starting in a 2-2 draw against Liverpool on 2nd January. Fully fit, he would then play 90 minutes in the club’s next three matches against Stoke, West Brom and Tottenham to end the month. A Marko Arnautovic double would secure a 3-1 win for Stoke on 14th January, while Darren Fletcher and Chris Brunt would help West Brom take the three points away from the Stadium of Light one week later. Finally, the match between Sunderland and Spurs on 31st January would end in a 0-0 draw, meaning that Jack Rodwell had now made a whole Premier League season’s worth of starts (38) without once ending up on the winning side.
The End of the Streak
On Saturday 4th February 2017, bottom-of-the-table Sunderland would travel 292 miles down south to face 18th-placed Crystal Palace. Six points would separate the two teams before the match. Jack Rodwell would start in the centre of a 5-3-2 formation alongside Sebastian Larsson and Didier Ndong. The Black Cats would take the lead in the 9th minute as centre-back Lamine Kone would slide the ball home from a Seb Larsson free-kick. After retaining their one-goal advantage for the rest of the first half, Sunderland would score a hat-trick of goals in the final three minutes before half-time. In the 43rd minute, Didier Ndong would pick the ball up 35 yards from goal and lash the ball home from Sunderland’s second. Then, fifteen seconds into first-half stoppage time, Adnan Januzaj would find Jermain Defoe on the edge of the penalty area. The former England striker would fire the ball across Wayne Hennessey into the net for his thirteenth goal of the season. Two minutes later, the same combination would work again. Adnan Januzaj would hit a through-ball into Defoe to score Sunderland’s fourth. At half-time, Sunderland would lead Crystal Palace 4-0. Barring an unlikely Crystal Palace comeback, Jack Rodwell’s winless streak would finally end after 1,357 and 39 Premier League matches.
In the 52nd minute, Jack Rodwell would pick up an injury. Sam Allardyce would replace him with Darron Gibson. Sitting on the substitutes’ bench, Rodwell would see his losing streak come to an end. Sunderland would run out 4-0 winners at Selhurst Park, with Jack Rodwell having started in a Premier League win for the first time since Manchester City’s 1-0 win over West Brom on 19th May 2013. Rodwell would cap his unlucky run of Premier League starts at 38 matches without a win. The streak was over.
Aftermath
The 4-0 victory over Crystal Palace would give Sunderland just their five league win of the season and draw them level on points with ‘The Eagles’, but it would not lift them off the bottom of the Premier League table nor ultimately turn their season around. The Wearsiders would follow up their 4-0 win over Crystal Palace with a 4-0 defeat to Southampton the very next week. After the win at Selhurst Park on 4th February, Sunderland would win 1 of their final 15 league matches (a 2-0 victory over Hull City on 6th May) and would suffer Premier League relegation with four games to spare, ending a 10-season stay in English football’s top division.
After ending his winless streak with the Crystal Palace match on 4th February, Jack Rodwell would start Sunderland’s next three games, missing out on the first two through injury. He would return and start four consecutive matches between 18th March and 9th April, playing the full 90 minutes in all but one. In these four matches, Sunderland would draw 0-0 with Burnley before losing to Watford (1-0), Leicester (2-0) and Manchester United (0-3), four results that only quickened their slide toward the Premier League’s trapdoor. After these matches, Jack Rodwell would make two more appearances for Sunderland before the season’s close.
After a brief substitute appearance against Middlesbrough on 26th April, Jack Rodwell would start Sunderland’s last Premier League match to date against new Premier League champions Chelsea on 21st May. In John Terry’s final Premier League appearance, Sunderland would almost dampen the celebratory atmosphere by taking a 3rd-minute lead through left-back Javier Manquillo. However, Chelsea would shrug off this early setback and run riot over the downcast Black Cats. Willian, Eden Hazard, Pedro and Michy Batshuayi (x2) would all find the net in a 5-1 Chelsea win. In a minor detail from this result, Jack Rodwell would establish a new winless streak, with the 5-1 defeat becoming his 5th consecutive Premier League start without a victory.
Five years earlier, Jack Rodwell was one of the most promising talents in English football. Three years earlier, Jack Rodwell was a Premier League winner with Manchester City. Now, the 26-year-old midfielder would ply his trade in the Championship the following season.
During the following summer and January transfer windows, Sunderland would try to offload Jack Rodwell and reduce their wage bill to a Championship level. Big-name players Joleon Lescott (retired), Jan Kirchhoff (released), Sebastian Larsson (Hull), Will Buckley (Bolton), Steven Pienaar (Bidvest Wits), Victor Anichebe (Beijing Enterprises), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Jermain Defoe (Bournemouth) and Vito Mannone (Reading) had all left Wearside following their Premier League relegation. However, Rodwell would refuse to leave or allow Sunderland to rip up his £70,000-a-week contract, a call that would attract criticism from people inside and outside the club. A January article in the Roker Report would calculate that since his arrival at the Stadium of Light in August 2014, Jack Rodwell had earned £1.1 million for every league point that Sunderland had gained while he was on the field.
During Sunderland’s 2017-18 Championship campaign, Jack Rodwell would only make two appearances: starting a 2-1 defeat to Sheffield United on 9th September and coming on as a 76th-minute substitute in a 1-1 draw with Hull City seven days later.
At the end of a disastrous season where Sunderland would suffer a second successive relegation to the EFL League 1, the club would release Jack Rodwell from his contract. After training with Everton to maintain his fitness levels, he would join fellow Championship side Blackburn Rovers on a free transfer on 23rd August 2018. Rodwell would make 23 appearances for Blackburn (starting 16), playing most of his games at centre-back. His sole goal for the club would come in a 3-0 win over Hull City on 26th January 2019. At the end of the 2018-19 season, Rovers would finish 15th in the Championship, and the club would choose not to extend Jack Rodwell’s initial 12-month deal. Rodwell’s contract would expire on 1st July 2019, and he would find himself without a club for the second time in consecutive years.
After six months without a club, Chris Wilder, manager of Premier League side Sheffield United, would offer an olive branch to the now 28-year-old Jack Rodwell. On 3rd January 2020, Rodwell would join the Blades on a six-month contract until the end of the season. Two days later, he would make his Sheffield United debut, starting in a 2-1 win over non-league fifth-division side AFC Fylde in the FA Cup third round. His league debut would have to wait a few months, and that debut brings this article full circle. On 5th July, Rodwell would come on as a 75th-minute substitute for Blades captain Oliver Norwood in a 1-1 draw with Burnley. This game would end up being Jack Rodwell’s only league match wearing the Sheffield United colours. On 23rd August 2020, he would sign a one-year extension to his current contract. However, he would play no part in the Blades’ Premier League relegation campaign. Sheffield United would release Rodwell and six others, including fellow former England international Phil Jagielka on 1st June 2021.
At the time of writing, Jack Rodwell, now coming towards the end of his peak abilities at thirty years old, is without a club for the third time in four years.
Conclusion
To start 38 consecutive Premier League matches without once ending up on the winning side is no mean feat, but Jack Rodwell somehow managed to achieve it. The fact that Rodwell would take three-and-half seasons to accomplish this unflattering statistic speaks to the slow decline of his career between 2013 and 2017. When this unfortunate winless streak began in May 2013, Jack Rodwell was at the end of his first season with Premier League runners-up Manchester City with a promising future ahead of him. By the time the streak came to an end in February 2017, Rodwell was struggling to find fitness and regularly start matches for bottom side Sunderland.
Upon Jack Rodwell signing a five-year deal with reigning Premier League champions Manchester City in August 2012, the club’s official website would interview their new signing. In this interview, Rodwell would say: “I relish the opportunity of playing with some of the best players in the world and continuing my development. I look forward to working with Mr Mancini and his coaching staff and ultimately playing in front of the City fans at the Etihad Stadium. It will be an amazing experience to make my debut in front of them if I am selected to play next weekend [against Southampton]. The hard work starts today as I start to help contribute to the club winning more silverware.” The article would describe the 21-year-old as ‘a precocious talent’ and a ‘natural leader’ while also paying notice to his England career beginning as captain at under-16 level before eventually winning two full caps for the senior team. After such a press release, Jack Rodwell would make 16 Premier League appearances for City across two seasons, starting just seven matches.
While his transfer to Manchester City would ultimately prove to be a failure, I’m sure that Jack Rodwell did not think that things could get worse when he signed for Sunderland in 2014. Rodwell would only start 43 out of a possible 114 matches (38%) in three Premier League seasons with relegation-threatened Sunderland. After leaving Wearside in 2018, Sunderland newspapers The Evening Chronicle and The Northern Echo would name Rodwell the worst signing in the club’s history. The Northern Echo would describe Rodwell as “an emblem of the wastefulness and lack of professionalism that was allowed to flourish under the [Ellis Short] regime.” (Scott Wilson, The Northern Echo, 28th December 2018)
In my previous article on a similar subject, which you can find the link to here (24 Premier League Matches Without Tasting Victory: The Making of Gareth Bale (the-score-board.com)), I argued that the 24-match losing streak that Gareth Bale experienced between 2007 and 2009 after signing for Tottenham could have severely dented the confidence of the young Welshman. However, this streak would end up being the making of Gareth Bale. After ending his losing streak, Bale would become the PFA Player of the Year less than two years later. If Gareth Bale had moved from being a promising youngster to a world-class player after a losing streak, you could not say the same for Jack Rodwell.
The unfortunate record of 38 Premier League starts without a win typifies the fall of Jack Rodwell’s career from a world-class midfielder in the making to a man dogged by injuries, demonised by fans of his former clubs and struggling to stay at a single club longer than a single season. During his time at Sunderland, many questioned Jack Rodwell’s attitude and saw him as a man willing to cash his big wages and put in underwhelming performances while the team struggled around him. However, Jack Rodwell is still sticking to his career in football. Now in his thirties and without a club for the third time in four years, he still wants to spend his best years running around a football field for 90 minutes.
In a 2018 exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Jack Rodwell would explain his desire not to leave Sunderland despite the club wanting him to go. His approach to his career comes down to these words, whether you choose to believe him or not: “Now, for me, it’s not about money, it’s about playing. I’m a footballer, I want a football club. But it’s not the fault of any footballer if a club decides to pay you a certain amount. I have worked from seven years old to get here; to then ask someone to just throw it away, that’s difficult.”
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